Mass Effect: Andromeda

Flogger23m said:
By those metrics Fallout 3 and NV are not open world. MEA is certainly open world, as there are dozens of side quests that can be completed in random orders, or even stopped partway through. You do have to visit the area first to unlock them, and some of the maps are indeed locked behind story content. But that can be said for most games. Repeating quests has nothing to do with a map being open or not. Obviously there are different levels of it, with Fallout or Skyrim being much more of a pure open world game. MEA still gives you freedom to go anywhere on the map at any time for any reason though once you progress a certain amount.

I don't recall any "mission area" aside from the radiation on the first planet which had to be cleared. I more or less drove from one end of the other on Eledan (spelling) as soon as I got there.
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Nothing stops you from going anywhere on the map in Fallout from the start. Story progression just won't happen until you've reached the appropriate point. Systems and planets are locked behind story progression in the Mass Effect games.
 
st4rk said:
Finished the game this weekend, ~44 hours played. Does anyone respec a lot? Seems like every 2-3 game sessions I respec to a new build. I had Peebee and Drack in my party for like 90% of the game, I found their random comments and banter the most enjoyable. Peebee was probably my favorite character. I found the other ones pretty boring.

*edit* Although I generally love the game, I absolutely HATE the way Asari look, they are completely ruined and look so stupid. I also think hair looks generally terrible.

I thought the last fight was ok, but I didn't get any satisfaction from it since I never got to actually shoot the Arcon. I thought after he was released from that big mechanical thing that there would be a final stage where you fight him by himself.
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Agreed- PeeBee, Drack, and Vetra ware my rotation. And the last fight really seemed to me like they were setting up a 'to be continued' scenario.
 
st4rk said:
Finished the game this weekend, ~44 hours played. Does anyone respec a lot? Seems like every 2-3 game sessions I respec to a new build. I had Peebee and Drack in my party for like 90% of the game, I found their random comments and banter the most enjoyable. Peebee was probably my favorite character. I found the other ones pretty boring.

*edit* Although I generally love the game, I absolutely HATE the way Asari look, they are completely ruined and look so stupid. I also think hair looks generally terrible.

I thought the last fight was ok, but I didn't get any satisfaction from it since I never got to actually shoot the Arcon. I thought after he was released from that big mechanical thing that there would be a final stage where you fight him by himself.
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The Asari all having the same fucking face throughout the entire game bugged the shit out of me. It was one of the most annoying quality issues I had with the game.
 
I have yet to re-spec, but then again I only barely use most of my powers anyway. Mainly just charge and lift. For the weapons it's really only the shotgun (the Dhan) and Sniper Rifle (Black Widow).

As far as characters go, it feels like they want you to use Jaal. So much so that I kinda wish he was a 3rd character that was always along. It's not like the support characters are all that helpful to being with. Is there any way to control what they do anymore? I remember busting out large combos in the older games because you could make them use their powers at will. If that in this one, I haven't figured out how it works.
 
Domingo said:
I have yet to re-spec, but then again I only barely use most of my powers anyway. Mainly just charge and lift. For the weapons it's really only the shotgun (the Dhan) and Sniper Rifle (Black Widow).

As far as characters go, it feels like they want you to use Jaal. So much so that I kinda wish he was a 3rd character that was always along. It's not like the support characters are all that helpful to being with. Is there any way to control what they do anymore? I remember busting out large combos in the older games because you could make them use their powers at will. If that in this one, I haven't figured out how it works.
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We have no control over the companions in this game. Their abilities are all tied to the AI exclusively.
 
The new Nvidia Drivers now produce some kind of "fake" HDR for me. Even though I have it disabled within Windows, Mass Effect tries to use the HDR color palette automatically now. While that's still broken, I'm hoping this is a step in the right direction for HDR support once MS finally fixes things on their end. I got to play the game in HDR for all of about a day before all of these Windows and video card issues broke it :p

On the game front, I'm still having fun with it. It's repetitious, but I don't dislike what I'm doing. That goes a long way. I think I just appreciate the gunplay and I like the guns I chose to go with. Some of the characters are boring, but I find a lot of the random banter to be entertaining.
I'm now at Kadara and without trying too hard I've done all of the major (aka. all of the items that show up on the map) missions for the previous planets.
 
From EA's Q1 FY18 Earnings Call report:


investor.ea.com/

RieajRj.jpg


Click on that and read it.


End of FUD. End of doom and gloom.
 
Q-BZ said:
From EA's Q1 FY18 Earnings Call report:


investor.ea.com/

View attachment 31739


Click on that and read it.


End of FUD. End of doom and gloom.
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That's the thing. Even if Mass Effect Andromeda wasn't comparable with Mass Effect 3's sales, it may still have been very successful. If it performed well enough, they may go ahead and green light DLC or get started on a sequel, given the earnings report.
 
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It almost feels like there was smear campaign against the game. The weird facial animations were fixed pretty quickly and the game might not be an A+ but it's no worse than a C.
I'll welcome a sequel or large DLC component.
 
Domingo said:
It almost feels like there was smear campaign against the game. The weird facial animations were fixed pretty quickly and the game might not be an A+ but it's no worse than a C.
I'll welcome a sequel or large DLC component.
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A grade of C is a complete failure in light of being a Mass Effect game.
 
Domingo said:
It almost feels like there was smear campaign against the game. The weird facial animations were fixed pretty quickly and the game might not be an A+ but it's no worse than a C.
I'll welcome a sequel or large DLC component.
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No, sorry. Immature and awkward dialogue, troglodyte human faces, and a lack of quality control are facts of MEA and not a "smear campaign".
 
Domingo said:
It almost feels like there was smear campaign against the game. The weird facial animations were fixed pretty quickly and the game might not be an A+ but it's no worse than a C.
I'll welcome a sequel or large DLC component.
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The animations really aren't fixed. Sure they might be better, but it's still laughable for a game with a budget like that. I would feel robbed if I got this at $60.
 
-Strelok- said:
The animations really aren't fixed. Sure they might be better, but it's still laughable for a game with a budget like that. I would feel robbed if I got this at $60.
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It's not just the animations that were the issue. Missions that you couldn't finish, even after 2 patches, not even sure if they're fully fixed now.
Chat scenes are really off in some parts. Talking to someone, but staring at a tree or wall, not the person.
The facial animation has gotten better. But, I never had a huge problem with them thankfully.
Same face for the Asari.. come on, that's just lazy

I'm sure there's more, but can't think right now.

Personally, I liked it. Not up to the original ME series, but not horrid either. I just get the feeling that it was rushed out the door. Sure, most games have some issues when released, but when you can't even complete missions, that's a huge issue.
 
-Strelok- said:
The animations really aren't fixed. Sure they might be better, but it's still laughable for a game with a budget like that. I would feel robbed if I got this at $60.
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As someone who played ME3 right before Andromeda. I can tell you that wonky animations were there in previous games as well. It was never perfect. And ME:A is only slightly inferior at some places, mainly at the beginning of the game.
There is / was a smear campaign all right cherry picking some examples of weird animations and stringing them together in videos to show those as the norm, instead of the occasional exception.

I've pre-ordered the game, and never regretted it. I can't say that the same about other games that were praised by reviewers, while ME:A was dragged trough the mud.
 
I don't find the facial animations to be any worse than 95% of other games out there. They aren't the greatest, but I don't find them to be any worse than the previous games in the series.

IMO the game's biggest weakness is tedium. Flying all over the galaxy with way too many unskippable landing scenes for throw-away quests. Games like this desperately need some way to skip all of the intermediary screens and go DIRECTLY where you want via a quick travel screen.
 
I just finished the game finally this weekend. I thought the ending was pretty decent. It wasn't great, but it was good. I felt that at least near the end I felt the story was a little more compelling and actually finally felt more a part of the game and storyline. I did think it was a little weak as far as challenge, but then again I was pretty beefy by the end.

I wish there was a better big boss fight against the Archon and not just another remnant architect. Granted they did throw some other big things in there with the remnant, but it was all a bit too easy. Perhaps I just need to up the difficulty, or maybe went more directly through the storyline rather than try and do every side mission. In addition the fact that they deposit you back on your ship afterward felt a little disconnected to me. It's nice you can go talk to some people and maybe finish up some side quests, but it's also like, wtf I just beat the bad guy and saved the day, my work is done.

On another note, I though someone said the Archon gets away at the end. That did not happen in my game, he was clearly dead. Perhaps they missed the part earlier where there are multiple Archons and other leaders in the Kett culture, because the guy you see after the last battle is not the Archon you have been battling all game.
 
the game has basically been piled on because of mass effect 3. Playing from the very start the "complaints" were an insignificant portion of the game. So you can make your character run around in a stupid looking fashion. The cut scene facial animations are goofy as hell. The rest of the game however is fairly solid, if a bit too much. There are other more pertinent criticisms for a 100 hour game.
 
jiminator said:
the game has basically been piled on because of mass effect 3. Playing from the very start the "complaints" were an insignificant portion of the game. So you can make your character run around in a stupid looking fashion. The cut scene facial animations are goofy as hell. The rest of the game however is fairly solid, if a bit too much. There are other more pertinent criticisms for a 100 hour game.
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I agree, I gave the game a shot within a day or two from release and found a good portion of the complaining very hyperbolic.
 
I think it looks ok now as far as the animation goes. I still haven't picked it up yet, but I've seen footage now that definitely offsets what was initially put out there. My problem is that I like the more glammed out characters of the trilogy than the more "down to earth" shall we say designs of the new characters. Otherwise, I think the game looks ok. Not incredible, but definitely looks fine to me. I'll be picking it up as soon as I have some free game-time. I'm playing three games right now, and don't think I can stretch my multi-tasking to four. :D
 
Ok, I lied. I just grabbed it. Saw it for $30 with what little DLC is available included, and decided that'd probably be worth it. Plus I was always a fan of the exploration in the original game, so I think I'll like it. Now if I can just squeeze it in somewhere. :D
 
It's easily worth $30. If you truly enjoyed ME1 I'm not sure how you can't enjoy this one. It's essentially the same concept although with with a plot that's heavier on exploration (for the sake of it). Size-wise, it's massive. Early reports linked the game to Dragon Age Inquisition and I feel the final product shares a similar scope.
 
It's fun- skip the fetch quests and just get the 'Apex HQ' app on the phone and you will get enough resources to make just about anything you need. Plus the multi is fun.
 
Talked me into it.
Just picked it off the forums for $25.
No idea if that includes any DLC...
But, like was said, not much of that anyway.
 
Yea, the deep space suit is good for XP, but that's it. Oh- the Pyjack is better than the robo dog, but stupid or hella tragic depending on how you look at it.
 
J3RK said:
Not any real DLC. Mine came with skins and a suit of some kind though that were classified as DLC...
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Those are pre-order bonuses or are included based on the edition you purchased.
 
NickJames said:
Doesn't matter, still shutdown.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...udio-bioware-montreal-to-merge-into-ea-motive
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If the personnel are still under that umbrella then ultimately I can't see it mattering that much.

Merging/absorbing/consolidation happens all the time and it doesn't immediately mean a harbinger of doom.


They are still standing by this and I don't know why:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ies-on-ice-following-andromeda-disappointment from http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285



^^ This is still relying that Kotaku FUD that PC Gamer and others have debunked in addition to the sales and investor news I linked to earlier that I quoted.


I guess we'll find out soon enough. September is the sixth month mark since release.
 
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Q-BZ said:
If the personnel are still under that umbrella then ultimately I can't see it mattering that much.

Merging/absorbing/consolidation happens all the time and it doesn't immediately mean a harbinger of doom.


They are still standing by this and I don't know why:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ies-on-ice-following-andromeda-disappointment from http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285



^^ This is still relying that Kotaku FUD that PC Gamer and others have debunked in addition to the sales and investor news I linked to earlier that I quoted.


I guess we'll find out soon enough. September is the sixth month mark since release.
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EA/BioWare could still commission DLC and have that produced by an outside studio or another internal studio. I know that's wishful thinking, but it is possible.
 
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Q-BZ said:
If the personnel are still under that umbrella then ultimately I can't see it mattering that much.

Merging/absorbing/consolidation happens all the time and it doesn't immediately mean a harbinger of doom.


They are still standing by this and I don't know why:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ies-on-ice-following-andromeda-disappointment from http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285



^^ This is still relying that Kotaku FUD that PC Gamer and others have debunked in addition to the sales and investor news I linked to earlier that I quoted.


I guess we'll find out soon enough. September is the sixth month mark since release.
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It just seems like EA is going to put ME on the back burner for awhile until things blow over. I wish Bioware never got into making an MMO, so much wasted potential.
 
jiminator said:
the game has basically been piled on because of mass effect 3. Playing from the very start the "complaints" were an insignificant portion of the game. So you can make your character run around in a stupid looking fashion. The cut scene facial animations are goofy as hell. The rest of the game however is fairly solid, if a bit too much. There are other more pertinent criticisms for a 100 hour game.
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Let's make one thing clear, I had no real issues with Mass Effect 3. Unlike some people on here, I don't get pissy when the ending isn't what I wanted it to be. There are legitimate issues with Andromeda and sweeping it under the rug doesn't help anyone.
 
NickJames said:
It just seems like EA is going to put ME on the back burner for awhile until things blow over. I wish Bioware never got into making an MMO, so much wasted potential.
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Agreed. Dozens of these games popping up, but few good story based SP games. There are a decent amount of SP games with stories that are just barely enough to prop up the setting, but so few with well thought-out lore.
 
-Strelok- said:
Let's make one thing clear, I had no real issues with Mass Effect 3. Unlike some people on here, I don't get pissy when the ending isn't what I wanted it to be. There are legitimate issues with Andromeda and sweeping it under the rug doesn't help anyone.
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So, I want to comment on this.

At first, I was going to come in here and write a synopsis that basically said WTF. This game is great. The ME fanboys are a cult and the shit this game received was undeserved.

But...

Then I realized, I am on 1.10. Which I am sure followed 1.09 which means there have been 10 patches.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am Massively (see what I did there :) ) enjoying the game. But when it comes to the faces... The eye movements are spooky even to this day. I have to avert my eyes and focus elsewhere. There is more. Redundant repetitive faces and voices etc... Other things... Well documented and I won't repeat here although I tend to give a break to those things because of the Massive (did it again) amount of content and stuff...

Suffice to say, I am grateful to those who went before and bitched the hell out of this game. I have to say that it WAS probably deserved. BUT... IF you are looking at the game now, BUY IT!!!

I got it for 25 off of the forums and got more than my money's worth.
 
Agreed, with the caveat of many of the bad facial animations were fixed in the first patch (fixed as far as up to BioWare standard imho), and most of the movement stuff was complete shenanigans. But it is both a great game, and a bummer because there was certainly potential for so much more.

Now excuse me, I have to go grind some Kett for the dajily MP bonus.
 
So just wanted to post. HUGE fan of original trilogy. Some of my favorite games of all time. ME:A was boring to me, like I was doing digital errands instead of playing the game. Just wasn't buying the plot or why I should care. Oh and I've had the game 4 weeks and twice I've had Origin stop me dead in my tracks and prevent me from playing (see below). Uninstalled the game yesterday (I finished the main mission but I wasn't done with it yet).

https://hardforum.com/threads/ea-origin-is-still-freaking-garbage
 
mls1995 said:
So just wanted to post. HUGE fan of original trilogy. Some of my favorite games of all time. ME:A was boring to me, like I was doing digital errands instead of playing the game. Just wasn't buying the plot or why I should care. Oh and I've had the game 4 weeks and twice I've had Origin stop me dead in my tracks and prevent me from playing (see below). Uninstalled the game yesterday (I finished the main mission but I wasn't done with it yet).

https://hardforum.com/threads/ea-origin-is-still-freaking-garbage
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Except it isn't. I've got no love for EA, but I haven't had any trouble out of the Origin client. I've had more issues with Steam than Origin in recent years.
 
Bad link, and I can't find it in a search, but I agree with Dan_D. Origin sucks because it's another client to run, but it has been fast and stable for me for the last however long since shortly after ME3 came out... I do wish it was smarter, or integrated with Steam, or just optional. But that is not possible with EA at the helm.
 
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