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Early impressions from RPS for ME:A. It's... not good

ironcreed

Banned
Still you are using something isn't strictly from the game as made by Bioware. It is creating a misunderstanding.

Well, I apologize. The glitches are still indeed from the game and that is all I was illustrating. My point was that BioWare jank goes with the territory and that I am fully prepared for and am okay with that.
 

Kumquat

Member
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I tend to live my human life the way we human beings do: eating, defecating, saying human things. Not a lot of infiltrating the organics' society by wearing a disgusting meat suit.

Dead
 

Izuna

Banned
These impressions... I knew not to get excited.

ME3 Ending being allowed is the largest sign you need that this franchise ain't what it used to be, and since they never denounced it officially...
 
Walker writes an article about Mass Effect and gives examples (sometimes multiple) to support his criticism and you guys point to three word quotes from his other reviews and call it clickbait. Hilarious.
 

Gestault

Member
So the same website goes from "it's good!" to "it's bad!"?

Reading more about the guy who wrote the bad impressions on RPS, it seems like he's known to be harsh on a lot of praised games...take it as you will.

Well whatever, the early access will be telling enough to everybody.

We need to solve the mystery of different writers having different opinions.
 
Guess we gotta resort to ad hominem to discredit the writer though, because rebutting his points is too hard.

...except most of us don't really care about the stance of the preview. The preview is valid, as far as I'm concerned; every writer is entitled to an opinion, and even more so when I haven't played the game and have not had the opportunity to form one. The reason so many of us are critical of this thread is because it exists for the purpose of pushing the impression of a single outlet when so many others have provided previews already. Coincidence that it just so happens to be the one overtly negative preview, huh?
 

Griss

Member
An RPG where your character isn't special or "the one", would be terribly boring. And when important events happen without your input or involvement because of how unimportant you are, you'd question why you would even invest in a fictional world where your purpose in that world mirrors the mundaneness of your ordinary everyday life. I've read those fantasy and sci-fi novels where you follow a bit character during an interesting period of time, and it's generally not rewarding at all.

Nah, look at the Witcher. Yes, Geralt is a special character in the world (as a mutant monster slayer) but he's just one guy and people don't fawn all over him at every opportunity - he's often treated like shit and he's typically a pawn when he gets involved politics. Despite that, through the player's action he overcomes all that to become a very crucial (the most crucial?) person in the game world.

And he earns it, it's not given to him. If you had been playing as Ciri, who very much IS that 'Special Chosen One' type character, the game would have been nowhere as interesting.
 

Kumquat

Member
I like to be fully transparent when I describe things so people don't come back and say I misled them. I haven't done many sidequests personally. I stated that from several reviewers I've spoken to that are deep in the game, more than myself, sidequests come into their own later and some have multiple quest lines that can span multiple areas/planets.

I also described a few side activities on the very first prologue planet that *felt* more fleshed out to me as opposed to DAI's fetch quests because they actually had narration by the characters and you learn/investigate some interesting things that provide neat info vs "Collect 10 ram hides for the soldier" in DAI for example.

Some more examples: I've also been going through a Turian murder mystery on the Nexus that spanned multiple conversations with the Nexus director, then a witness, the suspect's wife, etc and that's now asking me to go to Eos to find and investigate the remains.

Also been following up leads on someone sabotaging electrical grids on the Nexus and now I have to find out what's going on and why.

These things feel more compelling to me than a lot of the junk in DAI lol.

There's still the "tasks" that are simpler in nature. One injured soldier asked if I could place a pendant next to where he lost his brother on a planet, but even that felt more fleshed out than DAI 'sidequests' because he talked a bit about how close he was to his brother. I'm enjoying them personally.

So I can only speak for myself. Hope that helps :)

I'm glad the side quests seem to be better at least. I tried doing so many of the DA:I side quests but I got real fatigued by them.

Full disclosure, I actually liked DA:I. I would have liked it more if Witcher 3 hadn't drug it out behind the wood shed.
 

friday

Member
John Walker is generally very critical of games. He has strong opinions and generally uses pretty divisive language. I often don't agree with his views.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Lol, this is too much.

I look forward to the game and will decide myself. $60 for around a dollar an hour of entertainment is still pretty cheap.
 

Catvoca

Banned
...except most of us don't really care about the stance of the preview. The preview is valid, as far as I'm concerned. The reason so many of us are critical of this thread is because it exists for the purpose of pushing the impression of a single outlet when so many others have provided previews already. Coincidence that it just so happens to be the one overtly negative preview, huh?

That's how I feel, yeah. This preview is fine, it could end up representing how a lot of people feel about the game. People trying to discredit it as clickbait is silly. It being its own thread when there's already a preview thread though is misleading since people see this article, don't see any of the other previews, and assume the game is going to be bad. It puts more stock in this article than any of the others.
 
did anyone ever really think there was anything going with mass effect other than star trek level sci-fi? not really either surprised or disappointed by this. me is to sci-fi what dragon age is to sword'n'scorcery - the fundamentals, entertaining & satisfactory for what they are, & nothing more :) ...
 

Abelard

Member
An RPG where your character isn't special or "the one", would be terribly boring. And when important events happen without your input or involvement because of how unimportant you are, you'd question why you would even invest in a fictional world where your purpose in that world mirrors the mundaneness of your ordinary everyday life. I've read those fantasy and sci-fi novels where you follow a bit character during an interesting period of time, and it's generally not rewarding at all.

Not so, some of the best RPG stories have been the ones where you are not "the one"- The Witcher games, Planescape Torment, and Nier.
 
No too concerned, I think it's going to be grear. Itll just be a while before I get to it. Im committed to finishing The Witcher 3 and a new ME Trilogy Run and then P5.
 

CrazyDude

Member
Nah, look at the Witcher. Yes, Geralt is a special character in the world (as a mutant monster slayer) but he's just one guy and people don't fawn all over him at every opportunity - he's often treated like shit and he's typically a pawn when he gets involved politics. Despite that, through the player's action he overcomes all that to become a very crucial (the most crucial?) person in the game world.

And he earns it, it's not given to him. If you had been playing as Ciri, who very much IS that 'Special Chosen One' type character, the game would have been nowhere as interesting.

Maybe he is not outright a chosen one, but he seems to be able to get access to a lot of people by just walking up the the castle or fortress. He manages to effect the entire nations and he manages to solve things no one else can. He is always in the right place at the right time
 
That's how I feel, yeah. This preview is fine, it could end up representing how a lot of people feel about the game. People trying to discredit it as clickbait is silly. It being its own thread when there's already a preview thread though is misleading since people see this article, don't see any of the other previews, and assume the game is going to be bad. It puts more stock in this article than any of the others.

Exactly. And especially the last bit...

Not surprised. Ever since EA bought Bioware its been getting worse and worse for Bioware games.

seems to be working exactly as planned. lol
 

Freeman76

Member
If you are a fan of Mass Effect this will be great, otherwise why why why are you interested in if its good or not?
 

Parahan

Member
And why is the quest log highlighted with an exclamation mark indicating a new quest this time? It doesn’t always label the categories to show you which folder the exclaim applies to, and sometimes there isn’t actually a mission for the exclamation mark it does show, so click through each category in turn to discover no, no, no, no, no, and then realise that it’s because it’s moved a completed quest into the completed list.


What?! Either the quest GUI is indeed confusing or this writer is poor at describing things.


I am concerned about the bad writing part and fetch quests. Bioware's strength is good writing and they have said in the PC Gamer interview-

"We learned that there were some quests in Dragon Age that didn’t resonate and were kind of flat – fetch quests and stuff,” says Flynn. “The nice thing is, you take those lessons, you package them all up, and you talk to the Mass Effect team and say, ‘These are the things you should do, these are the things you shouldn’t do.’ And the Mass Effect team get the pencils out and they build all that into it.”

There's even a thread on that

It's sad if this preview is true because they would mean BW blatantly lied?
 
Meh. I'll find out when I play. Some of Walker's opinions I can agree with. Some, like his in ME3s ending and The Witcher 3... I can't agree.

If turns out to be a steamer, I'll look into returning it. I just hope it's decent Bioware. I'd dream it were up to par with Citadel DLC, but that's a high bar for Bioware. Expecting Horizon or Witcher 3 quality is an impossible bar for Bioware.
 

Lister

Banned
An RPG where your character isn't special or "the one", would be terribly boring. And when important events happen without your input or involvement because of how unimportant you are, you'd question why you would even invest in a fictional world where your purpose in that world mirrors the mundaneness of your ordinary everyday life. I've read those fantasy and sci-fi novels where you follow a bit character during an interesting period of time, and it's generally not rewarding at all.

Uhhh... Not sure if you forgot the /s o rwhat, especially considering your avatar who is a nobody:

image.php


It's not about your character living out the life of a street bumb. No one is saying your character cnanot do great things and end up being a mover and shaker, I think you're misisng the point of this particular criticism.
 

Lister

Banned
Lol, this is too much.

I look forward to the game and will decide myself. $60 for around a dollar an hour of entertainment is still pretty cheap.

You can try the game for 10 hours too, so there isn't even aneed to buy befor epurchasing.

AND the Origin refund policy is fantastic too, better than Steam's.
 
Bioware has been pretty consistent in their output lately, sadly. Can't blame people for being cautious about Mass Effect (and players on GAF definitely were), and some of the previews impressions are not that surprising either. Bioware seems well past their prime honestly. I'd be interesting to compare the staff of Baldur's Gate 2 and perhaps KotOR with the people who work there today.
 

Artdayne

Member
...except most of us don't really care about the stance of the preview. The preview is valid, as far as I'm concerned; every writer is entitled to an opinion, and even more so when I haven't played the game and have not had the opportunity to form one. The reason so many of us are critical of this thread is because it exists for the purpose of pushing the impression of a single outlet when so many others have provided previews already. Coincidence that it just so happens to be the one overtly negative preview, huh?

Precisely, his opinion is completely valid. The issue is when people create threads to push a narrative that doesn't really jive with the consensus thus far. It's no secret that a lot of Gafers have went out of their way to be really negative about every single piece of media that has come out on this game and this is just more fuel to the fire. It might be that his impression resonates with a lot of other people here but the thing is a lot of journalists have had positive experiences with the game so far.
 

Nemesis_

Member
Visually the game will disappoint, at least for characters, not so much locales.

But having put in 20+ hours...... this RPS preview of whatever is incredibly hyperbolic.

And this is someone who felt very fatigued after ME3
 

danowat

Banned
Whatever RPS, or anyone else says, it won't affect your enjoyment (or not) of the game.

People need to take a step back sometimes.
 

Bunga

Member
Not too concerned really given the guys views on particular games seem to be polar opposites of my own. I trust my judgement at this point to think that it's gonna be a good game based entirely on what I've seen of gameplay footage. I never played Inquisition though, so maybe I'm setting up for disappointment.
 

nOoblet16

Member
I haven't expected much from Bioware in terms of writing since Drew left. Infact Drew leaving in the middle of Mass Effect 2 is so easily visible in the game.
 

MisterR

Member
The author thinks The Witcher 3 plays like eating cardboard, praises No Man's Sky and think Inside is tedious and bland. So no you can keep your opinion.

It's good to have some folks with different opinions on games reviewing them and playing the Witcher 3 is very similar to eating cardboard.
 
Precisely, his opinion is completely valid. The issue is when people create threads to push a narrative that doesn't really jive with the consensus thus far. It's no secret that a lot of Gafers have went out of their way to be really negative about every single piece of media that has come out on this game and this is just more fuel to the fire. It might be that his impression resonates with a lot of other people here but the thing is a lot of journalists have had positive experiences with the game so far.

Ah this old nonsense. Why are there so many borderline conspiracy theories like this on GAF?
 

Gestault

Member
I think if people actually think the thread is redundant to the point of being disruptive, they should contact mods. That's not out-of-line. But disrupting discussion that's actually happening because you don't want people to see negative things about a game isn't in the spirit of that rule.

Either report it, or stop derailing.
 

Artdayne

Member
Maybe he is not outright a chosen one, but he seems to be able to get access to a lot of people by just walking up the the castle or fortress. He manages to effect the entire nations and he manages to solve things no one else can. He is always in the right place at the right time

You definitely didn't play Witcher 1. :p You spend the entire game trying to get access to places in a big city while being repeatedly shut out because you're not a person of high standing, not until the end.

Ah this old nonsense. Why are there so many borderline conspiracy theories like this on GAF?

You should do some reading, you're clearly out of touch.
 
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