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Early impressions from RPS for ME:A. It's... not good
- Thread starter Kumquat
- Start date
This is the most puzzling thing for me too. There can't be anyone on the dev team who thinks it isn't trash. Is there some mtx scheme behind it? Is it there to extend the overall game-time?
EA already gave them 5 years. The wait was over.
This makes a lot of sense now.
Allnamestakenlol
Member
I kinda want an option to not go into close-ups during dialogue. Just leave it in 3rd person and away from the godawful faces/animations.
Ah my mistake, still different studios spearheading the projects.
The Salt Life
Banned
Even if you take off off film grain, it still does not shut off in cutscene s, eh.....
Cover system is not fun at all. It just doesn't feel right so I just run around and shoot, which is going to get me killed.
Yeah Im pretty sure if I have to listen to Liam talk anymore it's going to drive me nuts.
Cover system is not fun at all. It just doesn't feel right so I just run around and shoot, which is going to get me killed.
Yeah Im pretty sure if I have to listen to Liam talk anymore it's going to drive me nuts.
I think that might make it pretty cool to be honest considering the situation, with good user control over the camera in cutscenes and any dialogue stuff...
The camera work is awful. It's either super lazy/rushed or they were expecting the faces to look a lot better.
wolfhowwl
Banned
A poorly executed cargo cult copy of Mass Effect 1 that forgets what the sequels improved, repeats the first game's mistakes (think Mako) while adding plenty of its own, and loses track of what people liked about the games to begin with.
texhnolyze
Banned
VibratingDonkey
Member
He who smelt it dealt it.
This is actually really good animation of a man farting in a space suit and then regretting it. I don't know what else it could be. Look at him.
Majestic 12
Banned
The negativity on these forums lately is piss poor, people look for any little thing to bitch about. Websites like this crave the clicks.
I don't know what you're even referring to. We've had literally dozens of threads about how great gaming is right now. The response to Zelda, Nier, and Horizon has been rapturous. Mass Effect is breaking the combo.
My two cents :
1.RPGs are long ass games,hard if not impossible to make judgements based on random first impressions.Game may start well then take a massive nose dive later on or vice versa.
2.Since when are people such sticklers for visuals ? BoTW just came out ,and it was praised despite lackluster visuals.You'll get used to it if the game is good.
1.RPGs are long ass games,hard if not impossible to make judgements based on random first impressions.Game may start well then take a massive nose dive later on or vice versa.
2.Since when are people such sticklers for visuals ? BoTW just came out ,and it was praised despite lackluster visuals.You'll get used to it if the game is good.
The Salt Life
Banned
Have you played it? If not then I guess you will find out for yourself. Right away your brain is going to say "well....That doesn't look right"
Having played all 3 of the past games recently, the visuals look.......Off. Not when out in the world but whenever it leaves game play and goes to the talking stuff. No scorpion or ps pro is going to fix that. It seems rushed and not fully baked. I'm still going to get it because it's mass effect but parts of it are ugly.
Hopefully this game will be an anomaly and not the first big step twords​ Bioware's shuttering.
wolfhowwl
Banned
The gulf of quality between this and Mass Effect 2, a seven year old game, is pretty glaring.
Then again there's a reason that game wasn't afraid to show a whole mission six months before the game released.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
BOTW went for a much simpler aesthetic which mostly worked in it's favour despite some rough texture work here and there in the environment, it didn't put too much focus on the limitations of it's own engine. Mass Effect Andromeda though, much like the previous games in the series is going for a sci-fi look with detailed environments and characters so the janky animation, glitchy, botched movement, and stiff facial expressions are all the more obvious when it aims for a more cinematic look than the former game, especially when it zooms in on characters mugs all the time during conversations. It says a lot when the characters and animations in the first 2 games which have been made almost a decade ago now actually look more convincing and believable.
It's about aesthetic, not visuals. In what game would these jankily animated lifeless looking mannequens with fucked up proportions fit? Certainly not this one. Zelda has a specific art and visual style that works flawlessly across the entire game. ME: A does not possess the same quality, even if it's graphics tech might be far more advanced. Never in Zelda do the people, creatures, or anything feel out of place or tonally inconsistent. They feel like they belong in that world, as goofy as they are. ME: A is clearly an example of the designers flat out fucking up.
KingParappa
Neo Member
Can't wait for those patches. Ryder's eyes freak me out
DeaDPo0L84
Member
While I understand some may just enjoy bitching, there is no way you can watch and of these streams or completely dismiss the credibility of opinions from trusted sources. You can take an hour or two and tell this game is just missing a heart, I feel like this is the most cookie cutter effort of a Mass Effect game. I am a huge ME fan, own almost every artbook, three of the high end statues, collectors edition of the original trilogy, so im not just being negative for the sake of it. I wanted this game to be THE game of 2017, it is very very very obvious that will not be the case.
So while yes its just a game I am completely disheartened by the effort (or lack thereof) that has been put into a much long awaited continuation of a huge beloved franchise.
Regarding 2: the animations are really, really bad and the human characters look atrocious. For a cinematic narrative-heavy game, it's off-putting and it detracts from the experience. Couple this with some awful dialogue and it just seems like a waste of time.
Regarding 1: based on what I've seen and heard now, they would have to pull a miracle to change the flaws of the game
1. Sure, but generally the idea is to put your best foot forward. The intro needs to grab the player's attention so that they want to play the rest. Based on the hour or so I've played of MEA's intro, I don't think it does a particularly good job of trying to impress the player, and that's disappointing.
2. BotW has a strong artistic style that makes the game aesthetically pleasing despite not being a technical marvel by modern standards. The characters in MEA have a really unsettling Uncanny Valley vibe to them that is immediately noticeable and breaks immersion pretty quickly.
If someone would have told me at the first of the year that we were going to have such an incredible streak of stellar games in Q1, only for Mass Effect to be the one that falls flat, I would have laughed in your face. Hell, I still don't believe that it is going to be nearly as bad as many have already prematurely decided it will be.
The same post-mortem on Mirror's Edge Catalyst.
Open world just cannot die soon enough.
Ive been laughing non stop at the gifs and commentary... but yeah this will suck for fans of the franchise who waited YEARS for this.
You realize that two amazingly well-reviewed open world games, Horizon and Zelda, just came out? Open world is not the problem, IMHO, and it's not going anywhere.
The issue is that it's a style that's very hard to do well, is over-saturated in the market, and one that ME deliberately moved away from in ME2/3 (which I far preferred, gameplay-wise, to ME1.)
As a trend, yeah, it pisses me off because I think it just killed two of my personal favorite series. I wish the trend would die.
Use open world if it's completely appropriate and you have a great plan. If you're just doing it because there are other successful games doing it and it's your sole justification to higher ups for funding the game, please just... don't.
I also feel like DAI would have been received better if it wasn't open world.
Lmao what?
Zelda, Horizon, RE 7, Yakuza 0, Nioh, Nier, etc
Andromeda is the first big release to fuck up the streak.
DA:I got a ton right, the issue they had was with world/level design and people just getting exhausted after the Hinterlands.
ME2 being described as "episodic" is apt, and I think part of why I really liked the game- you could easily play it a chapter at a time.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Yup, pretty consistent love for a ton of games in the first four months on this board. First case I've seen of a big AAA game this year not recieving much positive fanfare so far.
George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
Seeing all the feedback and gameplay after waiting 5 years for this game
Stone Ocean
Member
1 - 4~6 hours in is way beyond "random first impressions". I get that a game's intro may suck, but I'm never doing a FFXIII again.
2 - BoTW has lackluster visuals from a technical point, it still looks appealing and concise. MEA has jarring models and animations that pretty much kills cutscenes that are supposed to be taken seriously.
TheSadRanger
Banned
Yo I'm a HUGGEE ME fan and I want nothing more than for this game to be good.
But when I see stuff like this posted in the ea access thread I become a little suspect.
Gamespot talked about their playing the game In the entire episode they are shitting on the game so much. Story, UI, animations, characters, character customization. I'm surprised to see such a big mainstream site being so negative. The combat is the only good thing about the game.
WrenchNinja
Member
Yeah I just watched this, pretty rough
Of note, three from the left have all played previous Mass Effect games and are fans and the one on the very right has never played a Bioware game
CmdrShepard
Member
I agree - it really is a downer on my experience before i even get hands on myself with the game. The amount of nitpicking on here (some valid, some just silly) has reached newer heights so far this year.
However as i said - some of it seems very valid points raised. I know what to expect with a Bioware game in terms of animations but this time around seems worse. That still doesn't bother me as much as the apparent drop in quality of the writing however i am still cautious considering quite a few people still to this day consider ME3 to be terrible.
I guess that is what the trial is for - get a taster for yourself. Surprised i have yet to see many MP reactions?? ME3 MP was fantastic and i hope it is more of the same here.
My LGBT friends are pretty angry at the very poor representation as well. Gay characters are shuffled off to the side in supporting and token roles, which is very disappointing considering their previous efforts in DA:I.
Damn shame about the game though. Looks like Horizon remains my GotY so far.
Damn shame about the game though. Looks like Horizon remains my GotY so far.
SolicitorPirate
Member
Who are the gay characters? I presume the Asari is bi, since she's y'know, an Asari. And I think I've heard Vetra might be bi? Are there any other non-straight characters amongst the playable party?
this writing
wow
I watched a friend from Spain play a little, and funny enough the Spanish translation managed to make some of those lines come across a lot better. For instance, she doesn't say my face, she just refers to herself being tired. They use pioneer instead of Pathfinder in the Spanish translation, and instead of saying "until they've pathfound something", it's something like until they've found a new path.
Yikes.
Fans: The writing in ME3 sucked ass.
Bioware: Don't worry we'll fix that by giving a promotion to the guy responsible for the parts the fans hated!
Fans: Wait, what??!
Bioware: shhhhh only dreams now
No matter what type of general design this team would of opted for, I don't think they had any hope of making something great.
If freaking GG who had never done anything outside of shooters can do an open world rpg, no freaking excuses for Bioware to screw it up...
Based on what I've seen... Seems that the article is on-point. This game needs a LOT of polish.
Sanctuary
Member
Except they didn't really? The story and characters were all weak in Horizon, and the "RPG elements" were as light as they come. Good game still, but calling it an "open world RPG" is pushing it.
I'm so confused about why they decided to push the game out in March. I don't think anyone was even expecting the game to come out in Q1 (or at least not be delayed). They could have easily pushed it to fall and I doubt there would be much of a fuss.
Alex
Member
I thought the story was good, although the characters are somewhat meek. It absolutely isn't a game carried by its open world though, that is for sure. It is very pretty and filled with cool creatures but is ultimately one of the least interesting landscapes I can think of.