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[DeadlyParasite]

I don't recall if that was a task, but those

Spoiler

Advent folks never showed up again for me in any way.

I kept expecting it, but am left wondering if it was just a reference to some other property I am not putting together.

Spoiler

It'd be interesting to know just how large this supposed nation is. It probably isn't more than a hundred people at best. Hopefully rejecting them a source of water either forces them to give up or get violent with the Initiative so we can put them down for good. I won't tolerate rogue nations in my cluster.

Have we come to any sort of consensus on how long we're going to have to spoiler tag stuff yet?

 

[diaspora]

I don't recall if that was a task, but those

Spoiler

Advent folks never showed up again for me in any way.

I kept expecting it, but am left wondering if it was just a reference to some other property I am not putting together.

They don't show up in the game but it'd be interesting to see them show up later.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Ya know what else?

Fuck these goddamn Remnant vaults.

They are such bland drawn out shitty environments.

It's gotten so old wasting so much time wandering around trying to figure these stupid ass puzzles out.

I fucking hate them right now.

 

[prag16]

Are we playing the same game? All the vaults have been pretty quick, and they do change up the layout from vault to vault. Meh.

Anyway, finished the story tonight. 87% in 65 hours. Won't do anything else on this playthrough other than the epilogue (talk to crew? Not sure if there's anything else).

I don't feel close to done though, but may put off my NG+ run until I finish Horizon (and by then we'll have another patch or two). About to pass out but will probably do my mini-review post tomorrow. Spoiler alert, it'll be one of the most glowing ones to grace this topic (or the OT), even with the several blatant fuckups by Bioware. Love me some Mass Effect, and this definitely delivered.

 

[dr_rus]

Ya know what else?

Fuck these goddamn Remnant vaults.

They are such bland drawn out shitty environments.

It's gotten so old wasting so much time wandering around trying to figure these stupid ass puzzles out.

I fucking hate them right now.

It's as if doing the same thing over and over and over again in an open world game to unlock something is a bad game design decision in 2017. I'm still at a loss for words from how this was done in Mafia 3, btw.

 

[valkyre]

Guys are they going to add a 1080p mode for the Pro? Just went to Havarl and this shit is unacceptable really...

I mean I am actually surprised people dont talk about the performance of this game. I was in an outpost firefight and I swear framerate was down to the 15 fps area...

Also my Pro sounds like its about to take off... which is weird because i have bought a bunch of much better looking games than Andromeda, like for example Horizon, and the system is always silent enough to the point of not noticing it at least.

With MEA it is the first time I hear the fan go bananas.

So, in short, when can we expect a new patch and have they mentioned anything about at least giving Pro users the damn option to run the game in 1080p?

 

[prag16]

Dropped my final-ish thoughts in the OT.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=234234773&postcount=9823

Long story short: The bad aspects didn't bother me as much as they did most people, and all the great stuff outweighed it heavily, for me. This is my current GOTY, running ahead of of Horizon.

With the tons of things that point to DLC and/or sequel(s), I hope we haven't seen the last of ME for a while, as I really do think they have a set a stage that has a lot of potential. No need to go back to the Milky Way.

Things I'm interested in learning more about:

Spoiler

- Quarian Ark (DLC?)
- Garson's murder (DLC?)
- The Benefactor, and their potential involvement with the prior bullet point (DLC/sequel?)
- Scourge source/background (sequel?)
- Kett and Primus's next steps (sequel?)
- Jaardan (ties in with Angara and Remnant) history (sequel?)
- Are the Reapers involved at all in any of the above? (probably not; and probably better off that way, but I'm open to it if they could figure out somewhere compelling to go with it)

 

[DeadlyParasite]

Someone conducted a pretty thorough and detailed survey/analysis over on the Mass Effect subreddit regarding romances, gender orientation, and which Ryder players chose.

Some statistics and demographics are pretty surprising, others not so much.

The biggest takeaway from the survey is that there's a strong correlation between romance-related screentime and characters being picked. However some characters deliberately break that hypothesis, like Reyes (not a huge amount of screentime but super popular with heterosexual women at 41%) and Peebee (most screentime out of all the characters but only picked by 3.5% of heterosexual women in the survey).

Of course it's worth noting the sample size is only around 1500 people, taken from a largely fan-centric subreddit. Still fascinating nonetheless.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Guys are they going to add a 1080p mode for the Pro? Just went to Havarl and this shit is unacceptable really...

I mean I am actually surprised people dont talk about the performance of this game. I was in an outpost firefight and I swear framerate was down to the 15 fps area...

Also my Pro sounds like its about to take off... which is weird because i have bought a bunch of much better looking games than Andromeda, like for example Horizon, and the system is always silent enough to the point of not noticing it at least.

With MEA it is the first time I hear the fan go bananas.

So, in short, when can we expect a new patch and have they mentioned anything about at least giving Pro users the damn option to run the game in 1080p?

I am playing it on a PS4 Pro and I haven't noticed performance issues aside from cutscenes,

It runs fine.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Guys are they going to add a 1080p mode for the Pro? Just went to Havarl and this shit is unacceptable really...

I mean I am actually surprised people dont talk about the performance of this game. I was in an outpost firefight and I swear framerate was down to the 15 fps area...

Also my Pro sounds like its about to take off... which is weird because i have bought a bunch of much better looking games than Andromeda, like for example Horizon, and the system is always silent enough to the point of not noticing it at least.

With MEA it is the first time I hear the fan go bananas.

So, in short, when can we expect a new patch and have they mentioned anything about at least giving Pro users the damn option to run the game in 1080p?

I am playing it on a PS4 Pro and I haven't noticed performance issues aside from cutscenes,

It runs fine.

 

[Big Nikus]

No news about the next patch/updates ?

 

[DeadlyParasite]

No news about the next patch/updates ?

Nothing so far, but before the game released they did hint at some extra content for deluxe and super deluxe owners being added in the month of May so maybe they're delaying a massive update until early next month and reworking that new stuff into it.

Also, apparently a survey was sent out to some people by EA recently asking for feedback on the game so maybe they're planning some larger than anticipated content updates to the game beyond the June roadmap they've already laid out.

tldr; ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[valkyre]

I am playing it on a PS4 Pro and I haven't noticed performance issues aside from cutscenes,

It runs fine.

I am sorry, but it seems more like you cannot detect framerate problems, rather than the game actually "running fine"....

 

[BrassDragon]

Nothing so far, but before the game released they did hint at some extra content for deluxe and super deluxe owners being added in the month of May so maybe they're delaying a massive update until early next month and reworking that new stuff into it.

Also, apparently a survey was sent out to some people by EA recently asking for feedback on the game so maybe they're planning some larger than anticipated content updates to the game beyond the June roadmap they've already laid out.

tldr; ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

Survey appears to be very brief (and only US?) It's just a poll about player motivation and an open form for feedback.

My guess is that they're trying to postmortem the game's lukewarm reception, doesn't look like something that's going to have short-term impact.

 

[prag16]

Survey appears to be very brief (and only US?) It's just a poll about player motivation and an open form for feedback.


My guess is that they're trying to postmortem the game's lukewarm reception, doesn't look like something that's going to have short-term impact.

Did we see the same survey? It had like 20 pages of questions. And as someone else said it got way down in the weeds asking about facial animation quality, side quest quality, and such.

Agree about the second part though. This will affect the prospective next game, probably not this one.

 

[Lt-47]

Survey appears to be very brief (and only US?) It's just a poll about player motivation and an open form for feedback.


My guess is that they're trying to postmortem the game's lukewarm reception, doesn't look like something that's going to have short-term impact.

There's two survey a shot and a huge one.

 

[prag16]

Random thought. In the "postgame", I was expecting to be able to land on

Spoiler

Habitat 7 and see a difference compared to the prologue, after SAM touts how well it's doing or going to be doing.

I'm also disappointed we weren't able to see any of

Spoiler

Meridian other than the inside of the crashed Hyperion

. Was hard to see a lot looking out the windows.

Maybe DLC.

 

[Big Nikus]

There's two survey a shot and a huge one.

Fuck I just remembered this, I got the short one and wanted to answer, but it tells me that it's now closed :/

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Huh the latest extra map for MP is interesting, it's pretty much just an arena instead of a full map.
I wonder if they are going to have maps open up in sections later on, since this map seems like it was clearly designed to do so.

 

[Renekton]

Anyone miss the old codex?

I'm surprised voiced codex narration was omitted from Mass Effect Andromeda, and strangely I miss this element the most. This codex, read by a soothing voice, provided a massive load of world-building and primarily responsible for making me interested in the settomg. It is basically the first codex where I read and listened to everything.

 

[Mindlog]

Anyone miss the old codex?

I'm surprised voiced codex narration was omitted from Mass Effect Andromeda, and strangely I miss this element the most. This codex, read by a soothing voice, provided a massive load of world-building and primarily responsible for making me interested in the settomg. It is basically the first codex where I read and listened to everything.

I wish they had made a codex app. I really want games with codex/wiki apps that update according to my progress in the game so as to avoid spoilers. Almost a throwback to the old fiction pieces that used to be thrown into game manuals.

Make game manuals great again.

Related: Just remembering the game referenced a character before I even recruited them. wtf.

 

[SaylorMan]

I missed the narration as well. This game could've really stepped up the Codex by allowing the player to listen and drive the Nomad. Miss opportunity.

I do like the new layout of the Codex though!

 

[DeadlyParasite]

I missed the narration as well. This game could've really stepped up the Codex by allowing the player to listen and drive the Nomad. Miss opportunity.

I do like the new layout of the Codex though!

I also like the "The story so far" section and the dynamic Ryder personality evaluation that Lexi gives.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Why do so many people and reviews say Ryder has no personality?
It isn't super strong or anything but I actually like that Ryder feels more like an "average" person thrust into this and yet is pretty darn capable.

 

[Killzig]

Why do so many people and reviews say Ryder has no personality?
It isn't super strong or anything but I actually like that Ryder feels more like an "average" person thrust into this and yet is pretty darn capable.

Yeah, I don't get that at all. I feel like he's got too much personality as much as snarky commentary can replace personality.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Kind of a weird question but has there been any tv series with a bit of a Mass Effect feeling to it?
I saw a preview for "The Expanse" on Syfy since I started Andromeda and realized something even remotely similar would make an interesting tv series.

Yeah, I don't get that at all. I feel like he's got too much personality as much as snarky commentary can replace personality.

For a custom character that you specifically pick the dialog for I feel its pretty darn good at times even.
Might be different with other people's choices but my Sara Ryder who I typically pick as caring, sarcastic, flirty and confident(not cocky) seems to have a great personality at other times.

 

[diaspora]

Kind of a weird question but has there been any tv series with a bit of a Mass Effect feeling to it?
I saw a preview for "The Expanse" on Syfy since I started Andromeda and realized something even remotely similar would make an interesting tv series.

IMO the Expanse comes the closest. Little else (if anything) does.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

IMO the Expanse comes the closest. Little else (if anything) does.

Thank you.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

Kind of a weird question but has there been any tv series with a bit of a Mass Effect feeling to it?
I saw a preview for "The Expanse" on Syfy since I started Andromeda and realized something even remotely similar would make an interesting tv series.

Try Babylon 5 if you've never seen it, it shares quite a bit of elements and themes with Mass Effect (military main character, different alien races, ancient galactic threats and even an Earth Alliance!) although it's not so action-oriented.

Then there's Farscape which also shares some of those characteristics along with the 'ragtag bunch of mistfits in a ship' trope. The Quarian-Geth conflict is inspired by Battlestar Galactica which isn't very Mass Effect-ish but you should watch it anyway since is one of the best sci-fi shows ever. Lastly, not tv but if you liked the Rachni you might like Ender's Game and some of the Enderverse novels since the Formics were the main influence for them.

 

[diaspora]

I guess there's Deep Space 9 too where the ending went right off the fucking rails.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Thanks guys.

 

[Big Nikus]

Thanks guys.

I haven't watched the Expanse yet, but I vouch for Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.
First season of Babylon 5 is rough, but it's worth it for seasons 2-3-4.

 

[Mindlog]

One of my favorite Mass Effect 1 tracks.
They had a chance to do an ambient victory track for the very final hub of the game. Could have been so glorious. A hint of things to come type deal.

 

[SaylorMan]

So where does everybody rank this game among the series?
Personally Andromeda is my least favourite, though I did enjoy my time with the game.

Best to Worst:
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 1
Mass Effect Andromeda

I wasn't expecting the game to be better than the original trilogy, but I'm disappointed at the gap between ME1 and MEA on my top 100 games list.

Whenever things for happening in Andromeda, I feel for the most part it was really great and exciting. But there is too much sluggish down time. And coming off of Breath of the Wild it felt extra bad. Zelda makes just walking around picking up salt engaging and fun.
I hope BioWare moves back to a more linear structure, or if not take a serious look at Zelda and The Witcher 3.

P.S: I do prefer MEA over Breath of the Wild.

 

[prag16]

I haven't watched the Expanse yet, but I vouch for Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.
First season of Babylon 5 is rough, but it's worth it for seasons 2-3-4.

I've seen season one of The Expanse and it's pretty good. But Battlestar Galactica (the reboot; never seen the original) is excellent. Need to do a full series rewatch soon. I'm due. Probably as soon as I finish my DS9 runthrough.

 

[Big Nikus]

I've seen season one of The Expanse and it's pretty good. But Battlestar Galactica (the reboot; never seen the original) is excellent. Need to do a full series rewatch soon. I'm due. Probably as soon as I finish my DS9 runthrough.

Yeah The Expanse is on my list, I will watch it soon. I also need to rewatch BSG. That soundtrack...

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I haven't watched the Expanse yet, but I vouch for Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.
First season of Babylon 5 is rough, but it's worth it for seasons 2-3-4.

I've seen season one of The Expanse and it's pretty good. But Battlestar Galactica (the reboot; never seen the original) is excellent. Need to do a full series rewatch soon. I'm due. Probably as soon as I finish my DS9 runthrough.

Added them all to my list, thanks for the help.

 

[Kabouter]

So where does everybody rank this game among the series?
Personally Andromeda is my least favourite, though I did enjoy my time with the game.

Best to Worst:
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 1
Mass Effect Andromeda

I wasn't expecting the game to be better than the original trilogy, but I'm disappointed at the gap between ME1 and MEA on my top 100 games list.

Whenever things for happening in Andromeda, I feel for the most part it was really great and exciting. But there is too much sluggish down time. And coming off of Breath of the Wild it felt extra bad. Zelda makes just walking around picking up salt engaging and fun.
I hope BioWare moves back to a more linear structure, or if not take a serious look at Zelda and The Witcher 3.

P.S: I do prefer MEA over Breath of the Wild.

Mmmh, maybe ME1 > ME:A = ME2 > > ME3 for me. Really really enjoyed Andromeda tbh.

 

[Renekton]

Mass Effect Andromeda seems like Bioware's Resident Evil 6. They tried to please every group of fans who don't see eye to eye on any direction of the game.

 

[BrassDragon]

Mass Effect Andromeda seems like Bioware's Resident Evil 6. They tried to please every group of fans who don't see eye to eye on any direction of the game.

I get what you're saying but to me it feels like different internal factions were pulling the game in different directions rather than outside expectations causing this weirdly generic smoothie.

 

[VenomousCoffee]

Mass Effect is my favorite thing from last generation, but I just unsubscribed from the OT and MP threads, and yesterday I deleted the install from my PS4.

I'm just really bummed at how this game turned out.

I see we're doing rankings. For me it's probably:

ME2 5/5
ME1 also 5/5
ME3 (SP) 3/5
ME:A 2/5

 

[diaspora]

Mmmh, maybe ME1 > ME:A = ME2 > > ME3 for me. Really really enjoyed Andromeda tbh.

I'd probably reverse this for myself. 3 > 2/A > 1. In spite of 3 fumbling the ending the rest of the game was sublime IMO.

Mass Effect Andromeda seems like Bioware's Resident Evil 6. They tried to please every group of fans who don't see eye to eye on any direction of the game.

It feels like the game is at odds with itself. You have the game forcing you to go through like a dozen fucking steps to go to another planet yet have quests designed to take you to multiple locations. You can have one or the other- by having both you end up pissing everyone off.

I get what you're saying but to me it feels like different internal factions were pulling the game in different directions rather than outside expectations causing this weirdly generic smoothie.

It just feels like the game was leaderless. A bunch of people working on their own thing like the writers designing quests that take place on different planets, then designers making you go through 10+ steps to go from planet to planet. Then there was nobody there to say "these things don't work together".

 

[TC McQueen]

Here's my rankings:
1. ME2 (full package w/ all story DLC)
2. MEA (no DLC, campaign not finished yet)
3. ME3 (+From Ashes only)
4. ME1 (+Bring Down the Sky only)

Reasoning for the rankings:
-ME2 has the most meat on the bones due to the sheer amount of DLC it got, plus the gameplay improvements and character driven focus of the game make it a lot more accessible than the other games of the trilogy.
-MEA has some great gameplay improvements and the fact that it's designed as a standalone story is good. Has a lot of jank and filler though, plus odd design decisions for the UI and crafting mechanics.
-My XBox 360 RROD'd trying to import a FemShep save after a patch, so at launch, ME3 was 60+% fetch quests and a few gameplay missions (including the repurposed MP maps), even with From Ashes installed. Not a very enjoyable game, even when ignoring the ending.
-ME1 is full of jank, poor design decisions, and an overrated story (IMO). Even with Bring Down the Sky, it's just not that enjoyable to play, especially after playing more recent entries in the series, and MEA better executes a lot of the ideas in ME1 anyway.

 

[Mindlog]

I still have some mileage to get out of MEA SP and looking forward to the DLC. For the life of me I can't rank the game. I can't rank any of the Mass Effect games against one another. They all have features I enjoy and features that I strongly dislike.

However, despite my enjoyment of MEA I can say that it has been my biggest disappointment. This was the easiest game in the series to knock out of the park and it comes up short in too many ways. I was 40+ hours into the campaign before my first interrupt option. Something went wrong.

 

[prag16]

I still have some mileage to get out of MEA SP and looking forward to the DLC. For the life of me I can't rank the game. I can't rank any of the Mass Effect games against one another. They all have features I enjoy and features that I strongly dislike.

That's pretty much where I stand. I guess I can say ME1 is the "worst", but between 2, 3, and Andromeda (yes, even Andromeda) I find it REALLY hard to rank them. There are pluses and minuses to all. Still can't believe I played the same game as some people (like VenomousCoffee above) who seemingly turned in their Mass Effect fan card due to ME:A allegedly being so dumpster-fire-ish-ingly horrible.

 

[VenomousCoffee]

That's pretty much where I stand. I guess I can say ME1 is the "worst", but between 2, 3, and Andromeda (yes, even Andromeda) I find it REALLY hard to rank them. There are pluses and minuses to all. Still can't believe I played the same game as some people (like VenomousCoffee above) who seemingly turned in their Mass Effect fan card due to ME:A allegedly being so dumpster-fire-ish-ingly horrible.

Oh I still have the card for the trilogy (although in hindsight, I'm not a huge fan of 3's SP; it feels very rushed, which it was). But Andromeda--even if they fixed all the bugs and you skipped the 'tasks'--just didn't have much magic for me.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Me3
Mea
Me2
Me1

Only ranking 3 higher than mea because there's some stuff in mp that pisses me off.

 

[dr_rus]

ME1 > ME2 > ME3 > MEA.

 

[Yeul]

I guess since everyone is ranking I'd say ME2>ME3>ME:A>ME1. But at the same time, ME:A doesn't have any DLC out for it so it may in all likelihood rank above ME3 in the end. It's tough, there's a lot about ME:A that I like, but as it stands rn without all the patches out and no DLC I feel sort of annoyed by a lot of little things. It's like..idk..being in a really pretty rainforest but bugs keep biting you (lol????). You enjoy being there but the bug bites make it aggravating. Please forgive my awful analogy holy crap.

I have a lot of problems with how dialogue was handled in the game, but I might have been able to swallow a bit of it in some respects if I felt more attached to Ryder. Using a character creator really helps me care a lot of the time, but with this one so limited I didn't feel that investment I guess you could say. That of course doesn't really excuse the way the Archon was handled imo, but that's another issue entirely.

 

[diaspora]

I know I complain about the daft design decisions in the game but good lord, I love everything about the Angaran

Spoiler

AI

quest on Voeld.