Zelda glasses and Sony goggles obviouslyBut Breath of the Wild just got 97 on metacritic, and Horizon and Nier were pretty well reviewed aswell.
Zelda glasses and Sony goggles obviouslyBut Breath of the Wild just got 97 on metacritic, and Horizon and Nier were pretty well reviewed aswell.
We also had the Thorian in ME1
Only problem being that the Andromeda initiative launched before ME3.The events in the trilogy, mainly ME3, was galactic wide. The aftermath affects everything in the galaxy not just the known area. The control ending was a shepard AI controlling the reapers to control and protect the galaxy. The synthesis ending all life in the galaxy was transformed into machine\organic hybrid. The Destroy ending, anything reaper related (tech) was destroyed (mass relays, citadel, etc). The do nothing ending, Reapers win and the reaper cycle continues. The destroy ending could have been used as canon ending with a 100 year or more time jump but that is not what they wanted to do.
You know, the natural corollary of a game being unpolished isn't that it respects player agency.
In fact the feedback seems to be player agency is subdued in this game compared to even other Mass Effect games.
Anyone else think that ME:A had bigger development problems than just being rushed out?
Take a look at that leaked vid from 2016 again. Better lighting and texture quality. That scene is also completely bugged out for a lot of people, resulting in T-Poses galore.
RIP Cora's ponytail.
https://my.mixtape.moe/yugchn.mp4
Zelda glasses and Sony goggles obviously
The gameplay looks completely badass:
I know that I am definitely going to have some fun there, at the very least.
But Breath of the Wild just got 97 on metacritic, and Horizon and Nier were pretty well reviewed aswell.
Well, it looks like the return to open world + tighter combat means that there's a lot more freedom in approaching enemy encounters.
obeast, I know we've gone back and forth on the KOTOR thing, but I will defend that game to the death.
KOTOR's wide-eyed innocence fits in perfectly with the Star Wars mythos, imo. It was the perfect Star Wars game. Still is.
And for as much shit that it takes these days for its binary choice/consequence, KOTOR's quest design is miles, fucking miles ahead of anything BioWare has made since then. The only game on par is DA:O (which I've always felt was the dumbed down version of KOTOR anyways), since it has the whole Landsmeet which is pretty cool as far as BioWare set pieces go.
Anyone else think that ME:A had bigger development problems than just being rushed out?
Take a look at that leaked vid from 2016 again. Better lighting and texture quality. That scene is also completely bugged out for a lot of people, resulting in T-Poses galore.
RIP Cora's ponytail.
https://my.mixtape.moe/yugchn.mp4
To each his own I guess. I don't personally like them, but we were told that wasn't going to be the case for this game, that it would have its own unique feel gameplay wise. So you telling me it's fine because every game does it too is not really encouraging.
Anyone else think that ME:A had bigger development problems than just being rushed out?
Take a look at that leaked vid from 2016 again. Better lighting and texture quality. That scene is also completely bugged out for a lot of people, resulting in T-Poses galore.
RIP Cora's ponytail.
https://my.mixtape.moe/yugchn.mp4
Ok, damn. These gifs completely changed my mind. I might be able to ignore all the flaws, if the gameplay is like this.
That's the rockstar dunce hats on all the reviews at work.Not to mention GTA, RDR, the list goes on.
See, this is a fantastic attitude. I was getting less and less hyped over the last week, but you're right--it is still an epic sci-fi space opera despite its obvious shortcomings. I NEED to put myself in this mindset and I will likely enjoy, as you say, the "shit out of it".Reposting because I came in hot before the lock:
Oddly enough, while watching Jeff and Brad play (and shit on) this game for a hour I can´t help it - I´m getting hyped.
I´ll be commanding this ship soon and I´ll be flying through the galaxy to shoot up some aliens.
The setting alone will be enough for me to role-play the shit out of this.
And I´ll probably enjoy it while being disappointed that it is not better.
BioWare's interstellar epic burns up on re-entry
You're in high orbit over Habitat 7, a garden world in the Eriksson System that is to be humanity's new home, when you first realize that something has gone terribly wrong. You've travelled six hundred years to get to the Andromeda galaxy on little more than the hope that you'd find something new and better than what you had before, back in the Milky Way. Even from above, Habitat 7 is obviously incompatible with human life; electrical storms that span the sky and there are floating lodestones the size of mountains hell, maybe they are mountains. All this time, all this space, only to realize that, well, Andromeda kind of sucks.
At one point, your pugnacious Krogan, Nakmor Drack, and a dour Salarian administrator rehash a familiar debate over the Genophage you cured (or not) in Mass Effect 3.
"You had no right to sterilize our species!" bellows Drack.
"Your people deserved it for using nuclear bombs on each other," the Salarian replies.
"I guess that is true," Drack chuckles, and the conversation abruptly ends.
Andromeda is constantly weighed down by its ham-handed attempts at character building. Barely 15 minutes into the game, your "beloved" twin brother, about whom you know exactly nothing and consequently give precisely zero shits about, goes into a coma. Ryder is inconsolable, while you, on the other hand, feel nothing, underscoring your own alienation from Andromeda. Too often, the game desperately wants you to feel a particular emotion, but does none of the work necessary to get you to feel it. As you cruise across the frozen tundra of Voeld, Andromeda's paradigmatic ice planet, one of your squadmates says, "Look outside. It's harsh, but beautiful. I like it," as if demanding that you feel the same.
Within its first hour, Andromeda bestows upon you an honorific that you have not earned, fuses your brain with a superintelligent AI, and carries you, step by step, through terraforming a radioactive desert planet into a slightly less radioactive desert planet with clear skies. Afterwards, when you return to the Nexus, the mood has suddenly become hopeful. You, however, feel like you've polished off a checklist, because you have.
What's missing most of all from Andromeda, though, is any genuine sense of exploration. In Andromeda, there are no indifferent gods to be found over the next hill, only more waypoints. Consequently, there's no reason to set off into uncharted territory because you know that a mission will send you there anyway. Andromeda has so little faith that you'll explore on your own that anything worth seeing in its cosmic wilds is clearly marked and integrated into some kind of quest chain. Scan these rocks, gather these plants. Even if it were possible to get lost in Andromeda, I can't imagine wanting to; no matter how gorgeous the game's vistas may be, they exist largely to be exhausted and, as a result, give off a sense of emptiness, not possibility. This would be a disaster for any open world, but for a game in which you supposedly play a "Pathfinder," it's fatal. Andromeda is a game about exploration that gives you no space or reason to explore.
Eventually, you also start to forgive, or even reappraise, some of the game's most conspicuous faults. Maybe your first impressions of your companions weren't so fair after all. It's no fault of PeeBee that she's not Liara, and your opinion of her begins to improve at the moment you start to see her for her. As you hear more of your companion's backstories Jaal's long lost love, Cora's sense of abandonment, etc. and listen to their conversations during long drives across lonely planets, you start to suspect that they aren't as hollow inside as you once thought they were. You even start to look past some of the visual bugs. Maybe Ryder's uncomfortably wide smile is just another dimension of her awkwardness. Perhaps those slightly-too-large eyes are a sign of her childlike wonder, and not mere bungling from BioWare's animators.
To be sure, this is a form of bargaining, a desperate bid to see an imperfect game as better than it is. But, let's be frank given its legacy, in what galaxy were you not going to be disappointed by Mass Effect: Andromeda?
yeah this is what I was talking about, they changed up the weather but it seems they changed a ton more for better or worse.Anyone else think that ME:A had bigger development problems than just being rushed out?
Take a look at that leaked vid from 2016 again. Better lighting and texture quality. That scene is also completely bugged out for a lot of people, resulting in T-Poses galore.
RIP Cora's ponytail.
https://my.mixtape.moe/yugchn.mp4
I'm okay with this. It would be nice if it reached the top-tier of ME at its peak, but I managed to enjoy Dragon Age: Inquisition, since I've always been more of an explorer type anyway. If this game is uneven, but lets me wander around strange alien worlds and poke around at stuff, then I'll enjoy myself, even if it's not a top-tier, GOTY experience.
On the other hand, as an older gamer that grew up during glory days of the JRPG from the SNES era onwards, I find it weirdly uplifting that Persona 5 may just end up being the RPG of the year for 2017. Hadn't seen a JPRG with a legitimate shot at that spot in quite some time, and I'm actually okay with that as well.
What's missing most of all from Andromeda, though, is any genuine sense of exploration. In Andromeda, there are no indifferent gods to be found over the next hill, only more waypoints. Consequently, there's no reason to set off into uncharted territory because you know that a mission will send you there anyway. Andromeda has so little faith that you'll explore on your own that anything worth seeing in its cosmic wilds is clearly marked and integrated into some kind of quest chain. Scan these rocks, gather these plants. Even if it were possible to get lost in Andromeda, I can't imagine wanting to; no matter how gorgeous the game's vistas may be, they exist largely to be exhausted and, as a result, give off a sense of emptiness, not possibility. This would be a disaster for any open world, but for a game in which you supposedly play a "Pathfinder," it's fatal. Andromeda is a game about exploration that gives you no space or reason to explore.
the contrast is extraordinary. like, well beyond tuning it down a notch or two. yeah, i'd say there certainly appears to've been something other than being rushed going on, but hell if i can think of what. maybe making some portions of the game match other portions? & eventually hitting some kinda lowest common denominator, so that nothing stood out, or was jarring? not that that ended up working too well ...
Outside of the obvious texture and lighting quality downgrades, it's notable that in this clip there's been a total loss of eye control in the animation (notably opening and closing) and also most of the face animation outside of eyebrows and the immediate mouth area.
Not an animator personally so someone else might be able to shed better light on this, but I do work in a game studio so I'm wondering if perhaps they're using facial bones for animation rather than blendshapes and had to cut down on bones or switch systems at some point but didn't have time to correct all the problems it caused?
If they were using blendshapes I can't imagine why so much facial animation would be lost. If they were using bones and had to remove them though it could explain some of the weirdness seen elsewhere? The animations were clearly reasonable at some point.
I feel like this is going to be underrated. I'm going to enjoy it Day 1 no matter what.
That's not true. They use the full scale but they are just not reviewing super bad games.
I mean a 1/10 game is some unknown indie from Steam which doesn't even work properly and has no animations or textures. Like what Jim Sterling had in his videos.
A 2/10 game is a little bit better but still hot garbage. Like Life of Black Tiger for example.
Etc, etc. You won't see these scores because nobody plays these games anyway. And I don't think Andromeda is THAT bad that it should have less than 5/10 or 6/10.
That's why in terms of AAA games 6/10 and 7/10 is bad.
That other thread made me read Glixel's review:
It notes that the game starts to improve and that Mass Effect 1 had flaws and formulaic stuff in it too, but admits that this could just be bargaining and the game is a disappointment:
So ehm, from the GB quick look, can you really not skip those Cutscenes when moving from planet to planet? They get old super fast especially when you get them even if you go to a simple asteroid to scan.
Some of the reviews mention the exploration is decent, so that's one aspect I'm looking forward to.
I'm one of those weirdos who liked exploring the uncharted worlds from ME1, even though I hated having to fight the damn Mako every time.
I liked the little side stories you could across, like the Geth incursions that ended with a transmission that sent songs to other Geth in the galaxy, or seeing that eerie message EDI sent during the Luna VI mission, or coming across a prothean object that told of the Protheans involvement with ancient humans.
It'll be great to see Bioware's uncharted worlds concept fully realized.
To be sure, this is a form of bargaining, a desperate bid to see an imperfect game as better than it is. But, let's be frank given its legacy, in what galaxy were you not going to be disappointed by Mass Effect: Andromeda?
What's missing most of all from Andromeda, though, is any genuine sense of exploration. In Andromeda, there are no indifferent gods to be found over the next hill, only more waypoints. Consequently, there's no reason to set off into uncharted territory because you know that a mission will send you there anyway. Andromeda has so little faith that you'll explore on your own that anything worth seeing in its cosmic wilds is clearly marked and integrated into some kind of quest chain. Scan these rocks, gather these plants. Even if it were possible to get lost in Andromeda, I can't imagine wanting to; no matter how gorgeous the game's vistas may be, they exist largely to be exhausted and, as a result, give off a sense of emptiness, not possibility. This would be a disaster for any open world, but for a game in which you supposedly play a "Pathfinder," it's fatal. Andromeda is a game about exploration that gives you no space or reason to explore.
That other thread made me read Glixel's review:
It notes that the game starts to improve and that Mass Effect 1 had flaws and formulaic stuff in it too, but admits that this could just be bargaining and the game is a disappointment:
What's missing most of all from Andromeda, though, is any genuine sense of exploration. In Andromeda, there are no indifferent gods to be found over the next hill, only more waypoints. Consequently, there's no reason to set off into uncharted territory because you know that a mission will send you there anyway. Andromeda has so little faith that you'll explore on your own that anything worth seeing in its cosmic wilds is clearly marked and integrated into some kind of quest chain. Scan these rocks, gather these plants. Even if it were possible to get lost in Andromeda, I can't imagine wanting to; no matter how gorgeous the game's vistas may be, they exist largely to be exhausted and, as a result, give off a sense of emptiness, not possibility. This would be a disaster for any open world, but for a game in which you supposedly play a "Pathfinder," it's fatal. Andromeda is a game about exploration that gives you no space or reason to explore.
The fact that the Reapers were SHIPS is smarter than anything I've seen from Andromeda's writing and is more alien to boot.
You then have Ilos afterwards which is the calm before the storm where the art direction probably peaks along with the music. The world is haunting, which reflects the legacy of the Reapers.
Cons
- Bioware Edmonton and Montreal symbiosis is broken. Lots of conflicts and bro culture.
- Lost over 13 leads (game design, art, audio, prog, senior core leads, etc) in 5 years at Bioware Montreal on Mass Effect. Edmonton lost only 3. It is clear that Edmonton has the bigger part of the stick when it comes to purge Leads and Producers who are not aligned with their leadership style.
- Putting people on performance improvement program (PIP Program) is the new tactics to get rid of people. Once again more than 10 people in Montreal got slammed with this bureaucratic uppercut to let go people that are not bending to Edmonton leadership styles in the last revision cycle. This approach is used by the Montreal Leadership to purge the mess from the lack of vision cause by upper management in the last 4 years (throwing people under the bus to protect bad core management).
- Renaming crunch to Finaling mode. Which means company pays for your lunch but you have only 30 minutes to eat and then getting back on the keyboard. Was lasting for over 2 months and was a real catastrophy.
- Retaliation and harassment is sadly a reality. If you talk and ask questions you will be tag as a trouble maker and end up in a bad position.
- HR won't help you out. They will deny the current harassment from Monreal management by ignoring and not documenting the facts. In other words if you leave don't talk. Just let it go...
- Many benifits got cut due to too much time extension to get the game done.
Well, they took a lot from Babylon 5, where Shadows were an ancient race with organic ships, that weed out the weak races every thousand years. Hell, the captain who lead all the races against them was called Sheridan, and the humans had a first contact war against Minbari, like they did in ME against Turians.
Well, they took a lot from Babylon 5, where Shadows were an ancient race with organic ships, that weed out the weak races every thousand years. Hell, the captain who lead all the races against them was called Sheridan, and the humans had a first contact war against Minbari, like they did in ME against Turians.
Even before Babylon 5 I think I've read the concept being used somewhere else. I can't remember the book offhand. Yea as I admit it's not exactly a new concept but it is unusual for a videogame, where the enemies generally come in some form of a shootable package.
Not to mention the theme of "humans are no where near the top of the tech tree" in the galaxy.
Some of the reviews mention the exploration is decent, so that's one aspect I'm looking forward to.
I'm one of those weirdos who liked exploring the uncharted worlds from ME1, even though I hated having to fight the damn Mako every time.
I liked the little side stories you could across, like the Geth incursions that ended with a transmission that sent songs to other Geth in the galaxy, or seeing that eerie message EDI sent during the Luna VI mission, or coming across a prothean object that told of the Protheans involvement with ancient humans.
It'll be great to see Bioware's uncharted worlds concept fully realized.
No something older I think. Of course considering how incestuous scifi as a genre is, everything bleeds into each other at a certain point.Star Trek's whale probe?
Holy shit. If this is true, then that's absolutely horrible, and explains quite a bit.If that GlassDoor testimony thing is true :/
Unsure what this conflict between Edmonton and Montreal is. And I'm absolutely heartbroken that Mass Effect was the game that had to suffer because of office politics and internal mismanagement (if the above is true).
Other posters here on GAF have also mentioned rumors about development troubles (unconfirmed).
The gameplay looks completely badass:
I know that I am definitely going to have some fun there, at the very least.
Just genuinely confused as to how they thought stuff like timers and scanning would bring in anyone. Like others have said, it does seem like this game was developed in a dimension where time didn't pass and games didn't grow at all. In a world with Horizon, W3, Zelda, etc., that shit doesn't fly anymore.
Strike Team mission can either be played directly for extra rewards in the full Andromeda game, or players can deploy a team to do it remotely. Apex HQ will let players do the latter from their phone, customizing their teams for the best situation, and picking up the in-game rewards when return to the console.
https://www.slashgear.com/mass-effect-andromeda-companion-app-debuts-for-ios-android-18479012/
Lol what? This is a shooter not a hack and slash, horrible comparison and a really transparent attempt to downplay the most praised aspect of the game.
Yeah I'm sure gifs are great way to judge how good Bioware combat is going to be.
Yeah I'm sure gifs are great way to judge how good Bioware combat is going to be.
The press rewards linearity, polish and flashy presentation.