Mass Effect Andromeda

[FlintlockJazz]

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!

 

 

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.

I'm sure we have all seen this, but it is a classic, though scratch off the "some years from now" part as I feel it has already happened.  Bioware now is either just a skin EA puts on now and again or the dead body has been turned into a puppet that EA controls by ramming its arm up its arse.  Elbow.  Deep.

 

Edited March 22, 2017 by FlintlockJazz

[Oner]

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."

There was the possibility of Shepard not being a raving lunatic and the galaxy geting attacked by Cthulhu-bots to kill them all. Can you blame them for pulling a haste exit stage left?

 

Though now that I think about it, since the Reapers had 50,000 years between harvests they could've dealt with other galaxies too.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Oner

[the_dog_days]

The Andromeda initiative was apparently privately funded and built on the idea of finding a home for humanity away from the militarized Milky Way. They didn't know jack about the Reapers, they're just some idiots who topped off the tanks of their new ships and set off on a 634 year journey with no fuel up or maintenance breaks and then arrive to find only 2 of the five structures have arrived and act surprised.

[ktchong]

[majestic]

Objective beauty standards. Oh well, at least I could quit watching after 40 seconds and it gave me a hearty laugh.

[HoonDing]

 

[rjshae]

ME:A needs a head bag mod. Or even three layered bags. That way we don't objectify the protagonist.

[Malcador]

Always wanted to know what some random prole was thinking.

[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."

There was the possibility of Shepard not being a raving lunatic and the galaxy geting attacked by Cthulhu-bots to kill them all. Can you blame them for pulling a haste exit stage left?

 

Though now that I think about it, since the Reapers had 50,000 years between harvests they could've dealt with other galaxies too.

 

I'm hoping that at some point they will grow some self awareness. I remember Ubisoft trying to push yearly Assassin's Creed releases, until they realized they were headed for trouble; even though financially they did well enough. So they had the Black Flag team develop the new AC Empires game and are trying to get the series back into shape. 

 

I mean, eventually EA will know that they have to fire a bunch of people at BW; particularity their animation team and some of the writers. 

[Lexx]

I don't think these people should focus on the default main character face. I mean, isn't everyone creating their own face anyway? Does anyone really play with the default?

[ktchong]

I'm hoping that at some point they will grow some self awareness. I remember Ubisoft trying to push yearly Assassin's Creed releases, until they realized they were headed for trouble; even though financially they did well enough. So they had the Black Flag team develop the new AC Empires game and are trying to get the series back into shape.

 

 

I have never played any Assassin's Creed game, (because I have so many other games on my backlog that have higher priorities.)  I knew about Assassin's Creed since before the first game was released, back when fanboi were harassing the producer of the first game because she was hot.  The first Assassin's Creed game came out at the end of 2007, at about the same time with the first Bioshock game and the first Mass Effect game.  Both Bioshock and Mass Effect got 90+ at Metacritics, and Assassin's Creed got only 80+.  So Assassin's Creed lost out to Bioshock and Mass Effect for my time and money, (i.e., I could only devote so much time into gaming, so some games would have to go.  That is how Metacritic works: it screened out games for me.)

 

Many years later, in 2011 or 2012, I was still hearing about Assassin's Creed.  I knew it had turned into a series, but I still had not played any game from the series.  I finally wanted to try out one.  So I looked into Assassin's Creed games during a Steam Summer Sale.   That was when I found out, whoa, the series had crapped out a ****load of games.  A few installments from the series got good review scores, but most of them had mediocre or low scores.  Which ultimately dissuaded me from touching anything from the series completely.  That was what happened when a game publisher (Ubisoft in this case) mass-produced games from a series: the low-rated installments diminished the overall appeal and value of the franchise.

 

That is the same reason why I have never bothered with the Dragon Age series.   At one point, I wanted to try a new sword-and-sorcery RPG series.  I was looking at Dragon Age and The Witcher, (yes, they are direct competition, and I only had time to commit to one series.) The second Dragon Age game was the one that turned me away as a customer.  Getting into series is a long-term time-consuming commitment.  I have no interest in wasting my time on a less-than-stellar franchise.  Dragon Age 2 is the taint on the series that deter potential customers from giving the franchse a chance.  (I ended up playing The Witcher, which has turned out to be a better investment.)

 

Now, Andromeda has become the taint on the Mass Effect franchise.

Edited March 23, 2017 by ktchong

[Darkpriest]

I don't think these people should focus on the default main character face. I mean, isn't everyone creating their own face anyway? Does anyone really play with the default?

 

The problem is that EVERY face is ugly, there is no "wow nice" face in the game, or even preset face. Good luck getting something nice out of the customization tool. While they give you options, most people will not spend 2h on modeling their face for the game

Edited March 23, 2017 by Darkpriest

[Lexx]

Yeah, then they should critizise those, but all I see are the same video snippets from the female Ryder or that blue Shrek with pistol in the wrong direction.

[ShadySands]

Bioware has said they're looking at improving character creation options so there must be some people other than me whining complaining about it

[213374U]

Objective beauty standards. Oh well, at least I could quit watching after 40 seconds and it gave me a hearty laugh.

 

I have this pathological need to entertain all viewpoints, even the extremely stupid ones. If you watched only the first 40 or so seconds, you missed a few gems. He says that ugly main characters make Bioware sex scenes awkward to watch. Yeah, he went there.

 

He's also pretty sure that an ugly Ryder would be more likely to end up hooking up with the turian because he or she would be "out of options".

 

That being said, I find it hard to dispute that Bioware is a company that has for a long time now committed to pushing the "SJW" (ugh) agenda, and that ugly characters are ugly by design. For instance, Liam is a rather good looking lad. And BroRyder, while not Dutch underwear model-level hot, isn't fugly and at least resembles the model they supposedly based his likeness on. So it's not that Frostbite cannot render pretty characters or that artists are unable to model them.

 

The reasons why they went this route are anyone's guess, but it pays to remember that Bioware simply cannot win. Remember the derision when they touched up Ashley for ME3? DA2 Isabela? Heh.

[Rosbjerg]

I find it hilarious that the guy criticizing the game, looks like he belongs in it. It makes sense to rip the game for the dead facial expressions of coruse - but I think it's fair for Bioware to push the ugly-to-average-to-good looking people as the norm, seeing as that is the norm.

 

Not that highly stylized games can't have super attractive models, as in characters like Miranda, where it makes narrative sense. I've always found it much more immersion breaking when everyone, from the cleaning lady to the deck chief, is a f-ing hunk.

[Keyrock]

It's not even so much that the faces are ugly...  okay, some of them are quite ugly, but that, in itself, would be fine, as far as I'm concerned, I welcome characters of a variety of attractiveness levels.  What bothers me is that the faces, particularly the female ones I've seen, all fall squarely in uncanny valley.  It's that weird area between stylized and realistic looking where the faces almost look real, but there is something juuuuuust enough off about them to make them really creepy.  I don't know how to describe it any better than that, but you know uncanny valley immediately when you see it and, to me at least, it's rather unnerving, which would be great were this a horror game, but it's not.  Combine that with how good the environments look and it's a rather jarring juxtoposition.  I can definitely see myself getting pulled into these wonderfully detailed and sculpted worlds they've created, all credit to Bio for that, then getting ripped right out the moment dialogue triggers slapping me across the face with disturbing faces making shockingly awful animations.

[213374U]

I find it hilarious that the guy criticizing the game, looks like he belongs in it. It makes sense to rip the game for the dead facial expressions of coruse - but I think it's fair for Bioware to push the ugly-to-average-to-good looking people as the norm, seeing as that is the norm.

 

Not that highly stylized games can't have super attractive models, as in characters like Miranda, where it makes narrative sense. I've always found it much more immersion breaking when everyone, from the cleaning lady to the deck chief, is a f-ing hunk.

 

 

biovar let me romance pls

 

Just kidding*. Seriously though, I see nothing wrong with wanting the main cast to be good looking. Regardless, the whole thing's being blown way out of proportion, and the game has other problems. Online performance is dismal, for instance. Getting booted to desktop for no reason in the middle of a game is no fun, either.

 

 

 

 

*but really biovar let me romance pls pls

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by 213374U

[Rosbjerg]

 It's that weird area between stylized and realistic looking where the faces almost look real, but there is something juuuuuust enough off about them to make them really creepy. 

 

And that's a fair critique, because they do look weird. 

 

 

This looks weird because her expression and body language is completly off the mark. And it's not that you can't critique her looks, that's also fair - but to say that she looks 'off' because she's not pretty enough.. Well, that's just invites counter responses that are equally one sided and inflammatory.

 

And now, instead of a fair critique on an obvious issue, it becomes a much larger issue of how people judge each other. Instead of the actual issue, a product that shipped without proper quality control.

[Bartimaeus]

Not that highly stylized games can't have super attractive models, as in characters like Miranda

 

Given that Miranda had some of the same problems as others in ME:A seem to, I'm not so sure that's the best example to make...

[Malcador]

They made sure to focus on Miranda's good side often at least.

[Valmy]

Having seen some streamers stream this thing it looks about on the quality I have come to expect from Bioware so why people are all freaking out about this thing when they were cool with Inquisition I find odd. I will get it eventually and play it through once. It looks alright.

 

But then animations and big time graphics are not really something I care about that much. KOTOR still looks good to me. 

Edited March 23, 2017 by Valmy

[Chilloutman]

well it think biggest buzz is around comparsion between lady who was model for in-game ... model

[Valmy]

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!

 

With the understanding you are being a bit sarcastic here I just want to say: Nah it will be mediocre sequels for the forseeable future (though they are making a new IP of  some kind right? Nothing I am that excited about). They are being led by generic suits now from other companies and the strong leadership of the Doctors was necessary for them to do what they did in the past. All not buying their games will do is kill the division entirely by their corporate masters. I don't know I feel like even in their decadence they are worth keeping around.

 

But we will see if I feel differently after playing this latest offering.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Valmy

[Keyrock]

 

Not that highly stylized games can't have super attractive models, as in characters like Miranda

Given that Miranda had some of the same problems as others in ME:A seem to, I'm not so sure that's the best example to make...

As Malcador pointed out, it wasn't Miranda's face people were focusing on... neither was the camera much of the time.