Apparently there are more sexist gamers throwing hissy fits about females being on the animation team.
Mass Effect 4
-
-
I'm a bit letdown by the low scores. General opinion seems to be it is a good game, but nowhere as good as the original trilogy.
Good thing is this will make easier to wait until I can get a copy of the game.
-
I think it's funny that this thread is just all of a sudden bumped when review scores come out and nobody was talking about any of the footage released the last couple weeks.
-
I think it's funny that this thread is just all of a sudden bumped when review scores come out and nobody was talking about any of the footage released the last couple weeks.
I was discussing it just not here :-x apforums gaming section just has considerably slowed down so it's not the first place I go for gaming discussion. I still try to post but it's definitely become less appealing giving the slow pace.
-
As for me, I was trying to not get too spoiled, so I didn't watch any of the recent trailers/footage.
Good thing that I ended up seeing all the crew members before playing the game. I would probably be disappointed waiting the whole thing to get a member from the secondary races only to find out that, nope, only the same races as always and an extra new one.
-
I think it's funny that this thread is just all of a sudden bumped when review scores come out and nobody was talking about any of the footage released the last couple weeks.
I've been a little distracted by all the Fire Emblem stuff.
That, and ME isn't my favorite Bioware series anyway.
-
Dammit ME. The online requires PS+ to play? I have it on one of my accounts so I can play it, but its not the one tied to my EA account… and it also means I can't hook up with my friends list.
Aarrgh. I just wanted to do the multiplayer after work for like half an hour, not deal with this nonsense.
I think it's funny that this thread is just all of a sudden bumped when review scores come out and nobody was talking about any of the footage released the last couple weeks.
I didn't pay any attention to the trailers because I was getting it, and didn't need to be sold on it or spoiled any. I have inherant faith that I'll enjoy a bioware game, regardless of reviews. I liked DA2!
And given that the game is out now, it's time to talk about it! Though I won't be playing the story until I beat Horizon, so it could be a while.
-
I'm currently waitingfor my copy to be delievered, going in with low expectations after seeing all the animation issues and what not. DAI wasn't much different when it came out, took 6 months of patches to get it to where it should of been and unfortunately Andromeda is looking no different. They already confirmed that the animation won't be fixed any time soon. Maybe in a month or two but I shall still play the crap out of it like I did with DAI. I had the 360 version of it which was utter horse shit in every way, worst port Ive ever seen yet still enjoyed it.
-
Been playing it for a… while... now. :v Love it so far. I get a real scifi-explorer feel out of it. Especially in one instance,
! that underground Remnant facility. Holy poop, when you get out to that open city-scape was the greatest!! O_O
-
Damn it … i got hooked into the Multiplayer although i wanted to play the story first ...
I barely touched it in ME3, never knew how much fun it is.
Playing a Vanguard is so damn satisfying. I think i'll reskill my Ryder and start charging into everything.
But what annoys me is that i need to find all class cards to get all the skill points ... i started playing a Human Male Vanguard and i only get the female upgrades. -_- -
Yeah, the multiplayer is great. But don't be afraid to play both characters in a class, you can level up their skill trees in opposite directions and see what you like best. Vanguards especially get some variety between the teleport and Nova. You can do a build that recharges shields all the time, or a build that eventually spams free novas and charges for massive damage. And that way you can see what you like before you inevitably respec a character.
Just keep unlocking those common chests until you get a Krogan vanguard, then you're really cooking. Way better defenses on those guys.
Won't be starting on the story till I beat Horizon. And on my schedule that… could be a while.
-
I'm actually waiting for the Krogan Vanguard to pop up, but so far no luck. I guess i'll give the Salarian Infiltrator a try, got him 3 times already.
Right now i'm playing the shield regenerating melee-build and i'm barely using my shotgun. Although i wonder how effective it will be once i try gold …
Testing another build is a good idea. But the time ... :/ Just don't have enough.
Maybe after i tried a few of the other classes. -
Naw, you can just play Vanguard. It's the best. Try out the other stuff once you get bored. It's good to have a couple high level things built up for when you want to atually complete missions… but its nice to have the trees branched in variety. I know back in ME3 I had a lot of fun having both a super tanky vanguard and a super explodey one.
I'm really dissapointed we don't have the N7 Grenadier this time around, that was like my favorite class.
-
I've finally managed to get through the main story line and I'll stand by my initial impression of the game being great!
As far as the story go, hm, hard to say much about it without being too spoilery… But let me just say that it felt pretty, hm, unobtrusive? Dunno if that's the right word for it.
But it contrasts to, say, ME3s storyline which I pretty much had to ignore for it to make any good damn sense that Shepard should be doing all these side quests.
It felt more like the main quest helped to introduce you to the new environment of Heleus Cluster and perhaps the ME:A series as a whole.There were some negatives of course. I heard all the ado about the animation and I guess it was a little wonky at times but honestly it didn't take me out of the game for single moment. Maybe I'm more tolerant about it than most? @@?
My biggest problem, eh, annoyance, was probably the eyes. Like, everyone in the entire game(minus aliens), had these wide giant eyes constantly staring at me. You know that thing they do in animated stuff where the character are in a cave and the only thing you can see is the eyes? It was literally like that at times when my character were wearing her helmet. --'I also wasn't that happy with the character generator. The template characters had just a tad much, eh, character to them. Which would be fine, or good even, if it weren't for the fact that the generator is pretty limited so you are pretty much stuck with the templates.
But, in the end I managed to make a character I was satisfied with so I shouldn't complain. All I'll say is that it isn't as good as the one in DA:O.
Oh, right, here's a picture of my character.
[hide]
Man, the scars suck though.e_e[/hide]
Any one else managed to make one they like? :) -
Trying some multiplayer and just bough my first 50k pack… Got the ultra rare I wanted first try. @_@ It must be true what they say, if you ain't got skill you better have luck. :v
-
Loving this so far.. glad the patch has helped the rendering already. Thoughts/opinions?
-
Loving this so far.. glad the patch has helped the rendering already. Thoughts/opinions?
I really liked that they made the eyes a bit darker. The glow in the dark eyes were probably my biggest issue with the game actually, hahaha. -_-' If they also could make the characters less wide-eyed the entire time that'd be neat too. :v
-
FINALLY got my copy! For someone who was hoping to play this game day 1, that was a hell of a wait.
-
Almost 2 months later and what a difference.
When I first played Mass Effect, I had a certain prejudice against futuristic stories filled with aliens of many species. Back then, I tried watching Star Wars once (Attack of the clones) and I dropped it in the first 10 minutes. But the original trilogy was on sale for less than a single game usually costs, so I thought "why not?".
I instantly fell in love with it. And I mean it. The very first scene, with Shepard looking through the window, and I knew I was going to love every minute of it. I devoured the original trilogy, spending every free minute I had with it. I was in love with the plot, with the characters, with my Shepard… I can't even create different Shepard for replays, I always have to use Elena because she is the only Shepard there is to me (my - then - boyfriend often teased saying he was jealous of her).I was so hyped I bought a PS4 3 years ago just so I could play the fourth game once it came out. Now, two months into Andromeda and... well... I don't think I even got to the middle point of the game. And it's not like Pokémon Sun/Moon, when I was moving extremely slowly through the game because I wanted to experience everything available there. I am moving at such a slow pace because I am hardly playing it at all. I can't even blame my high expectations because the game was so badly received by the public, I wasn't really expecting anything from it once I finally got it. It is not bad, mind you, it's just... soulless, I guess. As hard as I try getting invested with Ryder and the Tempest crew, it is just not working.
-
I haven't touched it yet because I'm still busy with Horizon for another couple weeks at least. I'll be done with that soon and then diving in. I've just been grinding in the multiplayer mode off and on.
I still have plenty of faith in Bioware, I've even liked their lesser liked games like DA2, and was fine with the ending of ME3.
-
I finally beat it ilast night!
Thoroughly enjoyed the game amd characters. My only real issue was the large bouts of time where the Tempest crew didn't have new dialogue/ locations.
Yeah I had some glitches and graphical issues that were frustrating but it never got to the point where the game was "ruined forever ". Especially after the patches we got.
-
http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428
Amazing post mortem of the game. Is incredible how a small project for study and a multimillion dollar monster can have the same kind of issues. (Even with the evil allure of procedural generation)
-
The Mako wasn't the only issue with the first game you also had a janky framerate and a somewhat boring combat system where they gave you unlimited ammo.
-
The framerate is a tech issue, not a design issue. It's a symtom, but an easily fixable mistake.
Don't remember the battles very much (just the damn labs being always the same), but reducing it as "it has infinite ammo" is like completely sidesteping any analysis at all. Is resource management meaningful in a space opera post scarcity game? Is it about realism? Is it about combat stages? about tactics? about enemy variety? about biotics being poorly integrated with combat?
-
The framerate is a tech issue, not a design issue. It's a symtom, but an easily fixable mistake.
Don't remember the battles very much (just the damn labs being always the same), but reducing it as "it has infinite ammo" is like completely sidesteping any analysis at all. Is resource management meaningful in a space opera post scarcity game? Is it about realism? Is it about combat stages? about tactics? about enemy variety? about biotics being poorly integrated with combat?
Why analyze it when you apparently just did it anyway?
That and I really didn't have.any of other pet peeves with the game….besides the graininess of the visuals
-
Finally finished Mass Effect Andromeda. I've been playing the multiplayer off and on since launch, but didn't really start the story mode till about two months ago, since I wanted to finish Horizon first and whatnot.
Overall, the weakest of the bioware games I've played. The story was dull and straightforward, and the characters weren't as strong as usual, (I loved Drack though. Of course I loved the Krogan. He never once left my party) though the combat was pretty good. I liked being able to change up my role for variety's sake near the end, though it did make me wish I had invested in some powers sooner than later.
Overall, Not a bad game, but not nearly as good and engrossing as past outings either. (And I'm one of the people that actually liked Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 warts and all)
! My main complaint? It was atrocious when it came to dozens of load screens and having to switch between ship and planet and section over and over. In the course of the game I probably spent a couple hours on load screens. That was always an issue in the old games, and why I never bothered going to the captain's quarters, but come on. You guys should have this figured out by now.
When you have a fetch quest that sends you across the entire galaxy, onto a planet that you have to go through multiple load creens to get to, run across a city so you can open a gate through another loading screen all so you can get some POPCORN,… the damn hero of the universe shouldn't be going on mission to find little things. You can delegate for that nonsense.
! At that point you've probably gone too far in the name of "open world gaming." (And then its a subquest that never ends for very little payoffl.) Yes, you're supposed to get it while you're out and about and doing other things, but late game after you've cleared stuff out already that's no really how it works. The worst were the multi-tiered subquest that stretch across the entire game and multiple planets, like scanning for rocks and plants, or assembling a movie theater, that have very very little payoff. 200 credits for hours of fetch quests! Thanks! A really short cinema after building up this group event the whole game!
! What really sucks is previous games have had DLC to flesh things out or give extra life and depth to the characters but... this one isn't getting that... nor is it likely to get a sequel any time soon.
! Also screw Kadara, the other four planets let you touch down on the planet and don't require a hub port. It's the only one that forces you through loading screeens to get to a hub city first... which then requires more load screens, and then a quick jaunt past a small bit of map... for MORE load screens. And THEN you can fast travel to where you need to go. ANd you have dozens of missions there. Did no one play test that planet? That'd be fine if you only had to do that once or before you gained the respect of the colony, but after that?
! Related- Why do you even have a video conference room on the ship if you have to run back to planets to have face to face conversations instead of just telling clients you did a thing? That applies to you allies! Why do I have to run across the galaxy to have a two sentence conversation with you in a particular spot when we're ON the same ship?
! Related to related- Screw you teammates who insist on hanging out in the back of the ship on the bottom floor.
! I think the main issue is the other games were multilayered with loooots of different main plots and factions and points of view... this was mostly just... the Angara versus the Kett. Only the two new races and a very black and white conflict. Very little middle ground. Compared to the "both sides have a point" conflict of the Geth and Quarians, or the Salarians and the Krogans, or just the existence of Volus and Elcor... it was a much more nuanced world. ANd over in dragon age theres dozens of things going in any given game. Mages versus templars, everything going on with all the different races, Flemeth, Morrigan, ancient ones, dragons, the actual bad guys of the plot, etc.
! Not to mention each planet following an identical template. "Track down three monoliths. DO a Sudoku puzzle. Then go down into the remnant facility and restart the planet." WHich was great and interesting on the first planet and they clearly put effort into that. It was a huge fortress and an ordeal to make work... and then on the next five locations it was just a couple screens and made completely routine and repetitive. By the final planet I wasn't even bothering with side quests because I knew the vault, starting a colony, and the efforts of starting a colony would get me to 70% on the planet and I could cleanup with just a couple missions then.
Here it was just one straight plot... and with aless interesting crew. If I didn't have Drack I wouldn't have cared about anyone. I liked Peebee and Vetra okay but.... while usually the games have 8-10 party members and I like almost all of them.
! And I can't believe they didn't fix the "you can't travel around the main space station quickly" problem from the last game. Same load screen nonsense if you want to get anywhere on the station. WHy do I have to take a train and a loadscreen to get anywhere... and then have to take that SAME train and loadscreen so I can walk back to my ship? Why can't I just skip to my ship at any time? Just... things wasting my time.TL;DR- I'm just waiting for the Horizon DLC now so I can go back to that.
-
What really sucks is previous games have had DLC to flesh things out or give extra life and depth to the characters but… this one isn't getting that... nor is it likely to get a sequel any time soon.
Or ever at all
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dragon-age-mass-effect-veteran-mike-laidlaw-leaves/1100-6454030/ -
Or ever at all
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dragon-age-mass-effect-veteran-mike-laidlaw-leaves/1100-6454030/The franchise has made too much money for them to not give it another shot eventually. But it'll probably be lower budget, reuse a lot of assets, probably not be a direct sequel, and not be for a while. Not for at least five years. ANd it will probably be a "reboot/remastering" and go back to Shepard and retell the original game/trilogy.
And without one of its head guys it'll obviously be different. But they'll certainly do another one eventually.
I'm sure if they really wanted they could pull a Final Fantasy X-2 and do a new game almost entirely from existing assets and get away with it.
The game wasn't awful, it just… wasn't as good as Bioware usually does.
-
The franchise has made too much money for them to not give it another shot eventually. But it'll probably be lower budget, reuse a lot of assets, probably not be a direct sequel, and not be for a while. Not for at least five years. ANd it will probably be a "reboot/remastering" and go back to Shepard and retell the original game/trilogy.
Guess we shouldn't hope they'll have figured out how to do animations that don't look janky as fuck.
I'm sure if they really wanted they could pull a Final Fantasy X-2 and do a new game almost entirely from existing assets and get away with it.
.
I like to see that just to see all the butthurt snowflakes whining about things like an all female playable cast and a more lighthearted story with some idol esque moments thrown it.
-
Guess we shouldn't hope they'll have figured out how to do animations that don't look janky as fuck.
Bioware knows how to do animations just fine. As recently as Dragon Age 3, on the previous generation of hardware, things looked fine.
It's obvious something went wrong in the coding on this one that fucked things up at the end and EA just didn't give them time to go back over it. (ANd there's thousands of things that can go wrong with unexpected results.) They were able to do a massive improvement broad strokes pass over the animations within like 2 weeks, and that by itself fixed a lot of things, so it wasn't a lack of capability.
It's pretty well documented at this point EA thought they'd get an 85 metacritic regardless and that was "good enough" and didn't care if the game needed another six months or a year even after a troubled development. They were surprised when it got a 70, which should have actually been an obvious result if they'd really looked at where it was.
-
Overall, Not a bad game, but not nearly as good and engrossing as past outings either. (And I'm one of the people that actually liked Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 warts and all)
I thought the general opinion of ME3 was that it was really good but had a SHIT ending which kind of ruined it.
It's pretty well documented at this point EA thought they'd get an 85 metacritic regardless and that was "good enough" and didn't care if the game needed another six months or a year even after a troubled development. They were surprised when it got a 70, which should have actually been an obvious result if they'd really looked at where it was.
Times like this brings the question: how much of it is EA's fault, or Bioware's?
-
I thought the general opinion of ME3 was that it was really good but had a SHIT ending which kind of ruined it.
No one ever talks about anything BUT the ending, the other 99% of the game is ignored.
But after they did the initial free patch, and the dlc to add big final party stuff, the endings is really solid at this point I think.
Times like this brings the question: how much of it is EA's fault, or Bioware's?
Their track record, including non bioware franchises, mostly indicates its EA forcing deadlines. It's certainly why Dragon Age 2 suffered, since it was made in only like 18 months or something crazy like that. But even the folks at Bioware are only human so yeah, they can mess up too.
Given DA:I was pushed back several times and came out Game of the Year, they clearly still have it. THe troubled production history on ME:A is pretty well chronicled at this point, given they basically lost their first year of deveopment to trying to make No Man's Sky, they really probably needed more time once they knew that wasn't going to work out.
-
Wasn't one of the reasons that some other Bioware Unit worked on Andromeda while the main one was working on their new title that is supposed to become one of their flagship franchises? Forgot was it is called ….
I still have to continue Andromeda. I think i played about 15 hours but it did not really grip me. The point Robby mentioned about the time you spent while travelling to other planets is definitely a valid point and it is really annoying.
Aside from that ... i think i prefer the more straightforward maps from the earlier titles to the open world. I wasn't motivated to drive several minutes through a boring ice planet just to kill some guys, collect stuff and return.
It's a shame since the gameplay is really fun and the reason i spent like 3 times more hours with the multiplayer.
I don't know if i will finish this game ... i probably won't have much time with Horizon on the list and the always occupying Overwatch and it's sad when i think about how much i love the franchise and how often i finished ME 1-3. -
I don't know if i will finish this game … i probably won't have much time with Horizon on the list and the always occupying Overwatch and it's sad when i think about how much i love the franchise and how often i finished ME 1-3.
Having done nearly everything, I'd suggest just mainlining the story quests, activating the planetary vaults, and the loyalty missions. (And anything that catches your interest.) Those have all the variety and effort and unique locations put into them, and you can probably do it all pretty quickly… and you won't be horiffically overleveled at the end and won't have seen everything a dozen times already.
Fight at least one giant worm though, that's an event.
It was absolutely making it open world that wrecked it. If they'd just had a guided narrative with X ammount of content like previous games it would have probably been pretty solid... but having giant maps for the sake of giant maps and cutting and pasting repetitive content and fetch quests is never good... I don't know why so many franchises insist on open world when they don't have the resources to do them right.
Beyond that, Horizon is the much stronger package. I platinumed that and can't wait to get back to the DLC in a couple weeks.
-
I played up to almost completing the frozen planet and just gave up. The game isn't even terrible, it's just boring. The original trilogy had some of the best characters in any game I've ever played and here I can't find myself to give a fuck about even one. Add to that the super dull homogenized class system, the endless loading screens, the supposed open world but not really open world since it's mostly just scanning rocks, the awful dialogue…I rarely drop a game but this game is too long for too little reward.
-
Big sale on Bioware merchandise for those interested.
-
Commander of the Grey t-shirt is tempting, but I think I'll pass.
-
Whenever i read about Mass Effect these days i just get sad …
I just hope Dragon Age won't suffer a similar fate.
-
Considering what a nice package they made after everyone bitched about DA2, I would hope they would make sure to not make another bad one now that ME is being bitched about.
I'm all for them taking plenty of time if it means a better game.
-
Considering what a nice package they made after everyone bitched about DA2, I would hope they would make sure to not make another bad one now that ME is being bitched about.
I'm all for them taking plenty of time if it means a better game.
Sure but you'd think after the backlash to ME3 they'd be careful to make sure its follow up was solid too and well…
I just hope the next DA game closes out the story thread and doesn't one again drop a giant sequel hook at the end. (As is, 2 setup for a major mage/templar war... and that ended up only being a minor subplot in 3 compared to the DLC villain and a previously completely unseen mechanic. I'll be really annoyed if the major payoff to 3 with SPOILER as big bad trying to destroy the world isn't focused on as a major thread.
-
Commander of the Grey t-shit is tempting, but I think I'll pass.
Freudian Slip.
Considering what a nice package they made after everyone bitched about DA2, I would hope they would make sure to not make another bad one now that ME is being bitched about.
I'm all for them taking plenty of time if it means a better game.
That's provided EA is willing to give them time to get all their ducks in a row.
-
Sure but you'd think after the backlash to ME3 they'd be careful to make sure its follow up was solid too and well…
I just hope the next DA game closes out the story thread and doesn't one again drop a giant sequel hook at the end. (As is, 2 setup for a major mage/templar war... and that ended up only being a minor subplot in 3 compared to the DLC villain and a previously completely unseen mechanic. I'll be really annoyed if the major payoff to 3 with SPOILER as big bad trying to destroy the world isn't focused on as a major thread.
With 2, it was originally planned to be focused on in an expansion like Awakening, but plans for that fell through.
-
I don't see any possible way to have properly dealt with a full blown mage/templar war in just a single expansion.
Not without completely shortchanging it like 3 did where it just sort of ended up being a single sidequest that didn't weigh on anything else.
I really really hope whenever 4 comes around they don't shortchange the Solas plot… especially after making that the entire focus of the final DLC of 3.
-
I don't see any possible way to have properly dealt with a full blown mage/templar war in just a single expansion.
Not without completely shortchanging it like 3 did where it just sort of ended up being a single sidequest that didn't weigh on anything else.
I really really hope whenever 4 comes around they don't shortchange the Solas plot… especially after making that the entire focus of the final DLC of 3.
If it comes Robby.
Let's face it if Anthem tanks then Bioware is gonna be axed by EA.
-
If it comes Robby.
Let's face it if Anthem tanks then Bioware is gonna be axed by EA.
Dragon Age is too successful a property to die out entirely. Even if they don't do anymore games, there's still a market for novels and comics and such.
-
DA:I was a huge success, even DA2 sold well for all the reviews weren't as good. EA would not be making a good decision to axe Bioware before letting them finish another DA game.
-
Pretty sure the new DA's deep enough into development though Anthem's apparently made it so they've had to focus more resources on that. No idea what the future for ME is.
-
It would be unfair for one bad game to seal ME's fate. Which I know the business world isn't fair, but one can hope.
-
It would be unfair for one bad game to seal ME's fate. Which I know the business world isn't fair, but one can hope.
Not so much a bad game so much as a divisive game following an equally divisive game.
-
It would be unfair for one bad game to seal ME's fate. Which I know the business world isn't fair, but one can hope.
For all that I was okay with ME3 because it did really well with all the plot and character stuff that wasn't the ending, general consensus was that the ending ruined the game and the franchise…. and MEA was probably the worst Bioware game I've played. It was okay but it was not anything I'm ever going back to... and had it not been for the multiplayer I would have felt super cheated for having bought it out the gate. (And now I hae Warframe which does that but waaay better.)
Basically ME has had two bad games in a row both with significant critical backlash. (Had they given Andromeda another 2 or 3 months of development time to do the stuff they ultimately patched in anyway it might have been better recieved... but even without the graphics flaws the actual story and characters were suuuuper weak.)
ME is basically dead at this point It'll be at least another 5 years before they try it again. No one knows what Anthem is going to do or even anything about it yet.
But I do think we're guaranteed at least one more DA game.