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The Mass Effect Community Thread |OT2|
- Thread starter Patryn
- Start date
Sorry, I must have mixed it up with another video. Can't seem to find it now.
BrassDragon
Member
You're probably thinking of this one: https://youtu.be/42-3GCq6gqo
I don't find the argument that the most problematic elements were outsourced while all the good stuff was done in-house very compelling. It's just way too convenient and blame-shifting ('it's not us, it's those evil EA suits and cheap Romanians messing up our game!') Bringing up the SJW-mandated conspiracy to make female characters deliberately ugly doesn't add to the credibility either (it's not like the male models outside of Liam and Scott are up to snuff.)
By any reasonable measure, BioWare had enough time, money, artistic freedom and manpower to make this game. I'll just assume the Canadian BioWare offices have lost or re-assigned too much key talent, both in leadership and production, and Mass Effect Andromeda's obvious shortcomings are a result of that.
Yeah thats a good point. In the end I don't agree with alot of the SJW conspiracy crap people keep bringing up. In the end though we can hope Bioware can learn from this in the future.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
40m isn't low, that's a fuckton of money for a videogame. I haven't seen a whole lot of marketing/ads for andromeda though, so if anything EA held back on that.
TC McQueen
Member
It's lower than a lot of other AAA games, but is supposedly in line with previous games in the franchise.
BrassDragon
Member
That 40 million claim is not substantiated at all. That was the original budget of Mass Effect 3 (which we know was rushed and full of cut content) and supposedly there is a comment out there where BioWare says it's above the cost of ME3 (never been able to track down a source.)
But I guess it's a meme now so it's almost impossible to get that number out of people's heads.
I have not seen a single MEA ad.
dr_rus
Member
It's kinda low for a sequel to one of the more known PS360 era franchises. But I can see why they wanted to play it a bit cheap with the new team being at the helm this time.
TC McQueen
Member
I did, but I forget where and it was kind of bad (just a shortened version of the launch trailer, which is not great
Actually... it might have been during an episode of The Expanse.
My social media is flooded by Mass Effect ads. I think this is compounded by the fact that I've stated my like of the series on there on numerous occasions, but I actually bought the game through my friend's Amazon Prime account so they don't know that I already own the game.
Mike's tweet about never choosing canon is dumb. Leaves the universe in a fucked up situation that can never be rectified without this weird 600 year jump to a different galaxy. Nothing will ever touch the lore of the milky way with Andromeda.
Besides, they had no problem choosing canon by ignoring those who killed Shepard in ME2 with ME3.
Besides, they had no problem choosing canon by ignoring those who killed Shepard in ME2 with ME3.
DeadlyParasite
Member
I get the impression that the trilogy means a lot to you, it does for me as well. It provided many, many years of great stories and characters for an entire console generation. However, that timeline and era is over (or rather ended March 5th 2013). BioWare's made a committed choice to the direction they want to take the series and they aren't deviating from it, regardless of your decision to accept it or not. The trilogy will always be there and can still be enjoyed and appreciated to this day while simultaneously co-existing with Andromeda, don't lose sight of that.
That said...
In the end it comes down to this, as individual fans you/we either:
- Accept the situation and move forward with everyone else to enjoy new adventures with a new crew in a new galaxy.
- Come to terms that the series isn't going where you want it to and amicably part ways to go like other things.
- Remain trapped in the past, unable to let the Shepard trilogy go like a wounded ex obsessing over pictures of their former lover for months while the rest of the world moves on.
Personally I'm thankful that we have anything at this point because the future of the series was fuzzy for a long time after Mass Effect 3. Maybe it still is fuzzy for some, but there's hope yet.
Or Bioware can finally admit their mistake and create a better ending with a remastered version of the trilogy and retcon the original ending out of existence.
You, and a lot of people, know that they're not gonna do that. The extended cut of the original game is all we're gonna get as a "fix" to the ME3 ending, and everyone should just accept this and move on. It's been 5 years, and if they haven't done anything more back then, they're not gonna do anything more now.
The best we're gonna get if they ever go back to the Milky Way is that it will be either a reboot, a prequel set during or before ME2 that have nothing to do with Shepard or they'll do a sequel that stick to a canon ending(hopefully ignoring the synthesis one).
A prequel would actually be worse than Andromeda. I e always thought that the idea of a prequel was fundamentally flawed. The only thing of importance was the First Contacf war, and that was more a skirmish than anything else.
At some point they need to bite the bullet, make the only sane decision (destroy and ignore the nonsense 'AIs you like die because we want to hurt you') and resume in the Milky Way. Andromeda was always a push, and they've so fucked in its initial setting and presentation I don't see how they build something resembling the original trilogy from this.
At some point they need to bite the bullet, make the only sane decision (destroy and ignore the nonsense 'AIs you like die because we want to hurt you') and resume in the Milky Way. Andromeda was always a push, and they've so fucked in its initial setting and presentation I don't see how they build something resembling the original trilogy from this.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Tbh, I'm really struggling to see how Andromeda as a setting is fundamentally fucked. The game being janky as hell and not all that well received doesn't do that, not on its own.
Also, no more trilogies dammit. Follow the crew of the Tempest, sure, but gamers obsession with the trilogy format specifically is baffling to me.
Also, no more trilogies dammit. Follow the crew of the Tempest, sure, but gamers obsession with the trilogy format specifically is baffling to me.
Original Cora design concept. So good.
The Andromeda setting, if it qualifies, is imho low on the Bioware pecking order for post-mortem.
They have a wide gamut of possible issues to look at including project management, engine familiarity, workflow, scope control, quest design, screenwriting, animations etc.
Basically Ashley.
Yeah. It does look a lot like Ashley. I totally understand why they backed off that design.
They could keep Andromeda as a setting, but move to a new Cluster and attempt to do the First Contact stuff right this time.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
Ppl still butthurt about some 5 year old ending smh, y'all should volunteer for Hollywood focus test groups.
Now that you mention it..
VenomousCoffee
Member
Holy shit. Love that Cora artwork.
What's in the game feels like they took Jack and gave her a massive jawline.
What's in the game feels like they took Jack and gave her a massive jawline.
To be honest, Andromeda kinda acts like a prequel since everybody who's there left before the events of ME3. So all those Krogans speaking about curing the genophage when it was already done in ME3 kinda feels... eh.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Literally Ashley with mousier features.
dr_rus
Member
I would be fine with that.
Pre-threequel.
I love me some krogan but what was the initiative even thinking about bringing krogan. They were still crippled with the genophage came with less then 2000 people which couldn't possibly sustain a generically variable future for that race.
It makes absolutely no sense for the Krogan to be there, at all. I said right from the initial announcement that if the krogan name were there then it showed they weren't actually intent on following through on their new setting, they just wanted to duplicate mass effect but clear of the ending of ME3.
There's absolutely no valid reason to cart all those krogan to Andromeda. Mind you, there's no reason for Andromeda, nor is Andromeda even remotely viable given our understanding of the setting and timeline so there's that to it... ;-).
I'm sure Bioware kinda regret putting different endings for ME3 with different galaxy wide changes in each of them, screwing up the chances of a sequel in the Milky Way so now they had to make a bunch of stuff that make little sense lorewise with Andromeda to satisfy the fanbase.
Sooner or later, if they want us to go back to the Milky Way, they'll have to just deal with their decision, take the Destroy or Control ending as canon, and go with that.
Poodlestrike
Banned
They thought they could lessen the effects of the Genophage enough to make Krogan repopulatuon viable and they were right?
Also the fact that they're basically ideal explorers has something to do with it.
Lol because that's a good idea. Bring krogan with the expressed idea of just using them as fodder, that won't blow up in anyone's face again...
Feels like every interaction with sane krogan leadership is acts of appeasement to counter their history of abuse and mistrust of the Galaxy.
However I guess if you look at the kind of people the initiative brought krogan are perfectly with that recruiting drive.
Feels like every interaction with sane krogan leadership is acts of appeasement to counter their history of abuse and mistrust of the Galaxy.
However I guess if you look at the kind of people the initiative brought krogan are perfectly with that recruiting drive.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Who said anything about fodder? Krogan get a new start, Initiative benefits from their hardiness and expertise. Fair and equitable in my books.
Krogan are an absolutely terrible species to bring along for this kind of jaunt. They have zero scientific curiosity, an obsessive focus on violence, and are either sterile and thus not able to reproduce, or you go back to the problems encountered in the original series where you've just introduced an extremely violent, aggressive expansive species whose main form of greeting is to kick the shit out of you into a new galaxy.
Literally - last possible candidates for an expedition like this.
Literally - last possible candidates for an expedition like this.
Heckler456
Banned
In the novel (and I'm sure it must be mentioned in the codex or during conversation too), the Nakmor clan is actually mentioned to have done a significant part of the engineering required to get the Nexus in working order, bother pre and post launch. Which is why they got a spot on the Nexus.
That is a cool concept. The one engineer you meet in their colony was really interesting but wasn't he a urdnot?
My fodder comment was more directed at why they are perfect explorers. They just survive better then other species and fight better as well. They have been used as the tip of the spear since the salarians uplifted them and
it happend again in this game only to have them thrown away.
Doesn't the trilogy mock the idea of Krogan scientists or Engineers?
Then again, I guess you run into a few examples of some serious Krogan geniuses, so whatever.
Heckler456
Banned
I remember hearing "ever seen a Krogan scientist?", but that doesn't really preclude any Krogan engineers from ever existing. Plus, the female Krogans (like Kesh, who is said to have basically designed the Nexus to some degree, irrc) are portrayed as way more thoughtful and "intellectual" than their male counterparts.
I don't think you guys understood what I meant. Not choosing canon is dumb because it just leaves a rich galaxy and lore in stasis forever. The Andromeda Initiative and ME:Andromeda is a sidestep to the universe.
I don't care about the ME3 ending anymore. That is the point. Pick one of the ones you want as canon and move on as a studio and don't worry about offending someone whose canon may be ruined. I think Destroy personally allows for the greatest range, not because Shepard lives if you had high enough war assets, but because it does away with the Reapers and the Mass Relays. Leaves a devastated galaxy in chaos and can make for a crazy game of thrones style fight for political ane galactic control. The truth of the Asari out, the Krogan genophage ended, etc. Can make so many more stories that would hit harder and be more impactful than anything in Andromeda so far.
Good patch notes today. Makes me wonder thiugh why not just delay the game longer. All the lost sales, PR hits, surely not worth moving it from March release to May release etc.
I don't care about the ME3 ending anymore. That is the point. Pick one of the ones you want as canon and move on as a studio and don't worry about offending someone whose canon may be ruined. I think Destroy personally allows for the greatest range, not because Shepard lives if you had high enough war assets, but because it does away with the Reapers and the Mass Relays. Leaves a devastated galaxy in chaos and can make for a crazy game of thrones style fight for political ane galactic control. The truth of the Asari out, the Krogan genophage ended, etc. Can make so many more stories that would hit harder and be more impactful than anything in Andromeda so far.
Good patch notes today. Makes me wonder thiugh why not just delay the game longer. All the lost sales, PR hits, surely not worth moving it from March release to May release etc.
I think I'm a slightly defective Mass Effect fan. As much as I love my alien squadmates, the idea of having sex with them is just utterly and completely bizarre to me. It's not physically possible! And even if it was, they aren't human! they look like nothing we could ever find sexually attractive in real life, and anyone actually engaging in relations with a Turian or Andarian would be looked at like those people who profess their sexual love for their toaster.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
Humans find a whole range of things sexually attractive, including personalities; toasters aren't exactly sapient.
I get that, but the idea that a species which almost certainly has no biological potential for actually doing the deed, and lacks a huge amount of the physical traits that we are coded to like (pheromones, for example), would end up being our partner is just something I find bizarre.
Partly of course the issue is that Bioware alien squadmates are in many ways like star trek aliens - traits we find in humans, amped up to 11 and given a different skin. the truly weird, more alien like races don't feature much because of the modelling (Elcor and Hanaar primarily.).
Reizo Ryuu
Member
They still have mouths right?
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
prag16
Banned
Just read the giantbomb review. I don't know if I can trust Brad anymore.
Not in the sense that I think he's bullshitting, but the fact that we're so far apart on this game means he may not be a good indicator of my enjoyment of games moving forward.
Though he does talk about the technical issues A LOT. I've seen almost none of that on the PC version (he cites things as extreme as characters getting stuck in T-poses what sounds like dozens of times in one playthrough... I haven't seen that even once) Are the console versions way worse in terms of performance, bugs, and glitches? I haven't followed platform specific feedback closely enough to have a good idea of this.
I laughed at this. You are definitely correct. Asari is about as far as I can go; even then in a hypothetical "real life" type encounter I'd say the head tentacles would probably be hard to get past...
Not in the sense that I think he's bullshitting, but the fact that we're so far apart on this game means he may not be a good indicator of my enjoyment of games moving forward.
Though he does talk about the technical issues A LOT. I've seen almost none of that on the PC version (he cites things as extreme as characters getting stuck in T-poses what sounds like dozens of times in one playthrough... I haven't seen that even once) Are the console versions way worse in terms of performance, bugs, and glitches? I haven't followed platform specific feedback closely enough to have a good idea of this.
I laughed at this. You are definitely correct. Asari is about as far as I can go; even then in a hypothetical "real life" type encounter I'd say the head tentacles would probably be hard to get past...
I wonder about the console version too. If you are bored GB has multiple mass effect streams now with Brad driving including a captured segment and all of them have technical issues. Could be a busted save or bad luck or w/e but of what gameplay he's shown streaming T-poses, broken animations, broken quest scripting, you have it all shows up.
The most broken thing I encountered was getting the heat lamp effect on Hoth to stick with me the whole planet and that was a benefit.
The most broken thing I encountered was getting the heat lamp effect on Hoth to stick with me the whole planet and that was a benefit.
prag16
Banned
Maybe I've been exceptionally lucky. But I've had three "bad" things happen in 37 hours:
-Got stuck trapped between a chair and Lexi and couldn't get out (initiating a conversation with her got me out of this state).
-Movie night quest disappeared entirely from my journal; but it was back after doing a couple more priority missions.
-Infinite loading/blackscreen on the Asari ark; killing the game and restarting put me right back where I left off with no further issues.
I've never seen a t-pose, a cloned character, or any of the other REALLY wonky shit (worst of the rest was a couple, very few, instances of the clipped dialogue lines people have been complaining about), and the three above were the only issues that veered anywhere close to "potential gamebreaker" territory. During the trial (pre-game-ready-driver from nvidia) I had one crash to desktop, but nothing else since.
This is not to say other people's experiences are "wrong". As I said maybe I've been lucky. Maybe the issues are MUCH worse on consoles. Or both.
VenomousCoffee
Member
I'm on PS4 and last night I got to the point where I unlocked loyalty missions for Cora and Drack.
I've had:
--several game crashes.
--long, serious freezes while driving until the game loads the next area.
--got stuck on cover and had to close the game
--a very irritating quest where the game wouldn't register some footprints as scan-able (this seems to be a common issue)
--enemies hovering in the air, etc.
--one npc was invisible for a cutscene.
But, no t-poses and no quests that wouldn't progress.
Also, I made BroRyder and my sister black, and the game made our dad black but our mom white. But, genetics can work out like that sometimes so I don't want to really harp on it as a bug (even though it probably is).
I've had:
--several game crashes.
--long, serious freezes while driving until the game loads the next area.
--got stuck on cover and had to close the game
--a very irritating quest where the game wouldn't register some footprints as scan-able (this seems to be a common issue)
--enemies hovering in the air, etc.
--one npc was invisible for a cutscene.
But, no t-poses and no quests that wouldn't progress.
Also, I made BroRyder and my sister black, and the game made our dad black but our mom white. But, genetics can work out like that sometimes so I don't want to really harp on it as a bug (even though it probably is).