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Mass Effect: Andromeda - E3 Info Dump

diaspora

Member
Please, please, PLEASE, let me romance a krogan this time as FemRyder. Ya'll motherfuckers deprived me of Wrex, don't do me like this again EA.

dpL8Y5a.gif
 

Lime

Member
Do we have any indication of how the music aesthetic will be? Will it still be synth, perhaps of the more ambient kind like in ME1? Did they correctly bring back Jack Wall and get him and Sam Hulick to do what they best in ME1 instead of the Michael Bay approach Bioware wanted them to do in ME2?
 

valkyre

Member
-The trilogy was about a cinematic, grand, space opera with a titular character. With Andromeda they want to move away from this

I dont get this part... what exactly are they moving away from?
 

NaturaRex

Neo Member
I remember reading a survey that got leaked about this game some time ago and it was pretty spot on as far as info about the game is concerned. What caught my eye was that there may have been some indication that we could actually pilot the Tempest this time around and not just in a navigational menu map sort of way like in the past games.
 

NaturaRex

Neo Member
I asked myself the same question. Maybe it is about a cinematic, grand space opera with... two titular characters this time, the Ryder twins.
I'm thinking that they meant that the narrative is more tightly focused and personalized this time around kinda like Dragon Age 2.
 

valkyre

Member
I remember reading a survey that got leaked about this game some time ago and it was pretty spot on as far as info about the game is concerned. What caught my eye was that there may have been some indication that we could actually pilot the Tempest this time around and not just in a navigational menu map sort of way like in the past games.

It was definitely said that you could pilot Tempest, back when these ifnormation surfaced... you mean this isnt true anymore? No flying tempest into the planet and landing seamlessly?

I would be pretty disappointed if this turns out to be false.
 
Thinking about this game is making me want to replay the entire trilogy again, just for the story line.

One of my favorite games, period
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
That part made me worry about them wanting to move away from the "cinematic, grand, space opera" thing, but I guess its just poorly worded.

They're probably saying that it won't be a great epic story of fighting evil monsters/aliens where the whole galaxy has to come together to defeat them.

This time it will only be the Milky Way races trying to find their place in a new galaxy, most probably hostile/hesitant/afraid to these newcomers.
 
Going by the EA play video, they're doing a lot more motion capture.

Oh thank god. Bioware no longer has an excuse to recycle the same damn animations for every one of their games.

I'm hoping the Prothean-like ancient race info from earlier data was false because the different direction of the series sounds interesting so far.
 

Eylos

Banned
Do we have any indication of how the music aesthetic will be? Will it still be synth, perhaps of the more ambient kind like in ME1? Did they correctly bring back Jack Wall and get him and Sam Hulick to do what they best in ME1 instead of the Michael Bay approach Bioware wanted them to do in ME2?

man, i love the OST of ME1
 

xealo

Member
No grand save the world/galaxy plot that is in literally every BioWare game pls.
It'll likely be on a smaller scale than the original trilogy and more upbeat, if that's any comfort.

It's pretty hard to top "galactic extinction" in that regard.
 
For me, Mass Effect 1 easily had the best atmosphere. I think the uncharted worlds and music were a big part of this. Exploring the worlds in the Mako created a sense of scale and isolation that was lost in 2 and 3. The music helped to enforce this feeling. So I was glad the Mako was making a return, from the small glimpses we've seen, it looks like they captured that feeling with the planets. Obviously the actual level design needs to be improved from 1, but that looks promising. So hopefully the music looks back at Mass Effect 1 for style as well.
 

Lime

Member
That part made me worry about them wanting to move away from the "cinematic, grand, space opera" thing, but I guess its just poorly worded.

That's exactly what they should move away from.

No grand save the world/galaxy plot that is in literally every BioWare game pls.

Concurred. It's eye-rolling and Bioware has over-used it so much (along with lackluster execution) that any gravitas in the narrative is completely lost.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
Mac Walters mentioning that the Mako is the only vehicle in the game makes me indeed think that the piloting the Tempest feature has been cut. Shame.
 

Lime

Member
Mac Walters mentioning that the Mako is the only vehicle in the game makes me indeed think that the piloting the Tempest feature has been cut. Shame.

I thought the same thing - it would probably have been too big to have an Elite Dangerous component along with the regular Mass Effect game systems, so I thought it was too good to be true when I first heard it.

Or perhaps Walters doesn't consider the Tempest a vehicle :p
 
It'll likely be on a smaller scale than the original trilogy and more upbeat, if that's any comfort.

It's pretty hard to top "galactic extinction" in that regard.

Another issue with these galactic/extintion events is that it's often really hard to develop sequels after the big story arc has concluded (like ME, Halo, both GOWs, etc.). Having a more localized (to the character, or galaxy) story, could be a great change for the series, and leaves the Galaxy more intact for future stories to occur.
 

Lime

Member
Another issue with these galactic/extintion events is that it's often really hard to develop sequels after the big story arc has concluded (like ME, Halo, both GOWs, etc.). Having a more localized (to the character, or galaxy) story, could be a great change for the series, and leaves the Galaxy more intact for future stories to occur.

The over-reliance on grandiose narratives by Bioware tells me that either the writers lack confidence in their ability to write an interesting confined, small-scale narrative, so instead they write up these high-stakes, end-all-be-all narratives to make up for this lack of confidence in their own writing ability. Or the executives or marketing want high-stakes, grandiose narratives on the likes of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and all of the rest of the monomyths in Western culture.
 
Do we have any indication of how the music aesthetic will be? Will it still be synth, perhaps of the more ambient kind like in ME1? Did they correctly bring back Jack Wall and get him and Sam Hulick to do what they best in ME1 instead of the Michael Bay approach Bioware wanted them to do in ME2?
Hopefully it'll be just like ME1. Best soundtrack in the series.
 
Do we have any indication of how the music aesthetic will be? Will it still be synth, perhaps of the more ambient kind like in ME1? Did they correctly bring back Jack Wall and get him and Sam Hulick to do what they best in ME1 instead of the Michael Bay approach Bioware wanted them to do in ME2?
Music was very reminiscent of the original Mass Effect from what I saw in April. Which I loved.
 
The over-reliance on grandiose narratives by Bioware tells me that either the writers lack confidence in their ability to write an interesting confined, small-scale narrative, so instead they write up these high-stakes, end-all-be-all narratives to make up for this lack of confidence in their own writing ability. Or the executives or marketing want a high-stakes, grandiose narratives on the likes of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and all of the rest of the monomyths in Western culture.

I don't think grandiose narratives are something that's exclusive to Bioware. Focusing on storytelling in games is still a relatively new concept; I'd say this is more indicative of how stories in games have evolved over the past 20 years. Like big blockbuster movies, I love these grand, epic stories and I think there's still room for those types of stories in games today. But, I think we're seeing that as developers are learning more about crafting stories in games, and the technology advances to have more realistic characters, that the narrative focus can shift somewhat from a macro view, to more of a micro view. Be that focusing on small events centered in a localized area, or the characters themselves and their journey through the game and relationship with others.

And as far as Bioware specifically goes, they've created my favorite narratives and character relationships in games so far, so I'm super excited to see what they do with ME:A.
 
The Suicide Mission music was amazing too.
True. I did miss the more synth-ish tracks in ME2, though.
Music was very reminiscent of the original Mass Effect from what I saw in April. Which I loved.
Nice.
I honestly would love to hear the reasons for why Casey Hudson & Co. chose to abandon Jack Wall in ME3.
They probably saw they were able to get Clint Mansell and decided to get the big name or something. We got a few nice tracks from him, but that's it really.

Wasn't worth it in the end, IMO.
 

jett

D-Member
The female Ryder isn't exactly the default face. There is a bit of a twist this time around but they can't say more yet

"Ryder" gonna be a faceless android at first isn't it.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Music was very reminiscent of the original Mass Effect from what I saw in April. Which I loved.

So great to hear. I want to drive around planets with music similar to the first minute of this(strangely, the rest of the music never plays in the actual game) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ6EnVU6CqQ&list=PL1vkMZLwYlde3YIE-xQUDIcTY2mM25fL8&index=12

There is another music that plays on ME1 barren planets, but I can't find it no matter how hard i look in Youtube. :(
 

Lime

Member
The Suicide Mission music was amazing too.

Trivia time: Doctor Who ripped the song without crediting Jack Wall:

Q: Why does the suicide mission music sound similar to the Doctor Who music?

JW: Yeah I'm a little upset by that. They completely ripped that off. thanks for reminding me. I wanted to let the music director for EA know about that. It wasn't just close, it was a direct quote. I'm not sure why a composer would do that so intentionally. Of course you never know... there are only 12 notes.
 

Lime

Member
They probably saw they were able to get Clint Mansell and decided to get the big name or something. We got a few nice tracks from him, but that's it really.

Wasn't worth it in the end, IMO.

It was not a good decision to spread out the music to 5 different people in ME3. Sam Hulick, Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco, Christopher Lennertz and Clint Mantsell - just too many cooks in the kitchen. It gave the soundtrack a scattered and incongruent identity without any red thread or theme.

Having the same two people scoring something together (Jack Wall and Sam Hulick in ME1+2) is much, much preferable in order to provide consistency and structure to the game's music texture.

There's a reason why the same compositions from ME1 gets included in the ME3, e.g. Vigil or Uncharted Worlds. There were memorable and defining for the series, yet almost none of the compositions in ME3 are as reminiscent as those first tracks.

Also, the synthy feel that got lost in ME1-2 was a conscious decision by Casey Hudson, as Jack Wall explains here:

Q: I lack the vocabulary to describe it, but I loved the "synthy" music of Mass Effect 1 and didn't feel like there was as much of it in ME2. Was this an intentional choice by you, the studio or am I imagining it?

JW: That was a conscious decision by the game's director, Casey Hudson.
 

sol740

Member
The first half will be a tightly focused narrative regarding relatively small-scale skirmishes with a group of outlander/rebel factions. Eventually you'll infiltrate one of their strategically primary bases/networks only to stumble upon the existence of a race of ultra-powerful synthetics, that were many, many times larger than the Reapers. They call themselves the Andromedans. They were the ones that originally constructed the Reapers, however they were originally designed to act simply as autonomous vacuum cleaners, sweeping up what the Andromedans considered to be the germ-like entities in their realities, the infinitesimally small organics that get into all kinds of embarassing, and uncomfortable places, and eventually cause infections that threaten to give the Andromedans an inconvenient cold. The Reapers, left to their own devices, eventually developed melodramatic personalities that the Andromedans found absolutely adorable. You, Ryder ... must ... ride ... into the nether-regions of space, to unravel the mystery of their unknowable purpose.
 

SmartBase

Member
They're definitely saying the right things but anything to do with Bioware's writing is don't_believe_his_lies.jpg territory.
 

Yopis

Member
Hope this is less your the key to saving the universe garbage. As someone who's played the others multiple times I hope its more of your own story and role. Kind of like Witcher. You have an arc but bigger things happen around you. Your a part of the world not the key for galactic civilization.
 
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