I've verified - reinstalled it twice. Still crashing for me. Only thing that happened last night was an update for Win 10 but i don't see anyone talking about this.
8 hours with the game so far on PC (i7-4790k / GTX 1070):
4 hours of MP:
+ If you enjoyed ME3's MP, you'll enjoy it here
+ Maps are smaller, but more vertical - allowing dynamic firefights more often and matches go by quicker
- Rubber banding, lag and weird animation issues
- Sound mixing is awful and needs to be fixed
4 hours of SP:
+ It looks and plays nice on my PC at 1440p / 60 FPS with a mix of high and ultra settings
+ Gameplay gives you more variety with access to all skills
- Planet scanning is simplified, but kind of pointless and takes up time (especially if there are no anomalies to scan for)
- Some of the dialog and writing is just bad
- Just like with the MP, animations are weird and all over the place
It's Mass Effect, so the sense of wonder and planetary exploration keeps you wanting to play more. Will be another divisive game in the series, but I don't think it's terrible - there's fun to be had in MP and SP! It gets a purchase from me since I'm engrossed with the series and I want to see the story through the end to see if BioWare made any improvements.
Aaand that's basically a wrap for me. 15 minutes or so left in the trial, still stuff to do, but I'm tapping out until the full release where I fully intend to restart afresh.
Interesting experience. As a whole positive and excited to play at launch, knowing I will lose myself in the galaxy and story and likely comb over every bit of content it has to offer. Definitely a slow burn, finding myself more drawn to the premise and design towards the tail end of the trail compared to the early hours. I put this down half due to preconceptions and assumed baggage from my love and experience with the trilogy, given Andromeda shamelessly casts it all aside for what is now abundantly clear a soft reboot. It feels like Mass Effect, but a very different, new template Mass Effect. And in part due to surprising technical and production deficiencies, particularly in cutscene animation and general jank, which is not a game killer to me, but surprisingly consistent on the average-to-poor spectrum. Something clearly didn't work out there.
I'm expecting a bunch of bugs and quirks at release and the following months. That is par for course for literally every game of this scope and calibre, no matter the developers. I just hope they're not too significant. I feel, like Wild Hunt, it'll be an even better game 6 - 12 months from now with QOL patches and bug crunching, but I'm not interested in waiting. I hope the narrative and cast hold their own throughout. I don't buy the vague "It's just like Inquisition!" criticism, which rings hollow to me; exploring Eos and uncovering what happened through scanning and ambient dialogue had me intrigued and I look forward to more of that. I think ultimately much of the cast and narrative just need time to prove themselves. They've got huge shoes to fill, unfairly maybe. Getting to know and develop an entire game's worth of completely new stuff is hard to put up against characters developed over three games. But we'll see.
Multiplayer needs massive patches or at least regional filtering. It feels really good to play but it's busted as fuck in latency and audio positioning. Very disappointed there. And if Andromeda cant hold the longevity and fan legacy that ME3 had, the multiplayer will be dead pretty quickly and that'll just make me more disappointed. Big gamble there, but hoping stuff gets ironed out ASAP. Filter, BioWare. Please please please. Let met matchmake locally. Please.
My prediction is that despite the franchise legacy and huge scope of what I do feel is a good game, it'll be somewhat divisive in reviews. I'm expecting a low 80s metacritic average. Which doesn't really mean shit to me, but you know, for the sake of speculating regarding a AAA mass market game, that's where I'm going. I think fan reception will be hugely divided too. And ultimately I feel the response from across the board will have a significant impact in an Andromeda 2, much in the same way as Mass Effect transitioned to its sequel, should we ever actually see it. Worse case scenario; divisive reviews and a cynical buzz surrounding the title seriously dampen the overall sales, launching decently but having poor legs. Price gets dropped low early. EA is generally unhappy and puts the franchise on the backburner for awhile, shifting emphasis back to the next Dragon Age, a Star Wars game from BioWare, and Edmonton's Destiny.
Nevertheless; I am excited and keen to play, eager to yet again lose countless hours of myself in the franchise that just keeps abusing me. I hope it doesn't fall to pieces as the adventure goes on. I hope the multiplayer gets fixed, and is sufficiently supported. I hope patches and updates smooth out bugs and rougher content quickly. I hope the inevitable DLC is appealing and rich. And I hope EA and BioWare don't drop the series, but take lessons on storytelling, design, and technology forward to a successor.
Awesome write-up man, thanks!
Is that one of the default Ryder's btw?
I'm thinking I wanna make either an asian or black female lead
So is 'pathfinder' the new 'inquisitor'?
As in, everyone knows your title, you have free reign to do whatever the fuck you please and you're the one savior/hero for mankind?
So is 'pathfinder' the new 'inquisitor'?
As in, everyone knows your title, you have free reign to do whatever the fuck you please and you're the one savior/hero for mankind?
People basically see you as the second coming of Christ as the pathfinder in ME:A.So is 'pathfinder' the new 'inquisitor'?
As in, everyone knows your title, you have free reign to do whatever the fuck you please and you're the one savior/hero for mankind?
So is 'pathfinder' the new 'inquisitor'?
As in, everyone knows your title, you have free reign to do whatever the fuck you please and you're the one savior/hero for mankind?
Sometimes I wonder how much Bioware's player ego-stroking design philosophy is responsible for cultivating a rabid fanbase.
You mean like a SPECTRE from the original trilogy?
They were trying to capture a certain feeling and the renegade Captain out to save the universe was part of that. I don't think it would be "Mass Effect" without it. Now I don't see that as being so integral to Dragon Age so they might have room for change there and who knows what they're doing with the new IP. However at the end of the day, Mass Effect is all about being a power fantasy but I feel there's nothing inherently wrong with that because that's what that type of scifi was like.http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/01/19/mass-effect-interview-2 said:IGN:
So you just spoke about how you want players to feel that they're somebody special. We know that you take the role of Commander Shepard as the main character and I've read that you can create your own character and build him from the ground up.
Casey Hudson:
So if you think about some of the really great, memorable science fiction stories or even characters, like Captain Kirk or Jack Bauer. Any story about that kind of a character has a very specific flavor to it and that's one thing we didn't want to miss out on with Mass Effect.
Sometimes I wonder how much Bioware's player ego-stroking design philosophy is responsible for cultivating a rabid fanbase.
Yes. BioWare has a massive boner for comic-book-like power fantasy protagonists.
People basically see you as the second coming of Christ as the pathfinder in ME:A.
"-Sound mixing is awful and needs to be fixed"
Well, damn. I thought it sounded off in the gameplay trailers. Mass Effect 2 and 3 had great soundmixes, so this is surprising.
Sometimes I wonder how much Bioware's player ego-stroking design philosophy is responsible for cultivating a rabid fanbase.
And then you realise the fanbase is completely fine, and it actually is the growing culture of GAF that likes to shit on games (or consoles) they weren't going to play anyway.
Ego-stroking design philosophy? That's a new one.
Really? From what i read people are estimating a low to mid 80 on MC.What I don't get is there are way more posts of people actually saying "despite blah blah blah I liked the game" yet GAF is still acting like this is going to be a 30 on MC.
And then you realise the fanbase is completely fine, and it actually is the growing culture of GAF that likes to shit on games (or consoles) they weren't going to play anyway.
What I don't get is there are way more posts of people actually saying "despite blah blah blah I liked the game" yet GAF is still acting like this is going to be a 30 on MC.
I have no idea where this is coming from. What does "growing shit culture on GAF" have to do with the hypothesis that a player ego-stroking approach to game design might cultivate a community with a number of expectations and constantly being catered to?
I really wish DA2 was a game of comparable quality to DAO so that we could compare fan reaction to the narrative without DA2's gameplay weaknesses colouring those reactions
What I don't get is there are way more posts of people actually saying "despite blah blah blah I liked the game" yet GAF is still acting like this is going to be a 30 on MC.
Oh thinking about sound, the music in this game is pretty trash. The track when the Tempest came in seemed like it was trying to be a new Normandy Reborn but it was flat as hell. I almost started laughing but it was clear at that moment that the composer wasn't capable of living up to his predecessors. This OST feels like a huge step down from Hulick and Wall. Completely unmemorable.
As it is in this thread and considering the recent bottom-tier quality of discussions in Gaming around ME:A, I was pretty sure your message referenced the recent outburst of shitposting, and implying the Bioware fanbase being responsible for it
The galaxy map theme is a redux of the version from the OT right? It seems like they wanted the same type of music but didn't want to get the same people back? It doesn't feel original enough that I can judge it as its own thing nor is it good enough that I think it stands next to the work in the OG trilogy.I agree with some notes, but I love the subtle synth ambience on Eos and the galaxy map theme.
It's just a stale formula at this point, the premise for Andromeda was a perfect opportunity for them to branch out and not tread such familiar territory. I don't know how the story ends up going, so maybe we'll be disproven, but a lot of the writing in the opening couple of hours just seems a bit uninspired, and I wonder if falling back onto the same tropes we've seen dozens of times before in their games already maybe didn't exercise the writer's creative muscles as much as it could've.Playing as the chosen one is a core tenant of BioWare narrative and premise, to be honest, and has been for a long, long time. And for what it's worth, it's something I am personally not a fan of and do wish would change, because I feel more interesting, believable stories can be told with nuanced sensibility behind the protagonist's identity. But it is what it is and while I encourage change it's an odd thing to condemn at this point.
Criticise should be welcomed, but there's got to be a point where you just realise these are the kind of stories they pen. It's not like some recent revelation. These protagonists are BioWare incarnate.
Erm lip syncing in Horizon is sometimes off but even the worst of it is better than or atleast on par with Andromeda overall. When it comes to facial expressions themselves Horizon has absolutely zero problems there (no one has said anything negative about the expressions themselves for Horizon i.e. movement of eyes, eyebrows, head etc) on the other hand facial expressions in Andromeda either don't exist or are very awkward looking. Take that Ashley gif comparison for example, she is moving her head, eyebrows while talking it rarely happens in Andromeda. If you pay attention you'll see even the blinking of eyes feel artificial as they are too far spaced out and too slow.
I simply cannot see how anyone can think lip syncing of all the things is "on point" in Andromeda.
Oh thinking about sound, the music in this game is pretty trash. The track when the Tempest came in seemed like it was trying to be a new Normandy Reborn but it was flat as hell. I almost started laughing but it was clear at that moment that the composer wasn't capable of living up to his predecessors. This OST feels like a huge step down from Hulick and Wall. Completely unmemorable.
The companion introduction scenes are pretty meh IMO.
Also, Cora and Liam's dialogue/voice acting demonstrate no personalities, I don't know why do you want to court them. I guess staying in the outback long enough you get desperate.
Had to cheese my way and stay in the building and let the Kett come one by one (the enemy AI is dumb too, they would shoot at me while seeing me in the building from the other side through the glass thingy which can't be broken) so just went outside led them in and blast them when they entered through the front door of the building with the squad mates. Does that sound fun?
This is specifically the multiplayer. Single player seems fine, but multiplayer is...yeah, fuck. It's straight up busted, to the point of hearing encounters right behind you that might be on the other side of the map in front of you. There's very clearly something technically broken there.
The voice acting in general is kinda off. For example the.Liara voice logs sounded awful in that after every line from Liara there was this huge delay/pause