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[Jarmel]

Just watched the video. Sounds to me like the way the achieve this is through the "priming and detonating" mechanic. The way I think it'll work is that one of your abilities primes your target for a combo, which will cue one of your companions to detonate it if they're able. If that is indeed how it'll work, then I don't really get the difference or what people are complaining about. The only difference is that you're not doing in through a menu, which seems like a good thing to me.

Besides, in terms of "tactical-ness", you seem to have a lot more to worry about than in previous games too. There's increased "verticality", and you have your 4 loadouts. Seems like a good replacement for what the powerwheel eventually always turned into, which brings me to my next point.

I don't know about you guys, but by the middle of either ME2 or 3, I had a pretty fixed way as to how I dealt with pretty much every mob or encounter. Andromeda being a much longer game, presumably, with many more encounters, is probably why they chose to get rid of the powerwheel so as to promote encounters feeling more "off-the-cuff" instead of you just executing a very fixed script through menus.

Here's the problem, sometimes on Insanity you don't want your companion to do biotic charge even if it could result in a detonation because it would leave them out in the open. The problem with the AI is that it doesn't move around to optimal locations and so either gets pinned down or rushes into the open, in either case resulting in death.

It seems like you can still control positions through the D-Pad (according to GB) but that doesn't stop the AI from rushing out in a hail of bullets. The other concern is about power cooldowns management, in that if you want the AI to prime a target for the exact moment your cooldowns are over, seems to now be impossible.

 

[Ralemont]

From ApZoneRunner's interview:

But really, it's just by play – that's how we went back – we spent time building those, but each time we had a controller, going through those planets. At the beginning you're excited. ”I can see anything, I can land on anything," for example. Then you go there, but after two or three you're like, okay, there's nothing I remember. Even if you put content in. But there's nothing memorable. That term is important – memorable. I want to be able to tell you something, like ”floating rocks", and you're like ”that's that planet". But building that means you have to craft it.

We heard the players specifically over the recent years saying that meaningless quests don't really interest them any more. We all come from, at Bioware, classic RPGs a long time ago, and doing those quests where you go fetch things in order to craft better stuff. It's a part of it, but the player doesn't really want that any more, and again for the type of game we're making it didn't feel right either.

We wanted to make sure that even a very minor quest has at least – at the very least – a narrative touchstone. You will learn something. A character name, the existence of something.

They are saying all the right things. Hopefully they can pull it off.

I wouldn't call the power wheel tactical, I would describe it more like a crutch that sapped the tension and some of the challenge out of the game. ME3:s multiplayer removed the power wheel, for obvious reasons, and in doing so Bioware were forced to create characters balanced completely around fewer powers accessible at the press of a button in real time, this I think in return led to a more focused, skill based and rewarding experience.

And with that in mind I think the power wheel's removal is completely logical, the game probably played better without it.

I don't mind them removing the Power wheel, but in the Trilogy even on controller you could hotkey squad abilities to use in realtime. That's what I wanted to stay in for priming/detonating combos. If the AI is good then that removes the need for squad hotkeying. DAI's AI is weird because it's very bad at positioning but very good at detonating cross-class combos. So we'll see how this flies on Insanity SP.

 

[Back-In-Black]

People who post negative about DA:I aren't saying that they are part of the majority when they post negative stuff do they? They are just posting their opinion of said game. If people only would post stuff that the majority of a cohort believes; NEOgaf would be a very boring place lol.

They do actually, it's weird.

 

[Mivey]

As someone who played on PC, you didn't really have to pause as much since you could just assign pretty much everything to stuff on the keyboard. Since that won't work on a controller, they will have to reduce stuff a bit. Essentially like in DA:I where you only have 8 abilities per characters you can use. Can work, will reduce the strategic element quite a bit though.

 

[Staf]

They do actually, it's weird.

Ok, i stand corrected then. Haven't seen such posts.

 

[RipperGrim]

I'm liking what I'm hearing, I just hope there are more squad mates to recruit along the way probably my biggest concern considering how the original trilogy was so connected with the squad mates.

 

[Justinian]

What bothers me about all the footage released so far is that facial animation looks robotic and completely unnatural. I can't recall a single instance from recent gameplay where faces looked normal and not jarring.

Even the faces in previous games looked far more natural than what we're seeing here. And they did a pretty good job with Inquisition too. What's going on?

 

[chaislip3]

From ApZoneRunner's interview:
They are saying all the right things. Hopefully they can pull it off.

 

[Tyaren]

Those character models are looking dated. :/ We've seen nicer ones in the last console generation.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Lots of super positive and exciting previews there, sans the performance problems.....hopefully those get sorted out stat!

 

[Heckler456]

Here's the problem, sometimes on Insanity you don't want your companion to do biotic charge even if it could result in a detonation because it would leave them out in the open. The problem with the AI is that it doesn't move around to optimal locations and so either gets pinned down or rushes into the open, in either case resulting in death.

It seems like you can still control positions through the D-Pad (according to GB) but that doesn't stop the AI from rushing out in a hail of bullets. The other concern is about power cooldowns management, in that if you want the AI to prime a target for the exact moment your cooldowns are over, seems to now be impossible.

Like I said previously, Andromeda isn't Mass Effect 3 without a powerwheel. Andromeda never had a powerwheel to begin with. Meaning, they probably gear the insanity difficulty around the mechanics that are actually in the game.

 

[Frostman]

Those character models are looking dated. :/ We've seen nicer ones in the last console generation.

I'm not saying they are incredible, but I do think you have some rose tinted glasses on.

The character models look fine.

 

[obeast]

I also cringe every time people talk about Inquisition in negative terms. Dragon Age: Inquisition was TGA's GOTY, #4 GAF GOTY (after the Nintendo Sweep), GAF's RPG of the Year (beating out "classical" RPG's like Divinity), and has a MC score of 85, I believe. So, either accept the fact that you disliking Inquisition and thinking it was crap is the minority opinion or learn to admit that DAI was actually a good game. It was also a last-gen title and BioWare's first real attempt at open world. I think they've learned a bit since then regarding its flaws.

Yeah, DAI is a game that, for whatever reason (my guess: being followed the next year by TW3, a game that highlighted its faults), is remembered for only its flaws.

The flaws are inarguable and well-documented, but there was a fair bit to like, too. Just off the top of my head:

• Although the main narrative was a bit uninspired, it has arguably the best line-by-line writing and voice acting that I've seen from Bioware in recent memory.
• Least cringe-inducing female characters from the studio to date.
• Their best and most supple incarnation of their choose-your-character-and-personality thing - the game actually paid attention to what class you were, what beliefs you had espoused (devout, atheistic, etc.), and so on.
• Probably the best characters, and character side quests, in the series. As a subset of that, the romantic questlines were easily the most natural and least embarrassing I've seen from modern Bioware, although that's a low bar to clear.
• Although most of the side content is rightly reviled as MMO filler, it has several interesting and original main quests.

 

[Lime]

What bothers me about all the footage released so far is that facial animation looks robotic and completely unnatural. I can't recall a single instance from recent gameplay where faces looked normal and not jarring.

Even the faces in previous games looked far more natural than what we're seeing here. And they did a pretty good job with Inquisition too. What's going on?

Both Vg247 and RPS had concerns about the facial animations and the jankiness of them.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Ouch, gamespot preview said it "Seems like an improved dragon age inquisition" and raised a bunch of concerns.

I'm down with an improved space DA:I.

Then again, most of the other previews say it's not DA:I....so there's that too.

Both Vg247 and RPS had concerns about the facial animations and the jankiness of them.

Eurogamer stated that they'd changed/fixed at least the gun swap animation face, so that's pretty sweet

Hoping the day one patch is massive and fixes lots, bugs aren't good for ME:A at all.

 

[Jarmel]

Like I said previously, Andromeda isn't Mass Effect 3 without a powerwheel. Andromeda never had a powerwheel to begin with. Meaning, they probably gear the insanity difficulty around the mechanics that are actually in the game.

Not sure how they would do that without either significantly buffing the AI companion stats so they can either take a lot of damage (possibly more so than you) or the developers just assume that you're soloing it. The former would make some of the less hectic fights sort of boring as your companions are near invincible and the later would just make the harder fights go on for intolerable durations.

 

[Back-In-Black]

Yeah, DAI is a game that, for whatever reason (my guess: being followed the next year by TW3, a game that highlighted its faults), is remembered for only its flaws.

The flaws are inarguable and well-documented, but there was a fair bit to like, too. Just off the top of my head:

• Although the main narrative was a bit uninspired, it has arguably the best line-by-line writing and voice acting that I've seen from Bioware in recent memory.
• Least cringe-inducing female characters from the studio to date.
• Their best and most supple incarnation of their choose-your-character-and-personality thing - the game actually paid attention to what class you were, what beliefs you had espoused (devout, atheistic, etc.), and so on.
• Probably the best characters, and character side quests, in the series. As a subset of that, the romantic questlines were easily the most natural and least embarrassing I've seen from modern Bioware, although that's a low bar to clear.
• Although the side content is rightly reviled as MMO filler, it has several interesting and original main quests.

Actually, I think the main narrative is pretty great, except for the final battle, in how it's a giant deconstruction of the hero myth as well as a thorough examination into religious faith.

 

[emag]

As with Inquisition, there's no in-campaign character/story/quest DLC in Andromeda, right? Just [largely cosmetic] equipment and possibly future post-game/sidestory (more Alec!) stuff?

I'm replaying ME3 on PC right now after going through ME2 again last week, but I don't have any paid DLC and it's a little disappointing. (And holy moley, ME2 is much better and ME3 much worse than I remember, outside of combat. Last time I played either was at their respective launches.)

I really wish they would have stuck with the ability wheel, that kind of strategizing got me out of sticky situations numerous
Times in mass effect 1

Well, there's an always-on, real-time enemy tracker at the top of the screen, so the power-wheel's radar functionality is largely replicated. That's easily half of my ME trilogy power-wheel usage right there. Hopefully squadmate AI will be smarter, automatically using, e.g., Overload against shields and Incinerate against armor instead of constantly requiring manual direction. And the greater maneuverability granted by the jet-pack could alleviate the need to scope out cover opportunities when under fire.

I'm just hoping Bioware thought all of those elements through.

 

[Ralemont]

APZoneRunner got some good stuff in his interview:

Again, we also don't give exact numbers [of planets] because there's a gating mechanism that's put in place. So depending on what you do, you'll find different things. But there's several of them.

This is very interesting and suggests branching content, possibly based off story decisions.

Actually, I think the main narrative is pretty great, except for the final battle, in how it's a giant deconstruction of the hero myth as well as a thorough examination into religious faith.

Agreed. Inquisition's main story is 100% the most "inspired" of the Dragon Age plots, with DAO being the shallowest. There's a lot more going on and a lot more to discuss and dissect with DAI's main story. And with Trespasser, the ending isn't lame anymore either.

 

[Arrogant Bastard]

Here's the problem, sometimes on Insanity you don't want your companion to do biotic charge even if it could result in a detonation because it would leave them out in the open. The problem with the AI is that it doesn't move around to optimal locations and so either gets pinned down or rushes into the open, in either case resulting in death.

It seems like you can still control positions through the D-Pad (according to GB) but that doesn't stop the AI from rushing out in a hail of bullets. The other concern is about power cooldowns management, in that if you want the AI to prime a target for the exact moment your cooldowns are over, seems to now be impossible.

Yep, this is my main concern. It obviously isn't a big deal on lower difficulties but as soon as you start moving towards Insanity it just doesn't work.

Like I said previously, Andromeda isn't Mass Effect 3 without a powerwheel. Andromeda never had a powerwheel to begin with. Meaning, they probably gear the insanity difficulty around the mechanics that are actually in the game.

Could be, I'll believe it when I see it. Have to wonder how they are going to ramp up the difficulty then.

 

[Heckler456]

Not sure how they would do that without either significantly buffing the AI companion stats so they can either take a lot of damage (possibly more so than you) or the developers just assume that you're soloing it. The former would make some of the less hectic fights sort of boring as your companions are near invincible and the later would just make the harder fights go on for intolerable durations.

Making them invincible while doing the combo? Having their actions be more complex in regard to searching for cover and enabling the combo from cover? I don't know. You just thought of this complaint ten minutes ago. They've been hammering away at this thing for multiple years. I'm not all that worried just yet.

 

[cleveridea]

Greg raving about game on the kinda funny preview

"F*****G awesome"

"left super impressed"

 

[ArmGunar]

APZoneRunner got some good stuff in his interview:


This is very interesting and suggests branching content, possibly based off story decisions.

I would like a medium number :/
3-4 planets, each with DAI size map minimum ?
6-7 ?

 

[Tyaren]

I'm not saying they are incredible, but I do think you have some rose tinted glasses on.

The character models look fine.

Come on, you can't even tell if that low res texture on his face is supposed to be a very strong 5 o'clock shadow or a full beard:

 

[obeast]

Agreed. Inquisition's main story is 100% the most "inspired" of the Dragon Age plots, with DAO being the shallowest. There's a lot more going on and a lot more to discuss and dissect with DAI's main story. And with Trespasser, the ending isn't lame anymore either.

I entirely agree that DA:O has the least interesting main narrative in the series. I think that DA2 may, in fact, have the best, although it's a game that's undermined by a ton of other flaws.

My broad-scale objection to DA:I's narrative was is the scope of it (a continent-sized war), and the way its general structure follows fantasy novel cliches - "chosen hero unites the lands to battle magical bad guy with simplistic motivations, wins." I would have loved for them to keep the smaller scope from DA2 while fixing its myriad flaws.

But as I said, many of the actual "missions" in the main narrative were good and interesting, and I have no complaints about its themes, which were somewhat more sophisticated than the previous games'.

 

[emag]

Agreed. Inquisition's main story is 100% the most "inspired" of the Dragon Age plots, with DAO being the shallowest. There's a lot more going on and a lot more to discuss and dissect with DAI's main story. And with Trespasser, the ending isn't lame anymore either.

Corypheous was exceedingly lame as a villain, and all the scenes that involved him lacked any sort of weight. The background/main story was really good, but I don't feel that the game overall had the right amount of gravitas to make it work. Bioware has never really nailed the inspirational speech/rally in any of their games, but the post-Haven interlude just came across as corny (compare to Fellowship of the Ring).

 

[dEvAnGeL]

Those character models are looking dated. :/ We've seen nicer ones in the last console generation.

Talk about fake news

 

[Heckler456]

Come on, you can't even tell if that low res texture on his face is supposed to be a very strong 5 o'clock shadow or a full beard:

I'm able to tell. It's supposed to be the former.

Seems like you're unable to tell that that isn't a "low res texture" though.

 

[Rellik]

Here's the problem, sometimes on Insanity you don't want your companion to do biotic charge even if it could result in a detonation because it would leave them out in the open. The problem with the AI is that it doesn't move around to optimal locations and so either gets pinned down or rushes into the open, in either case resulting in death.

It seems like you can still control positions through the D-Pad (according to GB) but that doesn't stop the AI from rushing out in a hail of bullets. The other concern is about power cooldowns management, in that if you want the AI to prime a target for the exact moment your cooldowns are over, seems to now be impossible.

Yeah, if you play these games on easy then I can see it being no problem because you can just run around like a headless chicken and never die. But as soon as you step up the difficulty, there was a lot more man management involved in the previous trilogy. I also needed to pause and assess the situation a whole lot more on Insanity, and force the AI to use what I need to get me out of a rough situation.

The AI better decent in this one.

Come on, you can't even tell if that low res texture on his face is supposed to be a very strong 5 o'clock shadow or a full beard:

I think you may need to get your eyes checked.

 

[Vengal]

Corypheous was exceedingly lame as a villain, and all the scenes that involved him lacked any sort of weight. The background/main story was really good, but I don't feel that the game overall had the right amount of gravitas to make it work. Bioware has never really nailed the inspirational speech/rally in any of their games, but the post-Haven interlude just came across as corny (compare to Fellowship of the Ring).

It was abit strange being part of a literal fanatical order with Liliana as your spymaster. Someone I had strong reservations about in DAO. These games have more interesting back story then the main plots. Atleast Trespasser brought some of that to light just sorta wish the Coryphrous stuff was like dealt with at the end of act 2 as opposed to the culmination of the original game. I have several friends that never buy dlc and they really missed out on a much better cap to that game.

 

[Tyaren]

I'm able to tell. It's supposed to be the former.

I think it is actually supposed to be a beard. I think I can make out some hair texture.
But that is the point. If I have to guess, that's not a sign of a great character model, is it?

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Corypheous was exceedingly lame as a villain, and all the scenes that involved him lacked any sort of weight. The background/main story was really good, but I don't feel that the game overall had the right amount of gravitas to make it work. Bioware has never really nailed the inspirational speech/rally in any of their games, but the post-Haven interlude just came across as corny (compare to Fellowship of the Ring).

Yeah, not to sidetrack too much, but I thought DA:I's overall plot wasn't much better or interesting than Origins really. Origins at least had the benefit of being the first game in the series in terms of introducing all the world's lore. But with how completely wasted Corypheus was as a villain, despite his cool backstory, what he was functionally doing in the game just ended up with him being a big bad monster to kill just like the Archdemon in Origins.

Now, some of the lore ramifications of stuff involving Morrigan/Flemeth and Solas in the Trespasser DLC remain very interesting and set stuff up for the future potentially. But within the base game itself, the main plot only really got intriguing with some of the Morrigan related stuff and the end credits scene. Everything else is pretty standard BioWare Chosen One/Save the World from Ancient Evil stuff. Which I don't have any great objection to really when its done well. I just think Inquisition really dropped the ball there as Corypheus could have been so much more interesting based on his cool backstory.

 

[Heckler456]

I think it is actually supposed to be a beard. I think I can make out some hair texture.
But that is the point. If I have to guess, that's not a sign of a great character model, is it?

They were able to do modeled beards in Inquisition. I don't know why you would think that they are suddenly unable to give a beard some actual relief.

It's a stubble. And you can quite easily see individual hairs, which is what I mean by the fact that it's not "low-res".

 

[Sora the Cat]

For those doubting the graphics, watch the last gameplay video they released at 60fps. Game looks good, relax. Clearly not comparable to last gen...

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Come on, you can't even tell if that low res texture on his face is supposed to be a very strong 5 o'clock shadow or a full beard:

It's quite clearly the former, unless I need my eyes checked.

Also, seems like a pretty high res texture to me - not the best, but not low res.

 

[BumRush]

Come on, you can't even tell if that low res texture on his face is supposed to be a very strong 5 o'clock shadow or a full beard:

Definitely a 5:00 shadow...

 

[Dabi]

Looks pretty noiceeee

 

[Tyaren]

I give up. So, a character model with a flat texture for a stubble/beard/whatever is not dated at all, alright. I'm going to get my eyes checked.

By the way, zoomed out it looks like a full on beard, not just like 5 o'clock shadow:

 

[Tony Redgrave]

I think it is actually supposed to be a beard. I think I can make out some hair texture.
But that is the point. If I have to guess, that's not a sign of a great character model, is it?

Man, it's obviously not supossed to be a beard. The texture isn't the sharpest though, that's true.

Anyways, the character models look nice and other assets like spaceships etc. look insanely good.

 

[adj_noun]

Too much Mass Effect goodness today. I feel spoiled.

All that's missing is an Andromeda Initiative drop. Wonder when we'll get #5.

 

[Sora the Cat]

I give up. So, a character model with a flat texture for a stubble/beard/whatever is not dated at all, alright. I'm going to get my eyes checked.

By the way, zoomed out it looks like a full on beard, not just like 5 o'clock shadow:

https://abload.de/img/mea_february-47kiu8q.jpg[/IMG+][/QUOTE]

I don't even know what you are trying to demostrate here anymore.

The game looks on par with other games released this gen, as a whole product.

 

[Woorloog]

I wouldn't call the power wheel tactical, I would describe it more like a crutch that sapped the tension and some of the challenge out of the game.

If it is a crutch, it is because the squad mate AI is fucking braindead. Gimme competent AI that does exactly what i want when i want and i'll have no problem not having control over them. Until then, let me do things.

 

[Zakalwe]

Yeah, DAI is a game that, for whatever reason (my guess: being followed the next year by TW3, a game that highlighted its faults), is remembered for only its flaws.

The flaws are inarguable and well-documented, but there was a fair bit to like, too. Just off the top of my head:

• Although the main narrative was a bit uninspired, it has arguably the best line-by-line writing and voice acting that I've seen from Bioware in recent memory.
• Least cringe-inducing female characters from the studio to date.
• Their best and most supple incarnation of their choose-your-character-and-personality thing - the game actually paid attention to what class you were, what beliefs you had espoused (devout, atheistic, etc.), and so on.
• Probably the best characters, and character side quests, in the series. As a subset of that, the romantic questlines were easily the most natural and least embarrassing I've seen from modern Bioware, although that's a low bar to clear.
• Although most of the side content is rightly reviled as MMO filler, it has several interesting and original main quests.

I could easily disagree with a lot of what you've written here, especially the parts about best characters and line-by-line writing.

I thought the characters were mostly bland (even Varric lost his spark), and the writing was overly sentimental and earnest (even more so than usual from Bioware). I also don't think there's any real step forward in their presentation of female characters. Mass Effect 1-3 and Dragon Age 1-2 seem pretty much on par here. I'd need more specific details to consider this, but from memory I don't think it fits.

I've tried multiple times to get into this game. Lat attempt got me a few hours further than the half-dozen before, but it always ends the same way: one day I just lose interest and don't log in, and then logging in feels like a chore.

Sure, DA:I might have technical merits, and it's by no means a terrible game and in many ways an above average one, but it's never truly great imo. It just feels by the numbers in almost every regard.

 

[BumRush]

I give up. So, a character model with a flat texture for a stubble/beard/whatever is not dated at all, alright. I'm going to get my eyes checked.

By the way, zoomed out it looks like a full on beard, not just like 5 o'clock shadow:

What are you trying to prove here? If you've watched all of the released footage, everything (outside of some facial models, mainly default Ryders) looks incredible.

 

[Omega Kirby]

PC gamers preview got me pumped. I love how much more fluid and smooth the combat is, with a bigger focus on mobility then the stagnant cover shooter the first three Mass Effect gameplays were

Also love that resource gathering and exploration as a focus is back. I can't wait to immerse myself in a new galaxy

 

[CGwizz]

Not that i care or anything but people defending that beard? It looks horrible, still not dragon age inquisition levels of horrible, there is a reason i never put beard on my Bioware characters. Also sometimes the character look ok other times they look horrible . the expressions look so bad.

last gen:

Not much of improvement to be honest like we see in other IPs, this engine did no wonders to this franchise.

 

[Sora the Cat]

Not that i care or anything but people defending that beard? It looks horrible, still not dragon age inquisition levels of horrible, there is a reason i never put beard on my Bioware characters. Also sometimes the character look ok other times they look horrible . the expressions look so bad.

last gen:

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffect/images/9/90/Javik_face_charbox_shot.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20131002122707[/IMG+]

[IMG]http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/masseffect/images/7/7e/Samara_Character_Shot.png/revision/20100419164221[/IMG+]


Not much of improvement to be honest like we see in other IPs, this engine did no wonders to this franchise.[/QUOTE]

I'm saying that the game as a whole looks graphically on par with other AAA titles release this gen, sometimes you have to sacrifice some stuff to achieve good performance, and I think it's a very naive thing to judge a game by a beard texture, when it looks amazing on every video released.

And no, it looks miles better than anything from last gen, go back and launch the game on your 360...

 

[Heckler456]

Not that i care or anything but people defending that beard? It looks horrible, still not dragon age inquisition levels of horrible, there is a reason i never put beard on my Bioware characters. Also sometimes the character look ok other times they look horrible . the expressions look so bad.

last gen:

Not much of improvement to be honest like we see in other IPs, this engine did no wonders to this franchise.

 

[Frostman]

I give up. So, a character model with a flat texture for a stubble/beard/whatever is not dated at all, alright. I'm going to get my eyes checked.

By the way, zoomed out it looks like a full on beard, not just like 5 o'clock shadow:

You've still failed to prove your point, they look fine.

Now to finish up, post a character model from last generation that looked better.

 

[GasProblem]

Wonder when were going to get console impressions. I'm hoping for a stable 30 fps on the PS4.