Support NeoGAF

[GlamFM]

What was it , you can tell now??

Sure, since I read it in a bunch of articles that reported it over the last two years.

There was actual manual space flight. You would fly to a planet and actually land there NMS style.

 

[Lime]

I've had a bad feeling about this game since the first reveal. Looks like I had reason to.

Nothing about this game has ever once struck me with confidence, from the strange and anticlimactic way it was announced to the feeling that Bioware seemed to be stuck in 360/PS3 gen whenever gameplay and cinematics were shown.

That in itself isn't a terrible thing but 75% is a massive disappointment. With the length of time spent on this game and the huge backlash to ME3, this game needed to be something special.

I can't even remember how the game was unveiled. Was it the E3 2014 or 15 Western trailer with Daddy Ryder?

 

[SomedayTheFire]

'Bring back exploration'
'More rpg focus'
'The MAKO is back'

One of the big consistent critics of this game in the interviews is that it's full of busy work - vast amounts of things to do, but backed up by poor writing and characterization.

The highest reviewed game in the series is the one which stripped out *all* the busy work and so called 'RPG mechanics' to focus purely on character writing and well crafted combat encounters. Where every single mission was unique, with a plot and detail that made it interesting, and a unique aspect. Even killing mercs in a swamp had a graphic effect and mechanic that didn't occur anywhere else in the game.

There's always been a vocal crowd of people who preferred ME1 to the others, and miss the 'exploration' that offered. Bioware tried to give us exploration in this game, and so far it doesn't seem to have worked that well as a complete package.

there's fuck all RPG focus in this game though.

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

I am glad I did not preorder. I have been very tepid about this release and the reviews pretty much confirmed my fears. Might get it on sale but I will most likely skip it.




I don't think you have to worry about P5. lol

Persona 5 all ready has great reviews from the east and some praising from the west as well.

 

[Holundrian]

Some of them are though. Are you saying that they're wrong?

I'm saying that it was a pretty bad argument like yours. Whether you enjoy it or not this game had clear technical red flags that were not going to be fixed by launch.
It was very easy to see that enjoyment will correlate to how easily you can overlook that stuff in the context of it being character dialog driven game.
In short reading another wave of rabbit fanboyism just made my face tired. People just lost the art of being critical even for games they love. Like I can go into a thread about a game I love to tidbits write good criticism and just encounter the most awful counterarguments it makes my brain hurt to read. At least for this nobody is going to quote the MC score. Shoutout to the Yakuza 0 thread though a game I dearly love but heavily criticize people have been very reasonable in there given how how much everyone generally likes it.

 

[Real Hero]

kind of torn on this one... played ME1 and loved it. never got around to playing the rest for whatever reason so i don't think i'd be as critical over its shortcomings, and i'm in the mood for a 'big' rpg

if i need something to play this weekend i'll pick it up i guess.

why not just play the good mass effect games

 

[LyleLanley]

Judge for yourself.

Man, everything about this is awful.

 

[texhnolyze]

Now that the core of our team is in place, the next step for us is to have the BioWare Montreal studio grow at an accelerated pace over the next year as we build a team large enough to support the production of what we know is going to be an amazing game in the franchise. If you or someone you know is interested in joining our team, keep an eye on our job postings. We’re always looking for talented and passionate people, but it is more the case now than ever!

Wait, does that mean they're already planning/working on the next Mass Effect game?

I'm saying that it was a pretty bad argument like yours. Whether you enjoy it or not this game had clear technical red flags that were not going to be fixed by launch.
It was very easy to see that enjoyment will correlate to how easily you can overlook that stuff in the context of it being character dialog driven game.

In short reading another wave of rabbit fanboyism just made my face tired. People just lost the art of being critical even for games they love. Like I can go into a thread about a game I love to tidbits write good criticism and people just catch the most awful counterargument it makes my brain hurt to read. At least for this nobody is going to quote the MC score.

You say that as if I never criticize the game at all. I accept that the game is a buggy mess, but who are you to mock us who are going to play the game despite all that?

 

[Quonny]

Cool. Looking forward to it.

 

[deoee]

Are those all his children?

All have a tumblr account and write fanfiction.
That's where most of the dialogue is from

 

[Audioboxer]

Me1 91
Me2 96
Me3 93

Me:A 75 ?

What happened to the original Mass Effect Development Team? How could EA let this happen to such a big franchise?

Looks like a combination of the original teams being gutted and/or people leaving, and the newer team not spending enough time playing/researching and understanding why Me1~3 rank as they do.

Bioware might not have put a 4 in the title, mainly because Me1~3 was a trilogy that ended, but for all intents and purposes the gamers saw this as Me4. Therefore, expectations were set accordingly.

I am glad I did not preorder. I have been very tepid about this release and the reviews pretty much confirmed my fears. Might get it on sale but I will most likely skip it.




I don't think you have to worry about P5. lol

2015? Dude, cmon

But yeah, a game that got as long as it needed.

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

This is a weird ass post and I don't understand what it's for

Is this like a call to arms to attack the people that made a bad Mass effect or something? Because that's fucking gross.

Sometimes games are disappointments. In a Q1 where we got RE7, Yakuza, Horizon, Zelda, and Nier, something had to give. Take a deep breath and move on.

I was just looking for what games they worked on. It's not my fault they post their image on Bioware's site. I don't condone witch hunts.

 

[The perfect Dark]

So this is pretty much the score DA:I deserves.
No buy if this game has the same shitty side quest gameplay.

 

[Radec]

Me1 91
Me2 96
Me3 93

Me:A 75 ?

What happened to the original Mass Effect Development Team? How could EA let this happen to such a big franchise?

Having no number in the game will make its metacritic go down confirmed.

 

[YankeeDonB]

Writing was my big concern after seeing a lot of the early access stuff. And, it seems, that doesn't resolve later in the game. Long, dialogue heavy, character driven single player games need good writing and plotting, and there's just no way around that.

 

[down 2 orth]

Tis a long time since Baldur's Gate-Bioware

Those two Biowares only seem to share the same name. The original company used to be all about innovating and revolutionizing the RPG genre. I'm not sure the teams there now could do that even if they really wanted to.

 

[vivekTO]

Sure, since I read it in a bunch of articles that reported it over the last two years.

There was actual manual space flight. You would fly to a planet and actually land there NMS style.

What a missed opportunity, although technically it is much harder to do for a AAA game than for NMS, but still.

 

[AerialAir]

I wonder if we'll see a trilogy remaster if the game doesn't sell well

I'd buy that day one, if properly remastered by a good company like Blind Squirrel Games or another. But this... this I will not buy, not after I forced myself to finish Inquisition and seeing that EA hasn't learned its lesson.

 

[Lime]

Wait, does that mean they're already planning/working on the next Mass Effect game?

it just means that they are always working on projects. As far as I remember Patryn or Nirolak writing, each of the 3 Bioware studio functions as lead on one project while the others help out. Montreal will probably be moving on to provide support for whatever next Bioware project is coming up - maybe the new IP that's supposedly getting revealed soon.

Whether or not some employees are working in pre-production of the next ME already, I have no idea. Most likely, but whether or not it gets greenlit into full production depends on what EA wants to do with the series after/if Andromeda bombs.

 

[ZeoVGM]

I can't even remember how the game was unveiled. Was it the E3 2014 or 15 Western trailer with Daddy Ryder?

If I remember correctly, it was sort of openly acknowledged that it existed but the "reveal" was some weird "behind the scenes" video where they showed people working on the game and some of the environments.

At the EA E3 press conference.

No, guys. That's not how you do a reveal for a game like this. Wait until you have enough gameplay and/or story ready to give an epic trailer.

 

[benicillin]

I wonder if it'll hit Dragon Age 2 levels, which I think was a 79 on meta?

Either way I'm looking forward to it, following up ME trilogy with one game was always going to be a monumental task. Hope they learn from this and apply it to DLC or the next one.

 

[DJSebolski]

Me1 91
Me2 96
Me3 93

Me:A 75 ?

What happened to the original Mass Effect Development Team? How could EA let this happen to such a big franchise?

Exactly, seems like a different studio developed it. Biggest disappointment of 2017 so far.

 

[MosquitoSmasher]

I just don't get how some sites can give it a 9.5 or slightly lower when you have several sites mentioning things that really really drag down the experience. A 9.5 seems incredibly high for it.

I definitely still want to try it for myself because I enjoyed the start of it a lot. I enjoyed most of that trial actually. But the stuff I'm reading doesn't sound good and that's a goddamn big disappointment. Is it actually true that the old BioWare was not the team behind this one? If so, absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Pixieking]

I was just looking for what games they worked on. It's not my fault they post their image on Bioware's site. I don't condone witch hunts.

In that case, remove the photo. Posting a link to their blog is one thing, but you actually took time out to post the photo of the dev team here. And, by your own admission, it isn't actually relevant to what you were looking for.

 

[Parahan]

I mean, does everything need to be open world now?

The faster this fades the better for plot heavy games like the ones Bioware does. Can you imagine Dragons Age Origins or Bladurs gate with open world?

IIRC, the bioware doctors always mentioned in their interviews about depth and non-linearity being the most important part of their narrative. Neither of those mandate "open world" nor does being open world make up for lack of good story/dialogue choices. Wish they hadn't left.

 

[SuperBanana]

I wanted Mass Effect to come back soooooo badly.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

But but but early impressions have been positive!!!!
xD

So people's opinions are magically wrong now that the embargo is lifted? Lol

 

[Wulfram]

Exactly, seems like a different studio developed it. Biggest disappointment of 2017 so far.

I mean, a different studio did develop it.

 

[Nightmare452]

Reviews sound good to me. The story and characters looked out of place and just odd from the first trailer onward. However, after the fantastic combat of ME3, the reason for wanting this game/series to continue was not the story, but the combat. Most reviews seem to criticize the story and animations, but not many are complaining about the actual combat. Great to hear for me honestly, since thats where I wanted it to shine. Consider ME:A a third person shooter with a weak story. No problems there then, been playing and enjoying games​ like that for decades.

 

[Vinc]

So basically, there's a good chance patches will fix this game's biggest issues.

I'll just wait until these issues are fixed, I've got plenty of games to get through first. I really hope this game succeeds.

 

[Vire]

Incredibly disappointing..

 

[Kill3r7]

Me1 91
Me2 96
Me3 93

Me:A 75 ?

What happened to the original Mass Effect Development Team? How could EA let this happen to such a big franchise?

For all it's popularity among core gamers it is not as big a franchise as one might think. That said Shepard's story ended with ME3. The reviews so far make it sounds though EA made just a sequel for the sake of making a sequel and not because they had something new that they wanted to bring to the franchise.

 

[Exodust]

I've read and watched some reviews, and it feels like the scores were a bit higher than what they wrote down implied.

Looks horrible. Can't say I'm disappointed though, as I finished my story with the original games. I did think the story concept was cool, too bad that was wasted.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Is it true the Codex doesn't even have narration anymore??

 

[Ragnar Blackmane]

Some outsourcing? It seems like some who worked on Andromeda have even left already.

With core developers I was referring to the core dev team (which usually do the bulk and core of the development) without the additional outsourced labour (which is considerable for pretty much any game). For the budget the game had ($40 million) and by the nature of being a AAA title, the core team size is really small, usually there would be easily twice as many (100+).

 

[Xater]

So basically, there's a good chance patches will fix this game's biggest issues.

I'll just wait until these issues are fixed, I've got plenty of games to get through first. I really hope this game succeeds.

I don't see how patches will fix the major issues of this which include bad writing and quest design.

 

[Holundrian]

So people's opinions are magically wrong now that the embargo is lifted? Lol

No I'm throwing shade on people that still haven't learned shit about early impressions especially in the face of overwhelming evidence of technical problems, this was an argument thrown around to silence people voicing concern about the state of the game. But LOL indeed. I look forward to the next time this happens again probably even this year.

 

[Wulfram]

I've read and watched some reviews, and it feels like the scores were a bit higher than what they wrote down implied.

Heh, I read some reviews and thought the scores were a bit lower than what they wrote implied

 

[Lime]

Reviews sound good to me. The story and characters looked out of place and just odd from the first trailer onward. However, after the fantastic combat of ME3, the reason for wanting this game/series to continue was not the story, but the combat. Most reviews seem to criticize the story and animations, but not many are complaining about the actual combat. Great to hear for me honestly, since thats where I wanted it to shine. Consider ME:A a third person shooter with a weak story. No problems there then, been playing and enjoying games​ like that for decades.

Trouble is that story and characters fill up many, many hours of this game and is one of the central pillars of the Mass Effect universe/attraction.

Is it true the Codex doesn't even have narration anymore??

Yes, no narration, just like no squad appearance customization and no power wheel.

 

[mocoworm]

I'm not an expert on AAA development but that team looks small.

I am really enjoying my time with the EA Access preview. I am keeping my pre-order as well. It isn't as good as the first 3, and there are definite concerns with the tech but I love Mass Effect and I still want to see it through. I hope that patches will sort out some of the issues.

 

[SuperBanana]

"This feels like a direct to video sequel to Mass Effect" - Giantbomb.

Fucking ouch.

 

[saskuatch]

With mass effect now dead, what hope is there for space opera now. There is nothing else.

 

[ZeroX03]

I mean I could feel something was off about the game, had been saying it for a while. It just didn't grab me. Then the gameplay trailer looked rough. So scores like this... I'm not surprised. Easy to skip this game when there's so many other good titles around.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Think about a new galaxy, a whole new potential of life forms, of evolutionary exoticism, of astounding new ideas. Now discard them all and think of intensely familiar bipedal people living in ordinary cities with ordinary thoughts, relationships, educations, jobs, and would you believe it, technology exactly on a par with what you just happened to bring with you. Floating octopuses that think in cascading colours? Societies based on amorphous interaction? Ideas better than the ones I’m throwing out? Nope, not a single thing.

D:

 

[Audioboxer]

With core developers I was referring to the core dev team (which usually do the bulk and core of the development) without the additional outsourced labour (which is considerable for pretty much any game). For the budget the game had ($40 million) and by the nature of being a AAA title, the core team size is really small, usually there would be easily twice as many (100+).

Fair points.

I don't see how patches will fix the major issues of this which include bad writing and quest design.

Yup, jank I can live with, and if it's patched, great. A weak backbone with shitty quests/writing and VA that cannot really be changed, meh.

With mass effect now dead, what hope is there for space opera now. There is nothing else.

So say we all.

But yeah, ME WAS our BSG.

 

[……forgetit]

Whelp, back to Zelda I guess -_-

 

[Lord of Castamere]

Sure, since I read it in a bunch of articles that reported it over the last two years.

There was actual manual space flight. You would fly to a planet and actually land there NMS style.

Ah. So this will go down as a game that shot too high and fell because of it. What's fucked up is the same happened with Inquisition. That time cross gen was the excuse. I wonder what it is this time. Thankfully the target footage didn't leak out this time.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1031314

So much planned. A shame. Hopefully this isn't the last Mass Effect, and they actually fix what went wrong.

 

[Reineldinho]

Looking forward to it

 

[Slixshot]

With mass effect now dead, what hope is there for space opera now. There is nothing else.

KOTOR III BABY!!!

 

[Xater]

I mean I could feel something was off about the game, had been saying it for a while. It just didn't grab me. Then the gameplay trailer looked rough. So scores like this... I'm not surprised. Easy to skip this game when there's so many other good titles around.

Yup, there is an embarrassment of riches out right now. Not gonna waste time with this. Persona 5 is also just around the corner and by all accounts fantastic.