Josh Sawyer's tweets and teasers, part III

[Yosharian]

Andromeda was not that bad and all this overwrought wailing and gnashing of teeth about it caused your beloved franchise to be put on ice. Good job.

 

It was a decent to good game coming on the heels of a great trilogy. That’s it.

The 'franchise' died the day ME3, an awful game, was released.

 

Andromeda doesn't exist. It doesn't even warrant a discussion. I'd sooner discuss the merits of sticking a fork in my eye than talk about that pile of trash.

 

Bioware is also dead. I shan't weep for it, all the people who mattered are long gone, it's just a corpse now.

 

I'd sooner see the 'franchise' die dead and buried in the ground than see its legacy tarnished further.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Yosharian

[The Sharmat]

Andromeda was not that bad and all this overwrought wailing and gnashing of teeth about it caused your beloved franchise to be put on ice. Good job.

 

It was a decent to good game coming on the heels of a great trilogy. That’s it.

I guess I can kind of get your position considering I'd think people that liked the rest of the Mass Effect series as a whole probably would like Andromeda. Personally I played ME 1 a couple times, did one short run of ME2 with no DLC, and never even bothered with ME3.

[Wormerine]

I suppose it depends on what you consider bad. I found ME3 to be pretty bad. Sure, I can point to many worse games, but ME3 came after two excellent instalments. It’s not that it is simply worse than what came before, but it has good elements only because it is using stuff, which worked before. It felt like a rushed sequel, with more bugs, worse design, worse writing, flat characters, weird inconsistency in tone. A forgettable title overall, but it also happens to act as a finale to a series I enjoyed a whole lot, which makes me dislike its existence. One can ignore a poor standalone episode but a mistep in a direct sequel messes things up in general. I have replayed ME1 not so long ago, and I got annoyed knowing how poorly conflicts and characters will get eventually resolved.

 

Andromeda seemed like a dangerous idea that could suck me back in into ME. Luckily, from what I hear it wasted an opportunity to make ME cool again, and just retreads old paths with a mediocare result.

[The Sharmat]

Mass Effect started deteriorating in the second game, that's why I never bought the third. I could tell they'd never be able to deliver what they advertised. ME2 was fun enough but there were warning signs all over it.

Edited April 27, 2018 by The Sharmat

[Guest]

Andromeda was not that bad and all this overwrought wailing and gnashing of teeth about it caused your beloved franchise to be put on ice. Good job.

 

It was a decent to good game coming on the heels of a great trilogy. That’s it.

I think poor Mac Walters got “Peter Principled”. I really like him as a writer, but I didn’t get the impression from what I played of Andromeda that he was quite ready to direct.

 

I think the Mass Effect 2 definitely benefited from his increased role and I think Mass Effect 3 has consistently been unfairly panned. So the potential for great things is there, but maybe if he sticks to writing for a while.

[bleedthefreak]

Nothing wrong with 3 second casting time/4 second recovery time spells

[Blades of Vanatar]

Glad to see my hard work acknowledged

Dilbert’s author is filing a lawsuit as we speak ...

[Blades of Vanatar]

 

 

I guess that gap is closing since both the west and the east is getting infested with the open world craze.

I imagine Open World as a concept is going to actually get worse in a lot of ways because advancements will lead to to larger, emptier worlds that developers simply cannot populate with enough content to really be engaging. What's a whole continent for instance if most of it is just fields and mountains where the only encounter you may have while travelling is an animal attack?

 

Perhaps it's wishful thinking but I hope fatigue sets in soon and those ambitions are scaled back and more manageable RPG games (Of any subgenre.) are made in their place.

And we're all the way back to Daggerfall. Gameworld the size of Great Britain IRL, but almost nothing ever touched by man in it.

I know it categorizes my name as equiviliant to ‘weirdo’ but I loved Daggerfall.....

[MortyTheGobbo]

Mass Effect 1 was a good game. At the time. It's aged poorly. Mass Effect 2 and 3 have their problems, but at least they don't have an early game that puts me to sleep and a late game that breaks in ways unimaginable. Endings aside, ME3's problems mostly come out in hindsight. Story problems, that is - its gameplay is better than the previous games'. Though it's not hard to be better than ME1's weird unbalanced shooter/RPG mix. And ME3's story problems were mostly a result of the series' fundamental issues that the game could no longer avoid.

 

Andromeda is an okay game dogged by problems, not the Antichrist it's trendy to paint it as. But the Internet echo chamber is what it is.

Edited April 27, 2018 by MortyTheGobbo

[DexGames]

Casting Spells : [Again...  ]

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/989864080285556736

 

Land // Sea Bounties :

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/989890503586922496

[illathid]

 

There is a lot less domain overlap since the TSR gold box days, so saying something like: "My three favorite RPGs are: Pillars of Eternity, Spelljammer, and Mass Effect 3" shouldn't make anyone's head explode as they attempt to parse the statement.

Having Spelljamer being explained to you is enough to make most people's head explode

 

 

What are you talking about? Everyone knows about phlogiston and the crystal spheres.

[Lotti Fuehrscheim]

Sidekicks will maybe less appealing to hardcore players, but for more casual players like me, they can be a good way to play with more different characters.

 

After some runs into the game I started to like changing companions for different quests, so with sidekicks there are a number of (supposedly) interesting builds to play with.

 

Remember that the large majority of players will not go to forums for builds, but will just dabble with what the game has to offer. For those the sidekicks may present good playing value.

[The Sharmat]

 

 

 

I guess that gap is closing since both the west and the east is getting infested with the open world craze.

I imagine Open World as a concept is going to actually get worse in a lot of ways because advancements will lead to to larger, emptier worlds that developers simply cannot populate with enough content to really be engaging. What's a whole continent for instance if most of it is just fields and mountains where the only encounter you may have while travelling is an animal attack?

 

Perhaps it's wishful thinking but I hope fatigue sets in soon and those ambitions are scaled back and more manageable RPG games (Of any subgenre.) are made in their place.

And we're all the way back to Daggerfall. Gameworld the size of Great Britain IRL, but almost nothing ever touched by man in it.

I know it categorizes my name as equiviliant to ‘weirdo’ but I loved Daggerfall.....

 

I liked it too, but the open world was not a strength for me.

[Blades of Vanatar]

 

 

 

 

I guess that gap is closing since both the west and the east is getting infested with the open world craze.

I imagine Open World as a concept is going to actually get worse in a lot of ways because advancements will lead to to larger, emptier worlds that developers simply cannot populate with enough content to really be engaging. What's a whole continent for instance if most of it is just fields and mountains where the only encounter you may have while travelling is an animal attack?

 

Perhaps it's wishful thinking but I hope fatigue sets in soon and those ambitions are scaled back and more manageable RPG games (Of any subgenre.) are made in their place.

And we're all the way back to Daggerfall. Gameworld the size of Great Britain IRL, but almost nothing ever touched by man in it.

I know it categorizes my name as equiviliant to ‘weirdo’ but I loved Daggerfall.....

I liked it too, but the open world was not a strength for me.

I think back then it was a strength as it gave us gamers something different in a time when we were craving more than just the Goldbox. Now.... meh..... not so much.

[CottonWolf]

Review copies have apparently got out. There was a vague tweet from a reviewer to that affect. That's a good sign. Means that they're confident enough to let people go through it slowly to get plenty of time for the reviews to be done.

[Wormerine]

Review copies have apparently got out. There was a vague tweet from a reviewer to that affect. That's a good sign. Means that they're confident enough to let people go through it slowly to get plenty of time for the reviews to be done.

How dare they send copies of games to reviewers before us! I feel betrayed!

 

On a more serious note, I wish Deadfire were released this Tuesday - a fairly relaxed week incoming.

[Ethics Gradient]

Review copies have apparently got out. There was a vague tweet from a reviewer to that affect. That's a good sign. Means that they're confident enough to let people go through it slowly to get plenty of time for the reviews to be done.

 

I assume this is the tweet in question?

 

I've seen some other confirmations around that the review copies are indeed out. Embargo lifts on release day, May 8th.

[CottonWolf]

 

Review copies have apparently got out. There was a vague tweet from a reviewer to that affect. That's a good sign. Means that they're confident enough to let people go through it slowly to get plenty of time for the reviews to be done.

 

I assume this is the tweet in question?

 

I've seen some other confirmations around that the review copies are indeed out. Embargo lifts on release day, May 8th.

 

Yep. That's the one.

[HAWmaro]

Well early review copies and that kind of tweet are both good signs.

[The Sharmat]

It's only fair, they'll need a couple weeks to get through the mandatory 10 hours of content on story mode required for a review.

[Voss]

 

 

Liking Mass Effect 3 is grounds for expulsion from these forums

 

Recant, immediately. *hits with whip* Recant your evil statement. *whip again*

I think Mass Effect 3 was great!

 

Ok that's a lie, I think it was better than people said, but it is the worst real Mass Effect game. On a 10 scale I would give it like a 7. I refuse to count Andromeda as a Mass Effect game by the way .

It was such a let down after 1 and 2 though.

 

Yes, Andromeda does not exist, let us not speak of it.

Andromeda was the best ME game.

(Though as many games do, it falls apart in the final act)

 

ME1 fondness is mostly nostalgia and posturing at this point. Replaying it , it's a fairly hollow series of fetch quests.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Voss

[Juodas Varnas]

 

 

 

Liking Mass Effect 3 is grounds for expulsion from these forums

 

Recant, immediately. *hits with whip* Recant your evil statement. *whip again*

I think Mass Effect 3 was great!

 

Ok that's a lie, I think it was better than people said, but it is the worst real Mass Effect game. On a 10 scale I would give it like a 7. I refuse to count Andromeda as a Mass Effect game by the way .

It was such a let down after 1 and 2 though.

 

Yes, Andromeda does not exist, let us not speak of it.

Andromeda was the best ME game.

[The Sharmat]

What if Mass Effect was never all that good, just a fairly shallow series with very high production values (until the third game...)

[CottonWolf]

What if Mass Effect 1 was good and had an interesting sci-fi premise that was then squandered by literally every piece of Mass Effect media that came after it?

[Guest]

Bioware is great at setting up worlds but only ok at telling stories within them. I think a lot of the appeal of ME1 is due to the former. The storytelling got better in each installment but was never great and rested largely on the good will of people impressed with the setting and the characters.