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

Is this an entirely new development team from Bioware?

from Bioware website:

http://blog.bioware.com/2014/11/07/introducing-some-dev-team-leads-for-the-next-mass-effect/

Frazier’s introduction to design was in grade 6 when his father introduced him to Game-Maker. His modding experience led him to university, where he created and ran project Lazarus, which aimed to remake Ultima 5 in the Dungeon Siege engine. He has since worked as lead designer for a number of studios, overseeing titles such as Dawn of War: Soulstorm and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Then there is Chris Wynn who was the Gears of War Judgement producer who was for a time the senior dev director of ME:A before leaving the project in 2015?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/28/mass-effect-andromeda-director-chris-wynn-leaves-bioware


Joel MacMillan is the art lead who has been a mainstay with Bioware for some time.
 
This was a bizarre preview. Writer seemed to have big issues with the RPG genre itself, and seemed combative about having the main character be an important person in this fantasy world, and the companion characters having some banal dialog. If I was the editor of RPS, its a weird assignment to give this writer. Then 90% of comments to this article were people of this community that felt relieved to not have to play this game, and justified for the vague feelings that something is wrong with this game. I guess I am not good fit for the RPS community.
 

Renekton

Member
So your hypothesis is that John Walker is secretly loving his time with ME:A but he's lying about it at length for the clicks?

Here is what happened to my topic linking his article about Valve:

To be fair, only John Walker writes articles as dumb as this. I knew it was him from the headline.
Same, i often get the impression he's in the wrong line of work.
This does seem to be a theme with Walker. Easily the worst of the regular writers.
John Walker's next article, right there.

edit: I have no issue with his articles, he probably made some good points
 

Aaron D.

Member
I don't always agree with Walker either, but he is not "click bait". Do you even know what that is? Having an opinion you find distasteful is not click bait.

I don't find it distasteful at all.

I simply find him to be an untrustworthy source of information as he seems to value dragging games more for the LOLZ or OMG! than actual critical analysis.
 
The thing that bums me out the most about this write up is Bioware sticking to their formula of your character being The One. I find that notion to be so tired and played out - why can't you just be some person doing their thing and having wacky adventures?
 
yeah we kinda all saw this coming.

e94eo.gif
 

LKSmash

Member
So your hypothesis is that John Walker is secretly loving his time with ME:A, but he's lying about it at length for the clicks?

No, my hypothesis is he just likes to be that guy everyone points to as the hyperbolic, dissenting opinion.
 
I simply find him to be an untrustworthy source of information as he seems to value dragging games more for the LOLZ or OMG! than actual critical analysis.

Can you really say that about this Mass Effect preview, though? He might be at odds with everyone else ultimately, and his write-up is uber-snarky, but he seems to articulate all of his criticisms very well.
 

Nokagi

Unconfirmed Member
I don't know if ME:A is going to be any good. I'm still not even sure I'm going to get it. But I will say most of the negative points made here are things that I don't think would bother me much at all.
 

Zojirushi

Member
I mean come on people let's not tear each other apart over different preview impressions ok?

It'll get ugly enough when reviews hit lol
 
It's a lot of text but when you look at the complaints? Are they really a huge thing. Combat seems to be fun, the menus or quest markers don't bother me that much to be honest. Breath of The Wild has a pretty poor menu and it doesn't change the fact at all that I love the game. I don't think he has played enough to make a judgement about the story and characters. Let's wait and see I guess, in the end it's only a opinion. The other impressions were pretty good and I liked the last videos.
 

thumb

Banned
No, my hypothesis is he just likes to be that guy everyone points to as the hyperbolic, dissenting opinion.

So, because he likes to dissent, that means that he's not looking so much at his experience, but at other peoples experiences, and then writing the opposite? So if everyone had said they'd hated it, he would have likely written that he loved it?

Which, again, is claiming that he's lying about his actual experience with the game.
 

10k

Banned
This author sounds..... Stuck up? Elitist? Like he gets off on insulting the game. I'll take his criticism to heart though.
 

Falchion

Member
When do we get reviews of this? I mean people will have access to the 'full' game tomorrow during the trial so I feel like reviews should be out before then.
 

lumzi23

Member
Yeah, the gameplay looks so much better that it is not even funny. But on the other side of the coin, I also think that I can handle BioWare jank, filler quests and some cheesy space drama.

funny-game-glitch-mass-effect-hug.gif


tumblr_mvwwlpPIgS1rti868o4_500.gif


After all, that is part of the deal with Mass Effect.

Are those from the vanilla game. I don't remember that Miranda/Jacob scene at all.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
As someone who like ME, really liked ME2, and adored ME3 (yeah, yeah, yeah), I have zero hype for ME:A.

KOTOR is my favorite game of all time. But Bioware's writing has just kept coming up with more new ways to disappoint with each new release. Nothing that has been teased about this game gives me confidence in the setting, plot, characters, or dialogue - the primary reasons I came to ME in the first place.
 

Rad-

Member
Sounds like Mass Effect: Inquisition which is about what we have known for ages now. The key will be the gameplay. Inquisition's gameplay was pretty average but Mass Effect's gameplay since 2 has been really fun. That is what will make or break the game for me.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I have disagreed with almost every single one of this guys reviews. I'm not sure if he just thinks that much differently than I do, or if the guy just writes shit to be click bait, but I no longer trust most of the reviews on RPS because of him.

I mean the guy talked shit about the Witcher 3 being boring and terrible.....and it was my GOTY along with thousands of other GAFers.

Not saying he is wrong about Anromeda, because I haven't played it, but his opinion means shit to me ;)

all previews are these days is a means to validate your own opinions. positive or negative it's kind of irrelevant. all i know is that this guys views fit what i have seen from all the promotional material, live demo's and trailers. the shining "this is the best mass effect game ever" previews confuse me more.
 
Really don't understand why this deserved its own thread as seemingly most other previews are positive, but whatever.

If you know this writers past, he has very controversial opinions on games. That's not a bad thing. But saying he hated Witcher 3 and Inside is kind of akin to one of your friends saying that they hate pizza. Sure, that's a completely valid opinion, but their tastes are so far in the minority that it's worth taking in to consideration next time they tell you why you shouldn't try a restaurant.

The weird amount of hate this game has received before its release is odd. The general consensus has been positive and that it is "more Mass Effect," which is exactly what I want in a series that hasn't seen a release in 5 years. On the other hand, if the original trilogy didn't work for you, you probably know already if this is something that you want.
 

Lothars

Member
Does it justify panicing and calling it an early fail?
It doesn't but there are some people that want to shit on everything mass effect, they want to panic and shit on it anytime they see something regarding it they don't like. It's been like that since ME2.
 

LKSmash

Member
So, because he likes to dissent, that means that he's not looking so much at his experience, but at other peoples experiences, and then writing the opposite? So if everyone had said they'd hated it, he would have likely written that he loved it?

Which, again, is claiming that he's lying about his actual experience with the game.

lying by embellishing sure.
 
I never can tell if articles written purposefully snarky and "cool" are playing things up for entertainment value or are being like 100% serious in their love/praise.

I didn't like playing DAI but I did think that if you took all of that, made it aliens in the future and had it be ME2/3 style combat, I could enjoy this a lot more. For better or worse, this sounds like it's that.

Writing is subjective and honestly I can't really think of a RPG with a good start. The story hasn't really started yet, the game is still in tutorial (implicit or explicit) so all the systems are limited, the characters you'll think are the best might not have even been introduced. Leaving that first area is where RPGs start to get good imo. I've always thought BioWare was a little cheesy (I thought it was purposeful) and all their games have some corny moments.

I'll need more footage or personal hands on to really see if this is worse than ever or if it's more like the writer is now noticing what I always did (and still loved the games).
 
Kotaku had a post up discussing the first five hours, and it seemed to be very positive compared to RPS' thoughts.

Seems like most Bioware games, you'll have the people that love it and the people that hate it. The circle of life continues.

I'm really looking forward to the Multiplayer, and hanging out on the couch with the wife for a playthrough to discover and explore. I'm really looking forward to it.
 

Kremzeek

Member
UI design is a spectacle of bad choices,

Side quests feel like something from a 2004 Korean MMO


I chuckled at these.

Genuinely curious how this all turns out.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Are those from the vanilla game. I don't remember that Miranda/Jacob scene at all.

LOL, that is because someone removed Shepherd and put Jacob in his place. I merely used these gifs to show some of the weird glitches that very much are a part of Mass Effect.
 
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.
You were supposed to learn from Inquisition, not fucking double down on it
No video game deserves a 10.
A 10 doesn't mean a game is perfect because there is no such thing
 
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