Mass Effect: Andromeda | Official Thread

[Psychotic]

What's going on the behind the scenes with this game? Some more SJW nonsense?You, as a Vorcha, should check your privilege before saying things like this.

[Aulayna]

I forgot to add, if you liked ME3s Multiplayer (which I loved), then you're in luck as Andromeda is pretty much more of the same.

[Psychotic]

I forgot to add, if you liked ME3s Multiplayer (which I loved), then you're in luck as Andromeda is pretty much more of the same.Is playing as a bright pink Geth called Julie possible? I need to know.

[Scruffington]

I think I'm honestly going to pass on this game.

No real reason or motivation to play it right away, especially when initial feedback seems to be mixed. Maybe if it ends up getting decent reviews I'll pick it up down the line, but right now I'm pretty disinterested.

I also don't have any interest in the Dragon Age series, so the comparisons to Inquisition are kind of irrelevant to me.

[Fox]

What's going on the behind the scenes with this game? Some more SJW nonsense?

Yeah a bunch of scumbags have organised a hate campaign against a woman who was apparently one of the lead animators of Andromeda.

[DMKA]

What's going on the behind the scenes with this game? Some more SJW nonsense?

Yeah a bunch of scumbags have organised a hate campaign against a woman who was apparently one of the lead animators of Andromeda.

Awesome. I love SERIOUS BUSINESS internet drama.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

What's going on the behind the scenes with this game? Some more SJW nonsense?

Yeah a bunch of scumbags have organised a hate campaign against a woman who was apparently one of the lead animators of Andromeda.

Awesome. I love SERIOUS BUSINESS internet drama.

Go to the ME subreddit, it is filled with butthurt and salt, you will find plenty drama there, lol.

[Freya]

Ahh yeah just read how they're harassing a female dev accusing her of the animation glitches.

People are shits.

[Slothy]

Ahh yeah just read how they're harassing a female dev accusing her of the animation glitches.

People are shits.

Stay classy internet. Stay classy.

[Psychotic]

You guys wanna team up and send her a joint hate message from Eyes on FF as a whole? I don't know who she is or what she's done, but if the internet is doing it then who are we to argue?

[Slothy]

I know that's sarcasm, but personally, I'd rather introduce the back of their heads to my fist via their face.

[Psychotic]

Sure, whichever, let's just pick one and do it.

[Slothy]

Face smashing it is. Don't stop punching until there's no one left to internet anymore!

[Fox]

I'm watching Totalbiscuit streaming this at the moment. I have to say I'm not sure I can get over this level of writing. Unless it gets MUCH better. For example (spoiler from the first couple of hours):

When Ryder's father dies and she's being told about it. Cora says something like: "I'm afraid your father is dead. That must be a real blow" That must be a blow. Uh, yes. Yes Cora I do think that qualifies as a 'blow,' could you not muster up just a tiny bit more believable human emotion please? You've just told me of my Father's demise in the same tone that you might inform someone that we're out of chocolate chip ice cream.

Let's just say I'll be looking for the reviews to say "It really finds its feet and becomes less consistently cringeworthy later in the game" before I decide to drop full price on this.

[Scruffington]

I'm watching Totalbiscuit streaming this at the moment. I have to say I'm not sure I can get over this level of writing. Unless it gets MUCH better. For example (spoiler from the first couple of hours):

When Ryder's father dies and she's being told about it. Cora says something like: "I'm afraid your father is dead. That must be a real blow" That must be a blow. Uh, yes. Yes Cora I do think that qualifies as a 'blow,' could you not muster up just a tiny bit more believable human emotion please? You've just told me of my Father's demise in the same tone that you might inform someone that we're out of chocolate chip ice cream.

Let's just say I'll be looking for the reviews to say "It really finds its feet and becomes less consistently cringeworthy later in the game" before I decide to drop full price on this.

Yeah, this is very concerning. The game seems like a comedy of errors at this point. Bad writing that gets delivered with bad voice acting (aside from a few characters supposedly) through bad animations. These all hurt a game's ability to tell an interesting story.

A major problem is that the first section of the game is riddled with things that will push fans away. So even if the rest of the game might get better, a lot of people might not want to see it through to that point.

[Aulayna]

To be fair I thought it was troutty dialogue too but:

Cora trained with Asari Commando's and rarely shows any kind of emotion other than a brief moment of anger in private. In one of the private conversations on the Tempest later on, she even talks about how her training got her to leave her emotions and feelings behind etc. Her entire character is very blunt and by the book and emotionless, which kind of explains her earlier behaviour. She is pretty much the polar opposite of Liam, for example, who is very empathetic etc.

[DMKA]

Reviews are out now. They range from alright to good. It currently stands at 75 on Metacritic. Apparently it does get better after the initial hours. it's not a bad game but it has disappointing technical problems and writing that jumps around from sorry to solid.

[Pheesh]

Well I'm still hyped. I don't want to read any reviews or let the recent backlash shape my perception of the game. If I hate it once I'm done with it then I'll be disappointed, but the possibility of space adventures is too great to pass up.

[Scruffington]

75 on Metacritic. Just to compare that to the scores the game got on PS3...ME1 had an 85, ME2 had a 94 and ME3 had a 92.

Critically, this game is a major disappointment compared to its predecessors. I think reviews are important in this instance because its the 4th game in the series and doesn't hold up nearly as well.

[Psychotic]

Bloody hell, even IGN gave it a 7.7. IGN. For a triple A game that's basically a 2/10 from them.

[Scruffington]

Bloody hell, even IGN gave it a 7.7. IGN. For a triple A game that's basically a 2/10 from them.

Just read this bit from Venture Beat which gave it a 55/100:


Games have to fit into our lives, and that’s not always fair. Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it doesn’t work in a world that is delivering games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In this reality, BioWare’s latest role-playing game is old, broken, and often boring.

Brutal.

[Psychotic]

wait a fucking minute

no hanar and no elcor?

pre-order cancelled fu bioware

[Formalhaut]

Quite a shame that after five years they couldn't really manage greatness. Annoying thing is many of these flaws seem like they could be easily corrected with more time to iron out the kinks.

[Slothy]

Time to iron out kinks is not something that triple A publishers believe in. Why fix before release what you can promise to fix with a patch a month later then never bother delivering on?

[Formalhaut]

Maybe they think fans will hate it if a game is released too late? I don't know, but personally I'd rather developers took the time to make a game right than try to rush it, yes after five years of development. As long as they vocalise why they're delaying a game to fix technical issues or brush up a mechanic, I'm perfectly happy.

[Slothy]

Honestly, I'd guess their only concern is money. Missing a launch date can hurt sales, taking the time to fix these things will cost a ton of money the longer they go without releasing, and since it's March I wouldn't be surprised if some executive somewhere was pushing to get it out the door so they don't miss their quarterly revenue targets.

Just thinking back to Half-Life and Half-Life 2, both games ended up delayed and heavily reworked before they released, and unless I'm mistaken, Half-Life 2 was actually costing $1 million a month to work on for the year it was delayed to make it not suck. And that was a game released almost 13 years ago and with a team that had to be substantially smaller than the team making Andromeda. Most companies would look at costs running into the millions each month you delay and unless the thing is literally unplayably broken they won't bother. Unless you're Ubisoft of course, then you just release the unplayable game anyway because fans love it when you release broken games and never fix them.

[Formalhaut]

I suppose there's a balance between running costs and the cost of reputation for releasing a less-than-stellar game.

From where I'm standing with reviews hammering it and fan reaction sadly predictable (let's blame a woman!) I'm not sure they made the right call with pushing forward and releasing it in March.

[Scruffington]

Quite a shame that after five years they couldn't really manage greatness. Annoying thing is many of these flaws seem like they could be easily corrected with more time to iron out the kinks.

Except a lot of people seem divided about the story, writing and gameplay. You can't really patch those issues.

[DMKA]

Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

So what's the argument here? That new games that aren't different enough are bad?

Honestly that quote makes me want to buy the game a lot more. :p

[Scruffington]

Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

So what's the argument here? That new games that aren't different enough are bad?

Honestly that quote makes me want to buy the game a lot more. :p

Uh..I thought the point was pretty straightforward and obvious.

It's an outdated game that doesn't hold up to today's standards. In a world where Breath of the Wild, Nier: Automata and Horizon: Zero Dawn exist, Andromeda just seems old and nowhere near the level of a good game released in 2017.

Especially not in regards to open-world aspects.

[Bubba]

I'm still excited. Can't wait for Thursday :D

[Slothy]

Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

So what's the argument here? That new games that aren't different enough are bad?

Honestly that quote makes me want to buy the game a lot more. :p

Uh..I thought the point was pretty straightforward and obvious.

It's an outdated game that doesn't hold up to today's standards. In a world where Breath of the Wild, Nier: Automata and Horizon: Zero Dawn exist, Andromeda just seems old and nowhere near the level of a good game released in 2017.

Especially not in regards to open-world aspects.

If I'm being perfectly honest I don't actually buy into the notion that games this generation are that much different than games from last generation. Same stuff with better graphics for the most part. I just can't take a criticism like that one very seriously.

[Madame Adequate]

wait a fucking minute

no hanar and no elcor?

pre-order cancelled fu bioware

what in the fuck is this are you kidding me

what next no volus?

[Del Murder]

Some mixed reviews but even that itself is disappointing considering the reception to the rest of the series. I liked that quote Scruff posted as it lays out the harsh reality regarding the evolving standard games are measured against. If you are making the next entry in a big name open world RPG then you can't simply just beef up your combat and create bigger worlds to explore and expect aspects like characterization, quest design, and storytelling to be looked over.

Looks like I'll be playing Horizon and Zelda first!

[Psychotic]

wait a fucking minute

no hanar and no elcor?

pre-order cancelled fu bioware

what in the fuck is this are you kidding me

what next no volus?no vorcha no drell no quarians no lib dems it's a bloody disgrace

[Scruffington]

If I'm being perfectly honest I don't actually buy into the notion that games this generation are that much different than games from last generation. Same stuff with better graphics for the most part. I just can't take a criticism like that one very seriously.

That's not the argument being made here.

The argument the author is suggesting is that Andromeda doesn't stand out in 2017. There are 2 fantastic open world games that just came out in the last month alone. Why should anyone waste their time playing Andromeda when there are much better open world RPGs out there right now?

Also, open worlds in games have only become a huge trend in this generation. Last gen we only really saw Skyrim and the GTA series.

This year has had a crazy number of good titles. Yakuza 0, Resident Evil 7, Tales of Berseria, Nioh, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Nier Automata have all come out in 2017 alone. I personally don't see any reason to choose this game when there are much better alternatives out there. Hell, Andromeda isn't even being made by Bioware's B team. It's supposedly made by their C team. So it isn't even the same development team that made the past titles.

I feel for the Mass Effect fans though. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they're getting the game they deserve.

EDIT: I should have corrected myself to say "I think the argument the author is suggesting" instead of "that isn't what the author is arguing." My bad. Also, I agree with Fox's post.

[Fox]

If I'm being perfectly honest I don't actually buy into the notion that games this generation are that much different than games from last generation. Same stuff with better graphics for the most part. I just can't take a criticism like that one very seriously.

Perhaps not so different now, but certainly there has been a lot of change since the start of last generation. The jump in production quality and shift in mechanics from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2 is very significant. And the review says "Andromeda may have worked a decade ago on the PS3 and Xbox 360" - a decade ago was 2007. Pre-Mass Effect 2*
*Pre-Mass Effect 1 technically, which was a November '07 release

Just like I would have had a much higher opinion of FFXV if I had never played any other Final Fantasy game, or The Witcher, or Zelda, or Dark Souls etc. To say Andromeda would have felt like a better game if it existed in a world where Mass Effect 2 and 3 hadn't been made is a reasonable point.

[Del Murder]

What are Bioware's A and B teams working on?

[Scruffington]

What are Bioware's A and B teams working on?

Bioware's A team is the Edmonton team, who made the original Mass Effect trilogy as well as the Dragon Age series.

Bioware's B team is the Austin team, who is responsible for SWTOR. They also helped with the production of Inquisition and worked on the new IP Shadow Realms before it got cancelled.

This is developed by Bioware's C team, the Montreal team. It was originally established back in 2009 to help the main Bioware team as necessary. They haven't made anything before Andromeda.

Apparently Bioware's A team is working on a new IP, but I'm not sure.

[Formalhaut]

I wouldn't give such an important entry in the series, tasked with leading Mass Effect into a new direction and a new galaxy, to a relatively untested team, in my opinion.

[Slothy]

Also, open worlds in games have only become a huge trend in this generation. Last gen we only really saw Skyrim and the GTA series.

This is not even remotely true.

[Scruffington]

This is not even remotely true.

This is 100% true.

This gen alone we've had Xenoblade Chronicles X, Final Fantasy XV, Metal Gear Solid V, Watch Dogs 2, Witcher 3, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon, and Fallout 4. Every single one of those games is pretty much critically acclaimed, and they are all open world games.

Final Fantasy XIII was not open world. Metal Gear Solid 4 was not open world. Skyward Sword was not open world.

These are three massive series that were not open world last gen, and have become open world in the current gen with their latest installments. It is a fact that open world games have become more prevalent this generation compared to last generation.

[Slothy]

If you ignore the plethora of open world series that have been around for years then sure. A handful of major series going in a more open direction does not make the statement that open world games only became a trend this generation of that it was really only GTA and skyrim before true. Nothing about your statement as you worded it is true.

If you don't believe me then feel free to see the following series that aren't GTA or skyrim:
-Assassins creed
-just cause
-batman Arkham city
-saints row
-yakuza
-fallout
-oblivion
-infamous
-prototype
-mercenaries
-Minecraft
-every Spiderman game since Spiderman 2
-every mmo ever
-red dead redemption
-red faction
-watch dogs

Im not even close to through all of the open world games and series from last generation but I'm getting tired of listing them and I've clearly made my point. Open world games aren't just becoming a big trend now. They've been a big trend for more than a decade now.

And if we're being honest, Zelda has always been open world. Not at the scale that breath of the wild was perhaps, but it's always had a big, open, non linear world to explore in all of those games.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, open world is definitely not a new trend for this gen and definitely came up big time in the last gen. What may have changed in this gen are the expectations for open world games to provide multiple gigantic areas to explore that are loaded with content, which become more plausible with advanced hardware. And also that every non-handheld RPG now needs to be an open world game.

[Madame Adequate]

This is what all Bioware teams are currently doing:

71859

[Scruffington]

Im not even close to through all of the open world games and series from last generation but I'm getting tired of listing them and I've clearly made my point. Open world games aren't just becoming a big trend now. They've been a big trend for more than a decade now.

And if we're being honest, Zelda has always been open world. Not at the scale that breath of the wild was perhaps, but it's always had a big, open, non linear world to explore in all of those games.

I didn't say "open worlds have only become a trend in this generation." I said "open worlds have only become a huge trend in this generation."

I stand by this statement. A lot of games you mentioned either weren't hugely successful or started out on earlier generations (or are current gen). Just Cause, Red Faction, Prototype, Spiderman, Mercenaries...none of these series have even come close to the success that Skyrim or GTA had. Of course, series like Assassin's Creed and Minecraft were both hugely successful. So was Arkham City.

Last generation had Bethesda and Rockstar at the forefront of open world game development. Rockstar is pretty much one of the main pioneers in this area with their GTA formula.

My main argument is that two of the biggest games last generation, Skyrim and GTA V, were open world. Their success has inspired many developers to take their games open world in this generation, with the primary successful examples being Horizon and Breath of the Wild.

And no, Zelda has not been open world in the sense that you're referring to. The original Zelda was open world, but the 3D Zeldas have generally guided you through dungeons in a set path.


Yeah, open world is definitely not a new trend for this gen and definitely came up big time in the last gen. What may have changed in this gen are the expectations for open world games to provide multiple gigantic areas to explore that are loaded with content, which become more plausible with advanced hardware. And also that every non-handheld RPG now needs to be an open world game.

The number of open world titles has increased this gen. Same as the number of successful open world games.

[Aulayna]

Quite a shame that after five years they couldn't really manage greatness. Annoying thing is many of these flaws seem like they could be easily corrected with more time to iron out the kinks.

To be fair it was already delayed from mid-2016, to late-2016 until Q1 2017 and it's basically come out at the end of Q1 2017. It's not excusable by any means and I daresay EA pushed it out the door.

But likewise, FFXV, which most people feel could've done with a couple more months in the oven, was also pushed out after being delayed.

It's sadly becoming a bit of a trend with AAA games in recent years.

This current console generation (PS4/XB1 - and loosely, the Switch) has had a serial lack of solid-AAA games that haven't missed the mark or required substantial post-launch support to bring them up to par.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

VPN time!

[Scruffington]

Put spoiler tags in this one, although it isn't too spoiler-y to me. Just a flirting scene with Ryder and another character. Highlights some of the complaints others have had about bad writing and voice acting.

259SeTjqzzc

My god...this is just awful.

[Fox]

Driving around in the Nomad looks fun. Like all the good parts of the Mako!

I did however see weapons labelled like: "Common weapon" "Rare weapon" "Super rare weapon" and I died inside a little bit. This system sucks in MMOs, why would you bring it into single player games? Hopefully there's not too much managing of trash weapons.

[Vyk]

I can understand letting the C-Team play with this one. The A team wanted to be done with Mass Effect as a trilogy and move on. And the B team has been busy in their own world. People want more Mass Effect, who else are you going to give it to? Though I believe there are two A teams. Pretty sure Edmonton splits up and shares people. I don't think Dragon Age and Mass Effect were always made by the same people. They probably shared a lot, but it's nothing like ... say Namco's Tales team(s) and Soul Calibur team (if they still exist?) who were pretty much in their own little bubbles making their own respective games

Either way, it sounds like it's Dark Souls 2, and a new team is cutting their teeth. So I guess the future may be a lot more interesting now that they've learned some hard lessons. But I have absolutely no doubt EA was involved in making it a wreck or demanding they push it out early. It honestly wouldn't surprise me that it was delayed so much because EA was demanding some ridiculous online thing. I can't remember but maybe multiplayer was never going to be implemented in this one and possibly they were forced to work on that instead of the base game. It's EA being EA, just like Konami, Ubisoft, WB, and the European branch of Square Enix. Impatient, unrelenting, and greedy. /rant

Either way, it's one of the games I was going to buy twice, so that my girlfriend and I weren't competing for time on it. But I think I'll let my reserved copy sit in the store for a minute and see how the game fairs with her. I still have Gravity Rush: Remastered and Horizon: Zero Dawn to complete before another big game anyway. Plus I may dabble in Torment: Tides of Numenera instead. But I won't forsake Mass Effect. I'm just in less of a hurry to acquire it myself

Edit: Game acquired by girlfriend. Install over, waiting for updates. First impressions incoming. Though I can't promise to speak them here, and not just experience them. But now I'll see what all the fuss is about

[Madame Adequate]

wait a fucking minute

no hanar and no elcor?

pre-order cancelled fu bioware

what in the fuck is this are you kidding me

what next no volus?no vorcha no drell no quarians no lib dems it's a bloody disgrace

tbf farron's canonically going extinct but the other shit here is enormously fucked up, especially as only two new races exist

[Aulayna]

One of the earliest dialogue conversations in the game does mention other Arks departing the Milky Way after the Human/Krogan/Solarian/Asari Arks had already departed. So if there are sequels, I guess we might see those races in future games.

I VPN'ed in to unlock the game early, I'm enjoying it.

[Freya]

Took me like an hour this morning to get my custom ryder. Then in the actual game her chin/mouth is too close to her nose and her eyes are too deep in. If she doesn't talk or emote she looks fine but ughhh I wish custom creation would allow some different lighting and stuff before it confirms. Every game I do that. Looks good then the actual gameplay I'm like, ughh I messed something up, let me fix

[Bubba]

I hate everyone in America who has this game today.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Apex App let's you do Strike Team missions from your phone, fyi. :D

[Vyk]

The girlfriend seems to be enjoying it as well. Impressions from what I saw:

The dialog was better that what I was expecting the way critics were making it sound

People said Horizon Zero Dawn had a bad case of "BioWare face". Surprise surprise a BioWare game has a bad case of BioWare face

Animation was a tad off. It has a lean when you walk into a turn. I've seen plenty of games poked fun of fire having this but the only one I've played that I remember is Grand Theft Auto 4. So I guess if it didn't bother you there it shouldn't bother you here

And glitches seemed standard Mass Effect fare. Minimal and more amusing than anything

But this is all from minimal exposure. Take with a grain of salt

[Scruffington]

A former Bioware employee gave some disturbing insight into Andromeda's troubled development. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1354014)

While it may be a rumor, we've already heard about the game having development issues. And if you just look at the comparison between the leaked April 2016 footage and the final release footage...the game's animations and overall quality got significantly downgraded.

[Vyk]

A former Bioware employee gave some disturbing insight into Andromeda's troubled development. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1354014)

While it may be a rumor, we've already heard about the game having development issues. And if you just look at the comparison between the leaked April 2016 footage and the final release footage...the game's animations and overall quality got significantly downgraded.
Fascinating and disturbing. I'd be inclined to blame EA yet again, and they may have put someone disastrous in charge (I'm not sure), but I know how office politics work in general, and this could be out of even EA's hands. It just takes one douche bag up top to play favorites down below, and things quickly spiral out of control like that

I can believe this stuff happening, but I still don't get why that would cause a down-grade. At worst it should merely cause a plateau of progress where things stop looking better, but why should things start getting worse? I guess the leaked footage may have ran on a monster of a computer and massive sacrifices may have had to be made to optimize, but it reminds me of Watch Dogs. And that game ended up running worse for being downgraded. Which also made no sense. I guess I'm just confused and sad for BioWare v3.0

[Psychotic]

welp, more controversy because Bioware made FemRyder ugly. This is from a Sun article mind you, so take it with a grain, nay, an ocean full of salt, but it amused me. MRAs are saying that they made her ugly so as to be not sexualised and politically correct, and SJWs are saying they did it as part of the "othering" of women, a case of smurf you we only want to put time into making the male characters - ie Male Ryder - look good.

The truth is they did it because they only know how to make potato people. :shobon:

Interestingly they've already patched her appearance, drastically changing her nose shape and also I think her eye colour. I have never seen that before, a character's appearance being radically changed from all the marketing material at the last minute. I mean sure we've all heard of black haired Tidus, but it wasn't black haired Tidus on the game's cover.

[Freya]

Wow really? They're mad that the fem ryder isn't model quality?

[Danklord]

Have a look a this:
https://hackerbot.net/images/imgsrc/ugly-me-andromeda-women-faces-hacked.jpg
(https://hackerbot.net/)
They literally and intentionally made female characters look unattractive.

Remember when BioWare games were good, had beautiful women and good stories... good animation.... and character.

I miss those days. :(

feelsbadman

[Freya]

So you're one of those people bitching about the looks.

Dude, women don't have to be your definition of beautiful. Plus with character creation, you can make it however you want, so what does it matter.

And even then, I don't even find the first one ugly either. Move along

[Formalhaut]

I mean, seriously. There's character creation. If you're not happy with the default look, you can literally change it to however you please.

Honestly I couldn't care less if Fem!Ryder didn't conform to the traditional norms of feminine beauty or not. Really couldn't give a damn.

EDIT: I'm reminded of the same sort of people saying things like 'oh the romance options for [x] gender are way worse than the other gender. Ugh, so annoying'.

Really the most petty of complaints. It shows you about the state of gaming that 'the looks of a woman' is being chalked up as some major flaw in this game.

[Fox]

And and and and and and 'dicking around in photoshop' =/= building a movable, customisable face in a 3D game engine.


They literally and intentionally made female characters look unattractive.

Both literally AND intentionally? So not figuratively and intentionally. Interesting.

1) What does it matter if they did?

2) They probably didn't.

3) If you're playing for the sexy women, may I suggest Senran Kagura? Their clothes come off when they lose in combat.

[Scruffington]

To some extent I actually agree that I dislike Fem Ryder's appearance.

However, my issue with it has nothing to do with beauty or anything like that at all. My problem is that the in-game model doesn't actually match the real model.

Compare her to Mass Effect 1. Commander Shepard looks identical to the real-life model he was based on (Mark Vanderloo). However, Jayde Rossi (the real-life model that Fem Ryder was based on) looks nothing like her in-game model. I don't particularly mind if a game decides to create an original character design, but if you're going to use a model...I think you should do a good job replicating what they look like. I thought Commander Shepard was an accurate and faithful recreation of the real person in video game form, which made me see Shepard as more of a real person.

However, the game has far worse issues than just Fem Ryder's appearance.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Male Ryder is pasty af and sometimes goofy looking. But he's cute anyways.

[Psychotic]

https://twitter.com/ugobananas/status/843889356888858625

Can we organise a gofundme for this fella?

[Freya]

bahaha that's great

[Psychotic]

I can't stop reading about this. And yet again I am reminded of the sentiments in this.

q5mLjKI968g

How fortunate that I am soon going to get my hands on a game that gives me an opportunity to do just that. :)

[Freya]

Are you just seeing it on Twitter? I didn't see anything it in the r/masseffect subreddit so I'm assuming it's elsewhere

[Del Murder]

Yeah that's probably not intentional. They just suck at developing. Why wouldn't a developer want to ensure their female lead is beautiful?

Are you not able to customize Ryder's looks? In Dragon Age Inquisition you had a lot of options and my character was a cute little elf mage.

[Freya]

You are. You get to pick out of a bunch of preset heads and then tweak the preset.

[Scruffington]

Yeah that's probably not intentional. They just suck at developing. Why wouldn't a developer want to ensure their female lead is beautiful?

Are you not able to customize Ryder's looks? In Dragon Age Inquisition you had a lot of options and my character was a cute little elf mage.

You're able to make a custom Ryder. However I think the custom options look terrible for the most part. Especially the hair.

[Vyk]

Was male Ryder fashioned after a model?

[DMKA]

Was male Ryder fashioned after a model?

Yes, a fashion model by the name of Steven Brewis, who is from my hometown none the less.

I have to agree that the default female Ryder is ugly as hell. I remember when I first saw her in a trailer I couldn't believe how hideous she was. Thank God you can change her appearance.

[Aulayna]

I'm happy enough with my own Ryder (also proof that yes, you can make "good looking" characters).

71860

[Freya]

For some reason my Screenshot wasn't working but I did snap a picture with my phone to send to my sister lol

My Fem Ryder is a babe too

71861

[Madame Adequate]

imagine being so deluded that you honestly believe bioware are deliberately making bad games instead of being world-shatteringly incompetent

like whenever comes out with that i instantly know they haven't actually played bioware games before because the last one that wasn't a hot mess was made on the fucking infinity engine

[DMKA]

I'm happy enough with my own Ryder (also proof that yes, you can make "good looking" characters).

71860

Good job. She's a cutie. :love:


imagine being so deluded that you honestly believe bioware are deliberately making bad games instead of being world-shatteringly incompetent

like whenever comes out with that i instantly know they haven't actually played bioware games before because the last one that wasn't a hot mess was made on the smurfing infinity engine

Yeah, that's why I just raise an eyebrow at all the bitching I see about ugly character models and wonky animation followed by "It's over Mass Effect is RUINED!" I'm like "Uh...so you never played the original trilogy then?"

Bioware has made great games, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love both Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but the character models and animations certainly aren't what made those games great. They've almost always been the weakest point honestly. :p

[Vyk]

Don't forget the character models for Baldur's Gate were ugly little mutants that vaguely looked humanoid. Glad we didn't worry about it back then

[Scruffington]

Yeah, that's why I just raise an eyebrow at all the bitching I see about ugly character models and wonky animation followed by "It's over Mass Effect is RUINED!" I'm like "Uh...so you never played the original trilogy then?"

Bioware has made great games, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love both Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but the character models and animations certainly aren't what made those games great. They've almost always been the weakest point honestly. :p

Right, but the character models and animations also aren't what made the game bad either. Which is the case for Andromeda.

The animations made the characters, and ultimately the story, much more believable in the original Mass Effect trilogy. In the case of Andromeda it appears that the bad animations, bad writing and bad voice acting are all flaws.

All of those issues hurt a game's ability to tell a convincing story. And dialogue/story is the main reason people loved the original Mass Effect trilogy.

[Madame Adequate]

Don't forget the character models for Baldur's Gate were ugly little mutants that vaguely looked humanoid. Glad we didn't worry about it back then

talk shit about my sister-wife imoen again, and you'll reap the goddamn whirlwind

[Psychotic]

For some reason my Screenshot wasn't working but I did snap a picture with my phone to send to my sister lol

My Fem Ryder is a babe too

71861

URRGHH FREYA WTF dude she looks like someone poured Gatorade over a bowl of lumpy porridge

You made her this rancid on purpose didn't you?

[Formalhaut]

It isn't as if BioWare hasn't always been on point with their characters. Kaiden in ME: 1 was nice but admittedly plain and unassuming throughout the entire story. He only really became good in ME: 3. Ashley had that whole 'space racism' thing going on, though they did a better job with character development.

[Freya]

She's beautiful Paul! I love her blue hair. Step off!

Also.scruff, I'm 5 hrs in now and absolutely enthralled with the story so far.

You can say the writing and story is subpar but one, you haven't played it at all yet, two, others are actually enjoying the story, three, you haven't played it!

Like I'm for complaining about the actual faults, the animations are not so great.

To be fair, nearly every game characters are stiff moving in. Bioware did it, XV did it. Why can't anyone make them look not stiff? It bothers me in every game now.

But you haven't played it yet scruff, you haven't formed any opinionew on it outside of what others say. I promise it isn't as bad as those others are saying.

[Slothy]

To be fair, nearly every game characters are stiff moving in. Bioware did it, XV did it. Why can't anyone make them look not stiff? It bothers me in every game now.

I'm convinced that the only triple A companies who can competently animate are Nintendo, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, and Valve. Everyone else is pretty trout at it.

Also, get bent Paul. :p

[Fox]

To be fair, nearly every game characters are stiff moving in. Bioware did it, XV did it. Why can't anyone make them look not stiff? It bothers me in every game now.

I'm convinced that the only triple A companies who can competently animate are Nintendo, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, and Valve. Everyone else is pretty trout at it.

Also, get bent Paul. :p

You seem to be under the weird misconception that Valve make video games

[Vyk]

Amusing that you can call Zelda out for being repetitive and have issue with durability and stamina and doing the same shrine dungeon 12 times and people are like "yeah it may look bring and annoying at times but you have to play it to understand" and then turn around and criticize this game after not touching it and swearing it off

Edit - I am sad about all the things wrong, but my girlfriend is still completely immersed

[Slothy]

To be fair, nearly every game characters are stiff moving in. Bioware did it, XV did it. Why can't anyone make them look not stiff? It bothers me in every game now.

I'm convinced that the only triple A companies who can competently animate are Nintendo, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, and Valve. Everyone else is pretty trout at it.

Also, get bent Paul. :p

You seem to be under the weird misconception that Valve make video games

They used to. And when they did they made about one a year and they were awesome.

[Psychotic]

Then they developed a baffling fear of the number three. That or a money printing factory, one or the other.

[Skyblade]

Amusing that you can call Zelda out for being repetitive and have issue with durability and stamina and doing the same shrine dungeon 12 times and people are like "yeah it may look bring and annoying at times but you have to play it to understand" and then turn around and criticize this game after not touching it and swearing it off

Edit - I am sad about all the things wrong, but my girlfriend is still completely immersed

I haven't sworn off it, though I have said "eh, not really interested yet". It's on my list, but my budget is only so big, and there are other games ahead of it.

At risk of sidetracking, I will say that Breath of the Wild is not really that repetitive. Except for the combat shrines, I don't think it's fair to list ANY of them as "the same dungeon multiple times", as the diversity in the puzzles and mechanics of them is actually quite surprising. Plenty have unique quirks or demand thinking of new and unique uses for your abilities. The fights are usually staged in ways that give you a lot of interesting and unique ways to take them down, and there is a decent selection of enemies as well (though, sadly, some old staples are missing). There are probably a dozen or more different styles of puzzles to find Koroks, and most of them are unique as well (or involve reaching a particular part of unique terrain). The diversity of the content is really quite surprising to me, especially compared to every other open-world game I've played.

I just never really got hooked in to Andromeda. I didn't even know about most of the development troubles the game experienced until the past couple of days. The most I'd seen of it was a couple screenshots, which, honestly, didn't make the game look that appealing. I think they might have pushed graphical fidelity too far without balancing out their modeling skills, as a couple of the characters just look a bit "off". None of them particularly appeal to me, and, as I've not seen any trailers or anything but screenshots, there's not a lot else to go on. I wouldn't even say that the characters are "ugly" because, frankly, they always have been. I mean, name me one character in Mass Effect that's visually appealing. The closest is probably Garrus, but even he's ruined by the texture issue that plagued the PC port (which is the only version I played) and made the close ups of him all use the lowest-rez textures (there's a mod to fix this, but I'm lazy). They got better as the series went on, but this does strike me as a typical "we've pushed too far towards photo-realism without having the design chops to pull it off".

There's not been anything big about the story that's hooked me either. From what I can tell, we take a trip to the Andromeda galaxy. And...explore? Anything else? I don't know. I haven't seen anything else mentioned. But, abandoning the characters and worlds and history of the series for something completely new and unrelated didn't particularly interest me. I wanted more Mass Effect because I wanted more of the series, not something else that just shares the name. Though, admittedly, they so thoroughly destroyed the series at the end of ME3 that I'm not sure they could anything else with it.

I don't know. I'm interested. I want to play it. In a casual, thrown off "yeah, it'd be fun" kind of way. But I'm not interested enough to want to buy it. Maybe if it goes on sale sometime when I don't have other games I'm playing. It's weird to think about, because I got kind of freakishly obsessed with the original trilogy.

[Psychotic]

I mean, name me one character in Mass Effect that's visually appealing. Blasto.

[Freya]

Now that I'm at a computer again.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BLUE HAIR. I think it's amazing. I want to now dye my hair blue.



Honestly the crazy colors look okay and the browns/blacks look okay but the red and blondes do not look good.

[Fynn]

It looks like cotton candy

[Psychotic]

Because the style demands to speak to the manager while the colour will ~*rawr*~ ^_^ at you if you follow them on DeviantArt.

[Freya]

Why you gotta bring up past kaycee like that



https://scontent.ftul1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/17467598_10155476379320681_1447990087_n.jpg?oh=9215e911dfb75b6938c7832ac34bf94e&oe=58D48495

It frustrates me that my screenshot isn't working. I think I can use the Nvidia gameready thing to overlay screenshot it. I'll have to fiddle.

The auto detect though had me at 900p resolution yesterday morning and i was all WAAAH. Had the BF fiddle with it and now i'm running it on ultra. So woo!

[Psychotic]

I'm sorry. Your mom-of-three, everybody-in-the-minivan-we're-going-to-Target days were truly your darkest.

[Freya]

For some reason though, the game wouldn't make Dad Ryder actually match my Ryders and I got black dad. I messed up my first creation and he was black in that one. Then in this one, he was a black dad too. Guess my ryders are biracial. It's whatever, just found it funny. He had the correct eye color though!

[Formalhaut]

Maybe skin tone is determined by what preset you decide to edit? I know Dragon Age II had a similar thing with your siblings.

[Freya]

I thought that too but I picked a different preset the second time and got black dad again.

[Scruffington]

Also.scruff, I'm 5 hrs in now and absolutely enthralled with the story so far.

You can say the writing and story is subpar but one, you haven't played it at all yet, two, others are actually enjoying the story, three, you haven't played it!

Like I'm for complaining about the actual faults, the animations are not so great.

To be fair, nearly every game characters are stiff moving in. Bioware did it, XV did it. Why can't anyone make them look not stiff? It bothers me in every game now.

But you haven't played it yet scruff, you haven't formed any opinionew on it outside of what others say. I promise it isn't as bad as those others are saying.

I don't really want to spend $90 CAD on a game that hasn't interested me in any of the 2+ hours of footage I've seen so far.

Don't get me wrong, I love Mass Effect. I still plan on replaying the original trilogy this year. And I truly wanted Andromeda to be a success. But I honestly think I've seen more than enough to form an opinion about this game.

At the very least, I may give this a try when it goes down in price to like $30 or $40. Unfortunately I'm not sold on the game right now, especially when there's so much else to play.

Also, you should look at some Naughty Dog games. They are basically the benchmark for good animations, especially facial animations.

[Freya]

it drives me bonkers on the animation thing. SE does it a lot too. They'll have good textures and everything and then the characters move so awkwardly. Takes my immersion out of the experience.

I've played the first uncharted? I have the trilogy so i'm just now working through them on PS4

[Del Murder]

I'm happy enough with my own Ryder (also proof that yes, you can make "good looking" characters).

71860
Great job with your character Aul. :up: Beautiful yet clearly ready to kick your ass if needed.

[Bubba]

As well as Emily Blunt, Aulayna's Ryder looks a little bit like Pumpkin too!

[Freya]

Okay got Eos done! Or well got it started?



That was actually super fun. The remnant stuff was a bunch of fun, I'm super curious who the smurf the remnant are though. A little bit of jump puzzleish and that crazy mad dash from the death cloud. Not sure how I feel about peebee. Also I'm Hella bad at driving the nomad. I put my bling bling gold skin on it though. So I'm rolling up like a badass.

[Night Fury]

71862

Here is my Ryder!

Not really what I'd planned on, but I felt attached to this preset after I'd played around and I love her now!

[Freya]

Before I figured out you had to pick a preset head, I was also stuck on the asian one. The one I created was really great too. I was impressed! The creation itself is a bit flawed but the asian ethnicity sets are really well done. Your ryder is goregous

[Night Fury]

She looks so orangey though :( and not in a good way - it really sticks out sometimes. Don't know how much of a fan I am of the new style...

so far I love Liam he might be my romance pick... also that krogan voice please tell me I'm not the only one who was SHOOK.

[Freya]

I am also pretty fond of Liam! :kaoclove: There's that alien dude though I haven't met. So I'm not going full Liam until I meat Jaal.

Which krogan are you talking about? The Lady Krogan at the Nexus?

[Vyk]

Amusing that you can call Zelda out for being repetitive and have issue with durability and stamina and doing the same shrine dungeon 12 times and people are like "yeah it may look bring and annoying at times but you have to play it to understand" and then turn around and criticize this game after not touching it and swearing it off

Edit - I am sad about all the things wrong, but my girlfriend is still completely immersed

I haven't sworn off it, though I have said "eh, not really interested yet". It's on my list, but my budget is only so big, and there are other games ahead of it.
Totally agree, too many things to spend money on to take a gamble on something you're not sold on. My thing is, Zelda fans are trying to sell Zelda on people who were not sold on the dubious 10/10 best game ever made scores

At risk of sidetracking, I will say that Breath of the Wild is not really that repetitive. Except for the combat shrines, I don't think it's fair to list ANY of them as "the same dungeon multiple times", as the diversity in the puzzles and mechanics of them is actually quite surprising. Plenty have unique quirks or demand thinking of new and unique uses for your abilities. The fights are usually staged in ways that give you a lot of interesting and unique ways to take them down, and there is a decent selection of enemies as well (though, sadly, some old staples are missing). There are probably a dozen or more different styles of puzzles to find Koroks, and most of them are unique as well (or involve reaching a particular part of unique terrain). The diversity of the content is really quite surprising to me, especially compared to every other open-world game I've played.
This part is actually what I was really talking about. Zelda may look repetitive and samey to the un-sold people, but it's a totally different story when it's in your hands. And that seems to be the same thing going on with Mass Effect, and it's definitely what went on regarding detractors to Horizon Zero Dawn. They had quirks, but they tended to not matter to the people playing them and enjoying them.

I just never really got hooked in to Andromeda. I didn't even know about most of the development troubles the game experienced until the past couple of days. The most I'd seen of it was a couple screenshots, which, honestly, didn't make the game look that appealing. I think they might have pushed graphical fidelity too far without balancing out their modeling skills, as a couple of the characters just look a bit "off". None of them particularly appeal to me, and, as I've not seen any trailers or anything but screenshots, there's not a lot else to go on. I wouldn't even say that the characters are "ugly" because, frankly, they always have been. I mean, name me one character in Mass Effect that's visually appealing. The closest is probably Garrus, but even he's ruined by the texture issue that plagued the PC port (which is the only version I played) and made the close ups of him all use the lowest-rez textures (there's a mod to fix this, but I'm lazy). They got better as the series went on, but this does strike me as a typical "we've pushed too far towards photo-realism without having the design chops to pull it off".
Yeah, I wouldn't want to force a game down anyone's throat who's not interested. I was merely asking that people give it the same reasonable doubt Zelda fans are asking for. Breath of the Wild has far from sold me. And the legions of 10/10 scores actually make me a lot more skeptical. No matter how much you enjoy a game, to call it the best game ever made, or try to explain how perfect it is when there are noticeable flaws that could be addressed, which don't even detract from the enjoyment of the game; they just exist. It just seems like Zelda was reviewed by Zelda fans, and not even objective Zelda fans. Meanwhile Mass Effect was reviewed by not-fans. IGN, GameSpot, and Game Informer are all notorious for having their reviews bought, and having Nintendo fans inbiasly review Nintendo products, and then having Call of Duty dude-bros review other product, and not even be fans. Reviewed by people who don't get certain games.

One recent example I can think of would be IGN's video review of Resident Evil 7, was obviously not done by someone who's played most of the series. They complain about repetitive bad-guys as if the previous games didn't have that. Or the obtuse puzzles, as if the previous games did not have that. Imagine the backlash if someone reviewed a Zelda game as if it were the first Zelda game they ever played and pointed out all the ways it could have been like other games

I can think of two actual journalists who actually critiqued Zelda without just blindly praising it. And their gaming tastes are more in line with mine than most of the fake reviewers out there working at Polygon, IGN, and the rest. And they didn't hate the game. They enjoyed it. But it wasn't perfect. No game should ever be considered perfect. And even when reviewed by fans, they should at least try to be objective. It seemed like there was way too little objectivity regarding Zelda, and way too much critical objectivity regarding Mass Effect

And back on topic, the more I watch my girlfriend play Mass Effect, the more I know I'll enjoy it. Which is reassuring. Also it has Sudoku puzzles. Which is awesome. I just got done helping her solve one

But thank you Skyblade. I know you're a super-fan, but I also know you're reasonable and objective and can understand people's skepticism even though you know there's no reason to be skeptical. We're just human

[Fox]

Also it has Sudoku puzzles.



2.5 million light years and there's ​STILL NO ESCAPE

[Freya]

Who knew that my obsession with late night sudoku puzzles would save a galaxy.

[Formalhaut]

Oh God I hate Sudoku.

NOOOOOOOO. :eek:

[Psychotic]

ahahaha Renly and Margaery are on the crew, I like it.

[Freya]

She rejected me ughhh..

I'm taking the Captain Kirk approach, hit on everything. Several rejections later, a few have shown interest.

Why can't I flirt with the salarians or krogan though? Lame

[Vyk]

Oh God I hate Sudoku.

NOOOOOOOO. :eek:

It's barely Sudoku :) it's only 1-5. Or at least the one I did was. But then again it only gave like four symbols so it was still pleasantly challenging

[Night Fury]

Sunk a lot more time into this tonight.

Last night I was feeling it was a 6/10... I've moved more towards 8/10 as the story has progressed. This game is great, a few minor glitches here and there but seeing familiar species etc brings so much joy to me.

[Psychotic]

Gave multiplayer a whirl. Everyone died. Ah, memories. :) I got a Krogan in my first pack though! I also love that everyone is there in like really boring grey armour and my dude is just standing on the end in bright neon purple looking very pleased with himself.

Also got some lovely animation and general world interaction glitches too. Particularly loved a Turian NPC teleporting in and out of a wall on the Nexus.

[Freya]

I've had a few conversation glitches. Where you start talking to them but it focuses on a place they aren't in? So then you're talking to a wall or something. Did it to me with Peebee but then it had a close up of her face and her fiddling with something in her place and then suddenly when it went back to the wall, she was in frame. Things like that.

[theundeadhero]

My biggest what an idiot moment so far was forgetting how easily some things are solved by jumping. It happened on Eos, at the building where you have to turn off the generator to take the shields down. I tried shutting down all three shield generators around the place but that didn't work. I tried coming to the building from the other side, using muh truck to drive up the cliff, and actually found a place that would have worked if the game didn't automatically black out and set you back. Then I even ran, jumped over the gap into the tiny window you see, and went inside. You couldn't make it far in there because of the shield dome in the center. It took a while before I figured out I could just jump on the roof of the building and cross to the other side.

[theundeadhero]

My Ryder

[Formalhaut]

To be fair, that's something I would totally do. New game mechanics are ripe for moments of flailing.

[Freya]

Or ryders have the same scar, tuh!

[Psychotic]

My RyderLooking good, I like the eyes.

I think I must be the only EoFFer playing as male Ryder. I didn't even make a custom one, I'm just using the default one as he looked a lot better than any of the freakshows I could make.

[Freya]

Bubba and TSoL are also playing default male!

My twin ryder is custom too, he has a smurfboi haircut and isn't crazy colors like my fem but he doesn't look bad? A lot of hte presets before you fiddle on males were bad though. It was easier on Female

[Formalhaut]

I don't think I could ever use a default face. I don't know, I just love Character Creation too much, even if I spend half an hour getting just the right bone structure.

[theundeadhero]

I like to imagine the scar came from the time she was mauled by a tiger as a teenager.

[Freya]

Tried multiplayer and that's hella fun!

You get extra bonus packs for owning ME3 and DA:I

[Psychotic]

Just encountered a harmless and silly little glitch (no spoilers, I promise)

https://twitter.com/unknowinglycrab/status/845661156438147075

Oh Bioware. :flirt:

EDIT: ahahahah right after I uploaded this I then talked to Vetra next to him, the screen went black and I was talking to nobody. And then it teleported me halfway across the ship. Wowzers.

[Fox]

Sounds like normal space behaviour

[Bubba]

Yup, default male for me. My play time is pretty limited and I wasn't prepared to spend an hour of it creating some freak show candidate. He's no Shepard, but default Ryder is pleasant enough on the eye.

Only a couple of hours in but enjoying it so far. Daddy pathfinder is dead and I also failed in finding Greer and the poor bastard had been horribly mutilated on some operating table. Whoops, sorry pal.

[Freya]

So i was on Veold and

I found a remnant Architect and holy crap was that a long and intense fight with a giant robot in the freezing weather. That was intense, i was just doing a damn side quest

[Scruffington]

7KWkao73HuU

[Freya]

I dont' have time for a 20 minute video, you're insane.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I am pretty far into Andromeda and will admit that the game needs some patching on the glitches and the whole save thing. Just annoying things that aren't game breaking but annoying.

The writing isn't not bad. If someone is telling you the writing is bad then they probably haven't spend enough time on the internet to come across truly bad writing. The writing is decent, sometimes having really strong moments but usually just average writing. As a series that is big on storytelling and dialogue people might say it is bad but it is really not that horrible. Moreover, comparing the emotional investment you have in characters that you have known over the arc of a trilogy to the cast of single game, kinda foolish.

Andromeda is much more organic. Your squadmates develop relationships and have conversations outside of you. The worlds are huge and plenty to explore. They feel much more lived in and organic. Things are not so centered on the player as much. This allows for the feeling of exploration to be there. I have spent as much time pushing the "main plot" as doing side quests and other things. And while there are still plenty of fetch quests that riddles the genre (usually labelled as tasks) the bigger planetary and personal missions are pretty well done and give you a good sense of satisfaction.

Oh, and the combat is amazing. I am a biotic god that all cower before me. Though I feel the leveling a bit too fast paced. I am already at 32 and according to the game I am not even half way done. Usually by this level in ME games I am at the end. So leveling pacing is weird like it was in FFXV.

Oh, and I am disappointed for the gay romance options. I don't have a squadmate as a choice. I get one crew member and someone on another planet who is missable. Both humans. No alien sex for me. I am disappointed mostly because it was their Montreal studio that made this game. Montreal is one of the most queer-friendly cities in the country but apparently their other studios that are in the heart of conservative areas can do better for LGBT romance. Go figure.

[Scruffington]

I dont' have time for a 20 minute video, you're insane.

It's basically a showcase of all the bugs, glitches, wonky animations, dialogue and other things wrong with the game.

Some of the bugs and glitches are hilarious.

[Vyk]

Girlfriend just finished the game a few hours ago. And only ran across a few bugs. Certainly they detracted a little, most were amusing to her however, and none of them were game-breaking

Also she enjoyed it enough to immediately start another game. It should also probably be noted that she got distracted from Horizon: Zero Dawn to play this game. It's certainly not a disaster of technology, and is capable of being highly enjoyable. And like previously mentioned, the writing isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Especially once you get past the beginning

The bits and pieces I've seen through her have me anticipating my own playthrough once I'm done with Horizon, Gravity Rush, and Nier

[Night Fury]

I've clocked around 20 hours of Andromeda, I'm at about 21% completion.

Aye there are bugs - no shit, but if you let that put you off what is an amazing game then well, your loss honestly.

I love that it's different to the original trilogy, I love the interactions, I love listening to my squadmates chat when I'm driving the NOMAD. There's LOTS to love in this game, there's some things that aren't great, but mostly this has been a really enjoyable gaming experience for me and for the most part the game looks STUNNING.

[Psychotic]

So i was on Veold and

I found a remnant Architect and holy crap was that a long and intense fight with a giant robot in the freezing weather. That was intense, i was just doing a damn side quest Oh man yeah I just randomly came across that last night too, that was some proper Shadow of the Colossus trout right there. It was really tricky balancing my temperature with being in cover/being in good positions to open fire on the bastard whenever it was weak. A really good and well thought out boss battle imho.

[Mirage]

Mass Effect: Andromeda might’ve worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

So what's the argument here? That new games that aren't different enough are bad?

Honestly that quote makes me want to buy the game a lot more. :p

Uh..I thought the point was pretty straightforward and obvious.

It's an outdated game that doesn't hold up to today's standards. In a world where Breath of the Wild, Nier: Automata and Horizon: Zero Dawn exist, Andromeda just seems old and nowhere near the level of a good game released in 2017.

Especially not in regards to open-world aspects.

To be honest, "open world" has just become this decade's "third person cover shooter". It's a bullet point that must be found on an triple-a game's box or store page just to make sure they're "with the times". Being open world is no goal in itself. It should only be done if the game actually benefits from it. Far from all do.

[Aulayna]

I've only stumbled across one of the Remnant Architects on Eos so far, but yeah, intense fight!

[Formalhaut]

That's sad about the gay male options. In ME: 3, the only choices were both human as well (not that I'm complaining about Kaiden and Cortez), though at least one of them was a squadmate; assuming you saved him, of course.

Annoying that neither of the options are squadmates, either. I'm not sure why that should bother me, but a squadmate romance elevates it to a higher level of status, at least to me. Hopefully the non-squadmate romances are all fully fleshed out.

[Psychotic]

FWIW on my recent ME3 playthrough I had a relationship with non-squadmate Traynor and it was actually a really sweet and fun relationship. I actually liked the non-squadmate dynamic of it too, keeping business and pleasure separate (kinda). Give it a whirl sometime!

I don't know who I am going to bang in this one. I hit on everything and everyone going. Cora recently made a "Peebee? Really? Don't ruin something special" comment to me so I guess I'm making progress on two fronts there. :shobon:

[Freya]

Peebee never stops flirting. And my default reaction is to flirt back. I'm like damn girl.


I've only stumbled across one of the Remnant Architects on Eos so far, but yeah, intense fight!

There's one on Eos too? Oh man.


So I also got my outpost before even doing the Vault on Veold. So I still have the vault. I started it but ugh that jumping around but losing lifesupport thing suckkkks

[Aulayna]

I didn't know there was one on Voeld either, so xD

I'm running a real risk of burning myself out on this like I did with Dragon Age Inquisition. I had to force myself to leave Eos behind despite having unfinished tasks there, I combed most of Havarl clean and now I'm running around doing side stuff on Voeld.

I ended up doing similar on DAI which I clocked hours in but never ended up finishing.

[Freya]

Yeah that happens to me too. I think what's actually helping me is I haven't been able to sit and marathon things out. At most i've been able to spend playing at one time is MAYBE 3 hrs at one time. It's preventing the burnout from creeping in I think.

[Psychotic]

I really struggled to get into DA:I when I was trying to clear all my sidequests early on. As soon as I sacked off the Hinterlands and just focused purely on story and character quests I had a lot of fun with it. I haven't quite reached that level of fatigue with Andromeda though.

[theundeadhero]

I really appreciated that not every planet is driving around from place to place in the nomad. I like the on foot exploration better.

[Aulayna]

Did you let the Ancient AI live or did you kill it? If you didn't kill it, did you give it to SAM or the Angara?

What weapons/skills are people using?

[Freya]

I gave it to the angara. I just thought that'd be not a good thing to let a second, unknown AI hang out at SAM node. I thought it was valuable enough to keep, sorry dude, but it was kinda acting like a brat. "I don't know these people omg I wanna go with YOU" and was like "yeah no, you're staying with your relatives."

I'm sniping (shotgun when they get close) and using Overload, Incinerate and stealthy stealth as an infiltrator.

[Psychotic]

Vanguard for life. Charge, Nova and a random Overload for shields. Using the trusty Mattock assault rifle as my piece as I'm not impressed with the sniper rifles in this game.

[Freya]

Oh? I'm using a Kett Sniper Rifle ATM, Headshoot BLAM dead, Headshot BLAM dead. Sometimes it takes more than one shot but mostly just one shot.

[theundeadhero]

I gave it to the Angara too. I was suspicious it would try to hack and take over SAM, which would be bad.

I'm using overload, incinerate, and concussion grenades, along with an assault rifle. It's great fun.

I'm thinking we're the bad guys and the Kett are the protectors of the universe. The Angara may have been bad too. I'm guessing long ago they created the remnant and the scourge for reasons, so they Kett came in to take them out in an act of galactic protection. The did a good job, and the Angara forgot most of their history, but the kett didn't understand the tech or how to use it, so they made the planets degrade as a defensive mechanism.

[Freya]

tuh how far are you?

[Pumpkin]

As well as Emily Blunt, Aulayna's Ryder looks a little bit like Pumpkin too!

waaat

[Aulayna]

71868

[theundeadhero]

I'm not very far ahead of you. I've finished Voeld, H-town, and a return to Eos, along with the side quests I can do along the way.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I destroyed the Ancient AI on Voeld because it was sketchy AF and kept lying to me plus the poor angaran. :(

I defeated the Architect in Eos, but haven't tried any other ones yet. I have Voeld, Havlar, and Eos at 100% though a few missions left on each (which makes the 100% feel weird)

@tuh,I don't know about the Kett since the whole exaltation thing is rather disconcerting.


I run as Adept, using Pull, Singularity, Throw. Sidewinder pistol and some Revenant assault riffle. I invested points in Combat Training and Assault Rifles and probably Pistols soon since I maxed out all my Biotic passives and the 3 primary abilities I use.

Is it me or is Peebee's little Remenent drone cute AF? YAY ZAP!

[Freya]

The Eos
Architect killed me. I didn't die on the veold one but the eos one killed me UGHH.


But both planets are 100% now. Still have to kill the Architect though.

[Bubba]

I'm still gonna be playing this at Christmas :lol:

Spent three hours on this last night just running around the Nexus and the Tempest. Completed a few side quests and did lots of talking. Didn't fire a single shot in anger!

Explored a few systems though on the galaxy map and oh man... what were they thinking with those long animations when changing planets??

[Psychotic]

Explored a few systems though on the galaxy map and oh man... what were they thinking with those long animations when changing planets??Seriously. At least give us the option to skip.

[Psychotic]

Here's a fun game breaking bug. I got reset to level 1 and lost all of my weapons. smurfing hell. Don't ever use auto saves in this game as apparently that's a wacky glitch that can happen. I have a manual save 3 hours back which I will have to use but uggggh, my progress.

[Formalhaut]

Smurf. That sucks.

I'm watching Mr. Carny play and I'm really surprised he can't manually save during priority missions.

[Freya]

Oh man I learned long ago that autosaves with bioware games are jacked up. DA: O autosaved me into a glitched out redcliff event and i had to start over. Then it also autosaved me on the archdemon fight and then wouldn't even let me complete the cinematic during the fight and the whole game would crash.

Since then I manual save all the time. Never trust the autosave!

[Formalhaut]

I spam the quicksave on PC with DA: O. I mean, mainly because my laptop isn't a dedicated gaming computer so I'm scared it'll crash (it only has done a few times).

[Psychotic]

I beat the game last night. It was ok, it has some plus points as there were both great battles and some good pieces of writing that led to some difficult choices.

However, it is without doubt the glitchiest game I have ever played. There were funny glitches like the double Drack one I posted earlier or the time when Vetra hilariously got stuck into a Crucifixion T-Pose and slid all over the place and I liked those. The graphical and sound glitches were weird and commonplace too - half the time my Nomad doesn't make a sound and then I'll get some dialogue subtitled that isn't actually spoken for a good 30 seconds if not more. However, the gamebreaking glitches were what really smurfed me off. I had the one I mentioned in my earlier post, and then during the final battle sequence the game actually somehow contrived to crash my PS4 for no discernible reason. This had the lovely effect of losing my hard won progress in it and also taking out a lot of the tension. As much as I like the game, it shows total and complete disrespect to customers to release it in such an atrocious state.

To end on a positive (maybe) note, bloody hell the romance scenes are pretty smurfing explicit aren't they? I was toying between Peebee and Cora and in the end I went with Cora because I'd already had no strings attached banging with Peebee - may as well get more bang for my buck amirite. Do Cora got a booty? She absolutely smurfing do. She knocks Miranda and her hexagon coated butt into next week. Full nudity is one thing, and I'm cool with it, but then you see Ryder actually thrusting right into her. You don't get that explicit in most movies. I mean, I'm not offended by it but it's more of a "...wait, what?" moment.

[Freya]

Only had a little bit of time this weekend to play but now 100% on Eos, Veold, and Havarl

[Formalhaut]

Played this a lot the past two days since I was ill. Made my first character! He's called Rafael, and he'll be gaying it up with Gil.

Here's a few screenshots! I like taking them.


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7188971887
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I've kinda made him casual and emotional so far with the tones, and a fairly agreeable character all round.

Oh, and here's his sister.


71890


I've never made a hispanic character(s) before in Character Creation, so I hope they turned out okay!

[Freya]

You ryder wears pink too! :kaoclove: we're pink buddies

[Mr. Carnelian]

Just finished the game today. I loved it. Quite a lot of small problems, but nothing that really affected my enjoyment of the game. For me, personally, 9/10.

[Formalhaut]

'lots of niggles' pretty much defines the game, really. The overall package is fun, and if you enjoy open-world exploration, then it is pretty fantastic, but there are plenty of small niggles that hamper my enjoyment. There's more than a few bugs which aren't game-breaking but pretty annoying all the same.

I'm not even finished yet, but I like the story. The combat is also fun, even if I wish I had more than just three abilities. Mid-combat switching of favourites just isn't feasible most of the time.

[Mr. Carnelian]

Drack. Is. The. Best. He's tough as old boots, but beneath that he's just the biggest sofite.
Vetra is sharp, smart and can sass with the best of them.
Liam rubs a lot of the other chracters up the wrong way, but he's not a bad guy. Bit quick to judge, and he hasn't quite found his way yet, but he means well.
Jaal is my bestie. Honest, but never cruel, he's practically impossible to dislike.
Peebee has committment issues TO THE MAX. Like, wow, so much. She gets over it, though, and her sparkiness is extremely endearing.
Cora was really quite a surprise. Thought she would be a hardass, but she's actually quite a gentle soul.

[Vyk]

Might as well necro the thread, now that news has came out that all the haters got what they wanted, and the future of the Mass Effect franchise has been completely shelved by BioWare, and EA has begun cannibalizing the studio and pulling staff to work on Star Wars Battlefront 2 or whatever. Not sure if this game ends on any kind of cliff-hanger or any hint of a sequel, but either way it's not going to happen apparently

[Skyblade]

Might as well necro the thread, now that news has came out that all the haters got what they wanted, and the future of the Mass Effect franchise has been completely shelved by BioWare, and EA has begun cannibalizing the studio and pulling staff to work on Star Wars Battlefront 2 or whatever. Not sure if this game ends on any kind of cliff-hanger or any hint of a sequel, but either way it's not going to happen apparently

The future of Mass Effect wasn't shelved. It was thrown outside along with everything that made the series good at the end of Mass Effect 3.

Which is where the biggest problem with Andromeda lay. I, like so many other fans of the trilogy I've spoken to, just didn't care. The ending of ME3 burnt down, spat on, and destroyed the franchise. The game itself was largely excellent, and had some really incredible and satisfying conclusions to most of the character and story arcs that we had been following throughout the series. So, no reason to return on that account. Everything else? Blown up. The writing and villains became laughable, the universe itself fundamentally altered and changed, and player choice was eliminated.

The old universe I knew was dead. If I thought about it at all, I saw Andromeda as typical industry money-grubbing. "They'll buy anything with the franchise name on it". Just like Square and Final Fantasy (except that Square has been right so far). I didn't care about it. They threw away Mass Effect with that ending. And they chose to stick with that ending, to support it, even though it destroyed the entire series.

I am a hater of Mass Effect 3's ending. But I'm not a hater of Andromeda. I just don't care. And, from a lot of the old fans I've talked to, I'm not alone in that. It's not a continuation of the story, universe, or ideas we loved. It's a spiritual sequel at best, done by an unproven team and a studio that demonstrated that it has no understanding or love for the work that they had created. "I'll buy it at some point, when it's on sale" is one of the single most common statements I've heard about it. It's something which evoked mild disinterest, and nothing else.

For those who enjoyed it, I'm sorry that you're losing whatever future it might have had. But, to me, it was never something I was invested in. If they wanted to continue Mass Effect, they should have gone back and given it something to continue from. For a new game, a new idea, a new execution that shares some familiar concepts? Yeah, that might be worth a look at some point. But it's not Mass Effect. And from what I could tell, it wasn't being made by people who loved the original game.




Nor were the handful of trailers I saw particularly impressive. Flash and cliché, without substance. No new aliens nearly as creative as the old ones. And none of the spark of characterization that made me love the original series.



I just find it really hard to care. Mass Effect has been dead to me for years. This announcement didn't change that any more than the Andromeda announcement did.
72098

[Psychotic]

Might as well necro the thread, now that news has came out that all the haters got what they wanted, and the future of the Mass Effect franchise has been completely shelved by BioWare, and EA has begun cannibalizing the studio and pulling staff to work on Star Wars Battlefront 2 or whatever. Not sure if this game ends on any kind of cliff-hanger or any hint of a sequel, but either way it's not going to happen apparentlyI think that's an odd way to frame it. Haters would've had absolutely zero impact in any decision made to do this.

Andromeda received significant amounts of bad publicity when it launched due to amount of glitches and bugs. I would suspect this was a major contributing factor to the game having relatively poor sales and Metacritic score. Relatively being the key word, of course, but presumably it fell a long way short of the targets that were set for it.

I liked the game and I'm disappointed by the news, but I'm just going to reproduce what I said in my final post.
As much as I like the game, it shows total and complete disrespect to customers to release it in such an atrocious state.Whether that's a result of Bioware fucking up or EA demanding the game be rushed out we can only speculate, but it comes down to one simple principle: Actions have consequences. Haters? No. Whoever green lit this for sale, happy to take money from customers despite knowing what state it was in and hoping to cash in on the brand name is responsible. And it's a damn fucking shame all round.

[Slothy]

Well let's be honest, the decision of whether or not to delay a game to fix major issues or release it is always the choice of the publisher. Maybe it was the development teams fault it wasn't ready to go on time, but they weren't the ones who said sure, release it. And I can guarantee the developer knew it wasn't ready and I'd bet someone there probably tried to tell EA. But I doubt they or most triple A publishers actually care most of the time. We live in a preorder culture where review scores and criticism rarely matter for big franchise games. That there's been such a backlash against Andromeda, particularly in terms of sales, is downright rare.

[Psychotic]

That's one side of the coin, but I'm going to play devil's advocate and say perhaps Bioware missed several deadlines already and kept smurfing up. EA may have reached the point where funneling further time and funds into it would've seen the project making a significant loss unless it gained an unfeasible number of sales. Either way it's a business decision, and either way someone smurfed up.

[Skyblade]

That's one side of the coin, but I'm going to play devil's advocate and say perhaps Bioware missed several deadlines already and kept smurfing up. EA may have reached the point where funneling further time and funds into it would've seen the project making a significant loss unless it gained an unfeasible number of sales. Either way it's a business decision, and either way someone smurfed up.

While this is true, I would think that handing such a big project to a studio that hadn't built a game of their own before was not necessarily the best idea either. Missed deadlines and mistakes would kind of be expected.

[Slothy]

I might buy that if it weren't for the fact that the same thing happens to experienced dev teams all the time. Dice aren't exactly new to development and battlefield 4 was released completely fucked to the point they had to stop development on dlc to get all hands on deck to fix it.

And honestly, knowing what I do about ea, and particularly how they view and hire and fire competent staff, the less inclined I am to buy the developer being the biggest part of the problem. I also doubt that their projected sales and profit margins were so narrow they couldn't wait the extra month or less if took them to actually fix some of those more noticeable issues. In fact, I'd even argue that if it was going to dip into loss territory for them they would have been better off delaying it because reputation has value too. And it's not like they couldn't afford it. They're making more money than ever.

[Freya]

This was also their C team. The only thing this team has ever made before was the multiplayer for ME3. Then they just gave them a whole game? That was an odd move. The cannibalizing news I read though was a very speculative piece from Kotaku.

Anyone have more sources? I haven't seen anything other than that. Sounded more like they'r ejust moving people around but there may have been more news I missed.

[Formalhaut]

I'm personally not buying the 'waiting would've hurt their sales' argument. I get it, but I mean I would have been happy waiting another month or two for it to be polished and complete. There's never a good excuse for rushing out an unfinished product. Sure, some people will complain but those people are impatient.

The number of patches is amusing though. Dragon Age: Inquisition ended up having 11 patches in the course of about two years. Mass Effect: Andromeda is currently on number 6, and it's been what, over a month?

[Slothy]

Anyone have more sources? I haven't seen anything other than that. Sounded more like they'r ejust moving people around but there may have been more news I missed.


I don't have any special knowledge about it really but moving people around to work on other projects is pretty normal in triple A gaming. Hell, firing a bunch of people once a game is done or contracts are up is pretty normal for ea. There are so many people trying to get into the industry that people are pretty much disposable to them.

[Vyk]

I got that info from The Know. Who probably did get it from Kotaku. It was really just more fuel against the idea that there will be another Mass Effect. Since the team is effectively being disbanded. Though, if we're going to quote anecdotal evidence regarding how our friends and social circle feels about the game, everyone I've spoken with have felt the criticisms were a tad on the ridiculous side. Only one game-breaking glitch happened, and all it needed was a check-point reload, and a loss of 2 minutes of gameplay. Everything else was Bethesda levels of humorous glitches. And people generally had fun with the game overall. And also those same people enjoyed the entirety of the trilogy, with no lost love over the ending. Disappointing maybe, but didn't shatter any overall enjoyment. My girlfriend enjoyed Andromeda so much she immediately began a second game the night she beat it, and got about half-way through her second playthrough before burning out and moving on. And she's played the trilogy straight through about 4 times since I met her 5 years ago. So it's almost a yearly thing. The ending hasn't stalled that passion at all. And while most people I know are not that in love with the series, I don't personally know anyone who loathes the ending or Andromeda as much as what is depicted in pseudo-journalistic video game articles, or here on random occasions from this community. I remember one person on here expressing the hyperbole that the ending made BioWare the worst developer of the last generation. Which is ridiculous, and I can safely say I only rarely come across opinions even remotely similar to that

[Mr. Carnelian]

I honestly think it's a good game. I would temper my initial score somewhat: some problems are more obvious on a second playthrough (which I'm in the middle of now). But, I'd still give a solid 8/10, personally.

I'm not surprised that there's no sequel in the works right now: I always expected it would be at least a good couple of years till they started making the next one. I WOULD be surprised if this turns out to be the last Mass Effect game. It's one of their flagship franchises at this point, along with Dragon Age. My prediction is that the next Dragon Age will come out in a few years' time, with a new IP either coming out beforehand or within a year or two after, then another Mass Effect a year or two after that.

[Vyk]

...Actually, now that you mention it. BioWare was never really big on doing more than one or two sequels, or loaning a license out for others to do a sequel for them. I guess if there is never another Mass Effect or Dragon Age it's no worse than there not being another Baldur's Gate or ... real KotOR game. Or Jade Empire. Hm.. They should probably make another Jade Empire. That style never gets enough love. And I know plenty of people who absolutely adored that game

[Freya]

Supposedly they're working on a new IP completely? We'll see

[Formalhaut]

They've done medieval/renaissance fantasy and sci-fi fantasy, so obviously it'll be a middle ground modern everyday fantasy.

Looking forward to whatever it is they're doing, though!

[Mr. Carnelian]

They've done medieval/renaissance fantasy and sci-fi fantasy, so obviously it'll be a middle ground modern everyday fantasy.

Looking forward to whatever it is they're doing, though!

They should do steampunk.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

What did they call it when Shepard went into a church and found God?

Mass Effect

What did they call it when Shepard sat down on Joker in his full suit of N7 armor and broke his legs?

Mass Effect

*runs away*

...

What did they call it when Shepard went on a camping trip on Earth, ran into a bear and tried to appear bigger?

Mass Affect

[Night Fury]

Found an easter egg/reference while playing this the other day. Walked into the Med bay and Dr T'perro was talking to Cora about a really hefty human novel that "once you get past all of the food descriptions, is really quite something"

:D

[Night Fury]

Finished this last night, and overall I found the ending so lacklustre and unsatisfying. I was like "oh! THAT was it?!?!"


:(

I'll rank my squaddies too!

1. Drack/Peebee - I liked these two the most and ended up always having these two on missions. Their banter is top notch.
2. Vetra/Cora - I like them about the same. I like Cora a lot more than I thought I would.
4. Jaal - Overall pretty 'meh' about him
5. Liam - He's not that bad he's just very bland compared to the others imo.


I really really hope we get Twin Ryder and Reyes on the ship in the next one (if they make it). I'd also like a romance DLC with a bit more as I really got caught up in the Reyes romance (which was what I went with) but it just got so cold and you can barely interact with him after you finish up with the Kadara storyline. I'd like to see a bit more story DLC for sure but it looks unlikely at this point.

[theundeadhero]

Yeah, its very sad that it isn't looking good for a sequel. It makes all but two or three decisions in the game not mean a thing.