• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Seems more a vocal loud minority...but yes, they do appear more and more prevalent with mass effect release date nearing

i need this mod to happen on pc
4fcdfb5e5eb19e6c47fe505867e46c268d8900caac6a28a3ef3b4d308c9a7299.jpg

This is embarrassing.
 

xam3l

Member
"Guy who said Witcher 3 is like 'eating cardboard' doesn't like Mass Effect Andromeda" Should be the title of this thread.
 

Sushi Nao

Member
I watched an hour of gameplay this morning. There was a scene that basically soured the experience for me, though I kept watching.

Writing is important. I don't just mean text on items, or script itself. I mean writing as a rationalization of characters, systems and mechanics. Every game needs to do this in some way, to frame the unrealistic gameplay elements correctly against a stylized "realistic" universe.

Most importantly, it needs to take a holistic approach to this end. Everything should make sense, especially the things the characters say in the first half hour, when suspension of disbelief is tenuous.

So, when my character - my avatar for the rest of the game - hears the word "adenosine" and says "ADENO-WHA???" I learn two things about them. Either:

They're stupid. This is an astronaut from the year 2185 who is cyber-enhanced out the eyeballs, and is selected among billions of humans to go to a brand new galaxy who doesn't know basic biology.

Or:

They're unfunny. This "joke," where you're perfectly able to say the more complex part of a word, then stumble on the easy part - they did it in Bully too, "SOCIO-WHAT???" AH HURR HURR HURR - is so rote as to be actively destructive to the narrative you're trying to build about this character. Why do they say it? Clearly they can say the word. Is that their sense of humour? It sounds like it's from 1945, ffs.

Why should this be what I have to learn about my character in the first half hour? Is being competent that unrelatable? If you're a game writer and you do this, STOP. Question EVERYthing that you put in a game. Don't make these "jokes."
 
Reminds me of these, just a little less offensive:

viviennewtf.jpg


Isabela.jpg



The pictures you linked aren't "fixed". They're just more conventionally attractive.

I dont think there's anything offensive of making the characters more attractive. Hell if you want to change her into a furry, because you are into that more power to you.
 
sounded like a collection of insignificant nitpicks.

untill..

"Side quests feel like something from a 2004 Korean MMO. Just complete nothingness, running from map icon to map icon, scanning objects with your scanner when told to, and then AI companion SAM letting you know that, yup, the source of the defects has been found/animal has been captured/toddler reunited with rabid tiger, despite your actually doing nothing relevant to the tissue-thin narrative."
 

Ascenion

Member
"Guy who said Witcher 3 is like 'eating cardboard' doesn't like Mass Effect Andromeda" Should be the title of this thread.

He said playing Witcher 3 was like that. Witcher 3 was my GOTY in 2015 and I agree with him. Actually playing it doesn't rank high on my fun meter.
 

Strakt

Member
Did you miss Shinobis thread?

Shinobis thread was more of a "i played 3 hours of the game, heres what i think.. and ama about what i've played so far"

This is more of a "hey look a negative review; lets make a NEW thread when theres already a hand's on impressions/preview thread... lets all feed off of it and ignore all the positive ones out there." Judging by OP's posts in this thread (the one with the gif), its easy to conclude this thread was simply based off his hate on the game
 

Ralemont

not me
So we have 1 positive and 1 negative thread I dont see the problem.

The problem being, again, that if we are going the "thread for each impression" route, wed have 30 positive threads, not one. But nobody is going to post 30 positive threads about impressions because that wouod be ridiculous.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
If OP wants to frame this as the RPS opinion on ME:A, might as well also post the other RPS writer's extremely positive feelings on the game.
 

Profanity

Member
I watched an hour of gameplay this morning. There was a scene that basically soured the experience for me, though I kept watching.

Writing is important. I don't just mean text on items, or script itself. I mean writing as a rationalization of characters, systems and mechanics. Every game needs to do this in some way, to frame the unrealistic gameplay elements correctly against a stylized "realistic" universe.

Most importantly, it needs to take a holistic approach to this end. Everything should make sense, especially the things the characters say in the first half hour, when suspension of disbelief is tenuous.

So, when my character - my avatar for the rest of the game - hears the word "adenosine" and says "ADENO-WHA???" I learn two things about them. Either:

They're stupid. This is an astronaut from the year 2185 who is cyber-enhanced out the eyeballs, and is selected among billions of humans to go to a brand new galaxy who doesn't know basic biology.

Or:

They're unfunny. This "joke," where you're perfectly able to say the more complex part of a word, then stumble on the easy part - they did it in Bully too, "SOCIO-WHAT???" AH HURR HURR HURR - is so rote as to be actively destructive to the narrative you're trying to build about this character. Why do they say it? Clearly they can say the word. Is that their sense of humour? It sounds like it's from 1945, ffs.

Why should this be what I have to learn about my character in the first half hour? Is being competent that unrelatable? If you're a game writer and you do this, STOP. Question EVERYthing that you put in a game. Don't make these "jokes."

Was their response the result of a dialogue choice, or the just the natural flow of that scripted interaction though?
 
With Ryder specificlaly it's those dead eyes more than anything else, well that and the plastic skin.

Can someone superimpose the eyes on the official ryder model?

Im not a hater of the game, in fact i have preorder becuase I founf a great price for it, but the eyes right now in the game are a huge desing problem.

This is what you wanted:
masseffecteyes8qjtr.png


This was really a 15 minutes work (the other guy did a complete character overhaul, and I can assure you that took much more than 15 minutes), but it demonstrates that without changing the character design (although slighting the yes like here, is changing a little bit of it IMO) and only touching up the eyes its miles better. Its the inexpressive iris and the animation what I have most a problem with.

Reminds me of these, just a little less offensive:

viviennewtf.jpg

Why does the eyes here (and I mean the original black character) look miles better than what they are doing with Mass Effect. Thats my biggest problem here. Its like they threw the eye designer and modeller out and used the toiler cleaner to make them.
 
When in doubt, attack the author for his views on other games like The Witcher 3, because not having a 100% positive preview circlejerk for your favourite company's new game is simply intolerable.
 

Beckx

Member
That's all I needed to know, thanks.

I trust Shinobi more than this chap.

the question isn't trust but rather whether your tastes are closer to the person sharing their impressions. JW and Shinobi seem like opposite sides of the same coin (one seems to hate a lot of AAA, one seems to love a lot of AAA), so two different opinions doesn't seem like it's an issue of trust as that word is normally understood.
 

Parfait

Member
Seems more a vocal loud minority...but yes, they do appear more and more prevalent with mass effect release date nearing

i need this mod to happen on pc
4fcdfb5e5eb19e6c47fe505867e46c268d8900caac6a28a3ef3b4d308c9a7299.jpg

I always wanted to play The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion: In Space

At least the environments look stunning. Full Helmets or mods will help for screenshots once I get to them.
 
What's this supposed to prove... so some dude edited them to make them look like stereotypical "beautiful" models?

Okay. Just don't try to claim both that, "It's NOT just because they're not "classically pretty" enough, honest!" and then roll out this picture.

Yeah, the only "improvement" I guess would be that the eyes in the image on the right look a little more realistic. Other than that the image is almost equivalent to that photo shopped image of Faith where she looked less Asian, had bigger boobs and a rounder head.
 
Im not a hater of the game, in fact i have preorder becuase I founf a great price for it, but the eyes right now in the game are a huge desing problem.

This is what you wanted:
masseffecteyes8qjtr.png


This was really a 15 minutes work (the other guy did a complete character overhaul, and I can assure you that took much more than 15 minutes), but it demonstrates that without changing the character design (although slighting the yes like here, is changing a little bit of it IMO) and only touching up the eyes its miles better. Its the inexpressive iris and the animation what I have most a problem with.

Nah, the original eyes look better. Closer to what most people actually have.
 
Nah, the original model eyes look better. Closer to what most people actually have.

Most people are dead in the eyes?
Becuase the eyes of the original look like your avatar, not a real person, model or not. I dont have a problem with the original shape (I already saidf that the salnting was already trying to change the design, but I was just using what the other guy did) I have a problem with the iris.
Iris are look wet IRL, not handpainted with sharp edges like in Andromeda.
 

Trickster

Member
sounded like a collection of insignificant nitpicks.

untill..

"Side quests feel like something from a 2004 Korean MMO. Just complete nothingness, running from map icon to map icon, scanning objects with your scanner when told to, and then AI companion SAM letting you know that, yup, the source of the defects has been found/animal has been captured/toddler reunited with rabid tiger, despite your actually doing nothing relevant to the tissue-thin narrative."

If that is remotely true the game deserves to get mauled critically.

The weakest part of DA:I by far was the superficial mmo type stuff of collecting x items and killing y enemies. If they've learned since then they deserve no pity
 

Astral

Member
I'm finally sitting down and watching the 2 hour gameinformer stream, spoilers be damned. This is a pretty ugly game. The animations and character models just aren't very good. This Liam guy and Lexi chick look like the most generic characters ever. They can't be main party members can they? But these fucking faces. There's like no emotion. It looks like Fallout 4 and I hated Fallout 4. I'm so on the fence it's not even funny.
 

jelly

Member
Im not a hater of the game, in fact i have preorder becuase I founf a great price for it, but the eyes right now in the game are a huge desing problem.

This is what you wanted:
masseffecteyes8qjtr.png


This was really a 15 minutes work (the other guy did a complete character overhaul, and I can assure you that took much more than 15 minutes), but it demonstrates that without changing the character design (although slighting the yes like here, is changing a little bit of it IMO) and only touching up the eyes its miles better. Its the inexpressive iris and the animation what I have most a problem with.



Why does the eyes here (and I mean the original black character) look miles better than what they are doing with Mass Effect. Thats my biggest problem here. Its like they threw the eye designer and modeller out and used the toiler cleaner to make them.

That looks good but her default face looks fine here too. In the videos, she looks so odd for some reason.
 
I am a little worried about ME:A, but this piece came from a dude who thought pre-patched ME3 ending was amazing and Witcher 3 was like eating cardboard.

Sorry but that is like, your opinions.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
If that is remotely true the game deserves to get mauled critically.

The weakest part of DA:I by far was the superficial mmo type stuff of collecting x items and killing y enemies

Reuniting a toddler with a rabid tiger sounds way more interesting than most minor sidequests in RPGs tbh.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
That's all I needed to know, thanks.

I trust Shinobi more than this chap.

To be fair, Shinboi is far from an unbiased source on all things Mass Effect.
 
That looks better and her default face looks fine here too. In the videos, she looks so odd for some reason.

Yeah i dont have a problem with her face design. You probably notice more that she looks worse in the videos becuase the eye animation is seriously dreadful and they seem like they are looking always at the horizon instead of the guy they are talking with.

I notice people keep using the image of Sara from the outdated design document, in the current one she looks like this:

sr9au9w.png

That looks much better, still, the freaking iris.
BTW I was just working with the material given.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Yeah i dont have a problem with her face design. You probably notice more that she looks worse in the videos becuase the eye animation is seriously dreadful and they seem like they are looking always at the horizon instead of the guy they are talking with.

I'm pretty sure this has been a thing in all Bioware games. I certainly remember being bugged by eye animation in the original trilogy.
 

Lister

Banned
Im not a hater of the game, in fact i have preorder becuase I founf a great price for it, but the eyes right now in the game are a huge desing problem.

This is what you wanted:
masseffecteyes8qjtr.png


This was really a 15 minutes work (the other guy did a complete character overhaul, and I can assure you that took much more than 15 minutes), but it demonstrates that without changing the character design (although slighting the yes like here, is changing a little bit of it IMO) and only touching up the eyes its miles better. Its the inexpressive iris and the animation what I have most a problem with.



Why does the eyes here (and I mean the original black character) look miles better than what they are doing with Mass Effect. Thats my biggest problem here. Its like they threw the eye designer and modeller out and used the toiler cleaner to make them.

Holy shit thanks! Thats awesome. Hoping for eye mods now.
 

Profanity

Member
That looks much better, still, the freaking iris.
BTW I was just working with the material given.

I'm not having a go at you, it's more to make a point that different lighting and aperture can make people look rather different, in the vein of that light swinging around the woman's head that's been posted a few times.
 
I'm pretty sure this has been a thing in all Bioware games. I certainly remember being bugged by eye animation in the original trilogy.

I actually didnt mind in the original triology becuase i suppose I accepted the limitations at the time, but i watched a gameplay the other day and yes, the animations are not good. Games like the witcher 3 have probably change my mind a lot.

But in defense of the original triology, the iris didnt look that bad. Here it looks like vanilla sims 2/sims 3 before mods started appearing.

I'm not having a go at you, it's more to make a point that different lighting and aperture can make people look rather different, in the vein of that light swinging around the woman's head that's been posted a few times.

Yeah, dont worry.
 

Beckx

Member
I'm pretty sure this has been a thing in all Bioware games. I certainly remember being bugged by eye animation in the original trilogy.

one thing that hurts Bioware in the current climate is that their games tend to have a significant amount of jank, and the enthusiast AAA fan tolerance for jank in big AAA is way lower in 2017 than 2007.
 
Literally every other impression is positive.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1346773

You need to look up Shinobi's post history regarding Mass Effect games. (3 in particular)

The RPS article was interesting and really it comes down to what you expect from the games you purchase and play.

There are plenty of people that don't have the expectations for their games like the writer at RPS has. I imagine those people will enjoy Andromeda.

I still recall how badly Bioware botched Mass Effect 3 and I remember how bloated and awkward Dragon Age Inquisition was at times. This article makes Andromeda sound like the love child of ME3 and DAI.
 

Blinck

Member
Something always felt a bit off about the game. Will still get it but only when it drops quite a bit in price.

Side quests feel like something from a 2004 Korean MMO. Just complete nothingness, running from map icon to map icon, scanning objects with your scanner when told to, and then AI companion SAM letting you know that, yup, the source of the defects has been found/animal has been captured/toddler reunited with rabid tiger, despite your actually doing nothing relevant to the tissue-thin narrative.

God damnit, Dragon Age Inquisition in full effect here.
 
You need to look up Shinobi's post history regarding Mass Effect games. (3 in particular)

The RPS article was interesting and really it comes down to what you expect from the games you purchase and play.

There are plenty of people that don't have the expectations for their games like the writer at RPS has. I imagine those people will love Andromeda.

I still recall how badly Bioware botched Mass Effect 3 and I remember how bloated and awkward Dragon Age Inquisition was at times. This article makes Andromeda sound like the love child of ME3 and DAI.

How is a fan of the series's opinion less valid than a person who, given his opinion on The Witcher 3, seems to hate the genre to begin with?
 

FinalAres

Member
Seems more a vocal loud minority...but yes, they do appear more and more prevalent with mass effect release date nearing

i need this mod to happen on pc
4fcdfb5e5eb19e6c47fe505867e46c268d8900caac6a28a3ef3b4d308c9a7299.jpg

This has made both more attractive, but so what? Part of the appeal of the second character is that they're kind of goofy looking.

This is just like generic looking downwards guy that's in all games these days.
 
Top Bottom