Mass Effect: Andromeda

[TaintedSquirrel]

http://gamegpu.com/action-/-fps-/-tps/mass-effect-andromeda-test-gpu

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Mass-...55712/Specials/Mass-Effect-Andromeda-1223325/

AMD non-Polaris users are recommended to cap their Tessellation.

 

[Flogger23m]

found of then internets

To be fair that describes the game industry as a whole. It is not really the place to go if you want to work at the same place for 6+ years. At least not for big AA games. Smaller teams might stay together longer though.

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

https://gfycat.com/OrganicExcellentAmbushbug

 

[DWolvin]

I thought that the Reaper threat was known at the end of the first game. Yes, the public didn't know and the counsel buried it's head in the sand, but the threat was known by someone. This is a storytelling universe that has criminal organizations that can build better than military hardware and clone the dead after all...

 

[Tup3x]

https://gfycat.com/OrganicExcellentAmbushbug

Progress!
/s

 

[DWolvin]

Yea- that makeup is pretty cringeworthy if nothing else. Are there good faces in other frostbite games? Does BioWare need to get out and see more actual humans?

 

[Derangel]

Yea- that makeup is pretty cringeworthy if nothing else. Are there good faces in other frostbite games? Does BioWare need to get out and see more actual humans?

The animations in Mirror's Edge: Catalyst are pretty awkward as well, though I think ME: A is worse. I think the look Bioware chose for a lot of the characters made it more obvious. DA: I had some wonky animation as well, but I don't recall it being as bad as ME: A's. It really feels like they rushed the animations or figured no one would care.

 

[Dan_D]

I've had about three hours to play and my opinion so far pretty well aligns with everyone else...

The general premise bothers me (and has since the game was first announced). Am I to believe that every possible scrap of habitable land in the milky way has been exhausted? And even if so, sending people off on a 600 year trip means pretty much Krogan and Asari are the only races that will have people back in the milky way live to see the result. And even so, are they supposed to be able to communicate, or develop a means of meaningful transportation between the two? This isn't colonizing so much as completely starting over civilization, to no benefit of anyone staying behind. The whole thing seems silly to me but I've tried my best to ignore that and get lost in the fiction.

Your understanding of the premise is flawed. First off, unless you've completed the game 100% you are making a lot of assumptions about the plan and the reasons why the expedition exists. The expedition and the construction efforts had to begin years in advance of the Reaper invasion, so despite my earlier beliefs that this may be the motivation it isn't true. To me, the initiative is no different than us taking our first steps to the moon or going to Mars. Sure we might eventually need those resources and resources beyond our solar system. Those needs at some point may come down to the population of Earth becoming unsustainable. However, that's not the motivation for going to Mars right now. In fact there isn't any one reason to do something like that. Humanity leaving our solar system is about preservation of the species as much as its about resources, scientific discovery and giving people a place to live. Humans have always had the drive to push out into the unknown and conquer it. Explorers went to new territories throughout our history for reasons that never had anything to do with the "land being exhausted." Why on Earth would you think that's what the Andromeda Initiative is about?

According to the conversations and codex entries thus far the person who started the initiative was wealthy and a bit eccentric. We don't actually know her motivations in their entirety at this point. For all we know she knew of the extinction cycle and the impending Reaper invasion before Shepard confirmed it and Sovereign attacked the Citadel with thousands of Geth.

Your understanding of the premise and why people would join such an expedition is wrong. The game points out that the reasons people chose to do it are as individual as fingerprints. The Asari and Krogan may have a life span of around 1,000 years but its a one way trip for everyone. It took 634 years to reach Andromeda. It would take 634 years to get back. No one anyone knows would be alive to come home to regardless of what species they were. We know standard communications technologies can't go out that far. In fact, the information on the initiative in the game states that they know about these planets in much the same way we discover exoplanets. Thus, Andromeda's 2-billion light year distance (referenced by the game) is too far to know all that much about the Andromeda Galaxy or the Heleus Cluster. Andromeda is a lot larger than the Milky Way. There is no way anyone would make a trip out there, stay a couple years and come back. You'd learn almost nothing for a whole lot of effort.

No plan was in place for communication from the looks of it. Although theoretically QEC communications would allow instant communication between the Arks, the Nexus and the Milky Way. Whether or not this is a specific plot hole or there is more to this I don't know. QEC comm systems in ME2 are presented as being new and horrendously expensive. There may not be a receiver on the Milky Way side to receive a message. I do not know. This might be addressed later in the game. Again we don't know for sure whether or not there was any plan to transmit scientific data back.

It is about colonization, a new start and everything else anyone's ever colonized anything for. Going somewhere else and creating a new life isn't necessarily about your old one or who you leave behind. Some of the people on the Nexus I've talked to had people back home and others didn't. Their reasons for coming to Andromeda are all totally different. Again there is potentially a lot more information we are missing here. The Ark's launched after Sovereign's attack. ME2 makes it seem like most people disregard Sovereign as a Geth ship. People seemed generally aware of the Reaper extinction cycle as though it were a myth but again a common one. Some people may have actually seen the writing on the wall and the initiative may have been jump started. Those ships launched between Mass Effect 2 and 3 which is a time span of over two years. We know that they can build stuff really fast and on huge scales in the Mass Effect Universe. The Reaper invasion could have something to do with the project getting off the ground. We will have to wait and see.

Thus far, the story itself is alright. Characters are bland and uninteresting, as is Ryder. I can't find myself giving a single shit about anyone around me. I hope that's more due to the fact that I'm only three hours in. The original ME trilogy had characters that as the story unfolded, I genuinely cared about their fate. I'm willing to give this one more time. While some people are not happy with the whole first contact = instant enemies thing, it doesn't bother me. Humans are a totally unknown entity dropping out of nowhere into the matters of a species that appears to be hostile by nature. I can buy into that. I've not had much opportunity to explore yet, but initial impressions make this thing this is where the game is going to get most interesting for me. I'm looking forward to seeing every explorable inch of the worlds Bioware created. Combat is very good, IMO. Feels better than any of the previous three games. I have no complaints there. Overall, I think I will enjoy the game quite a bit, but there is definitely a hump to get over for the first few hours.

I've had the same feeling. I'm just over five hours in and I'm only now starting to meet interesting characters and see any semblance of the others fleshing out at all. It's still very early in the game being such a completionist on the Nexus. We'll see how it unfolds. Ryder is fine as far as I'm concerned thus far, but again I'm not far in. Shepard is a tough act to follow so I don't know how that will pan out.

I did run into a few technical issues. I have been running the game at 1440p, with a mix of high/ultra settings and the first few hours went great. Indoors framerate is silky smooth, and even the initial outdoor area ran great for me. Once I ended up on the deserty planet, it all went to shit. I can't imagine why this environment would be more taxing than the first one, which had a lot more vegetation and environmental effects going on. But where I'm at now, my framerate is unplayably terrible. I'm not actually monitoring it, but I'd bet it's under 20fps, with severe studdering on top of it. Seems like more of a technical issue to me than a lack of horsepower based on what others are saying.

I've got no idea. Neither my girlfriend nor I experienced any performance issues with the game thus far. She made if farther than me but I don't know if she got there.

 

[Dan_D]

I'm trying not to get caught up in it and just enjoy the environment, but it just puzzles me. Given the size of a galaxy, and the amount of existing lore, there's no reason they couldn't build a larger, open-world(ish) game without a far-fetched exodus to another galaxy. There's a lot of history left unexplored. How cool would a game surrounding the first contact war have been? Or even something without humans at all, going further back to when the relays and citadel and whatnot were discovered? Or a game set during the prothean era?

BioWare did a poll on their forums and asked if people wanted a prequel or a sequel. The "sequel" people won by a vast majority. Prequels are locked into the framework of what was established as back story and what comes next. Sequels aren't. I think they made the right call. BioWare also doesn't want to pick a canon ending and make a sequel in the Milky Way and make some people's favorite shit sandwich....er ending invalid.

 

[Viper87227]

If you have C-team working on the game and rushing it to release, well, you gotta cut corners somewhere.

They started work on it in 2012, after ME3 released... that was 5 years ago. You may be right that the team working on it isn't what it once was, but I can't imagine of the issues we're seeing are a result of being rushed.

 

[Brackle]

To me the story is just getting good. Finally meeting the interesting characters. I also like how you mine now on planets.

I honestly dont remember ME3 models being this bad, but again I can look past this. So far I like the game quite a bit, and it shouldnt be one of those bargain bin games.

Also I like how you can do the strike force missions in MP if you want. That is a nice touch!

 

[Viper87227]

Your understanding of the premise is flawed. First off, unless you've completed the game 100% you are making a lot of assumptions about the plan and the reasons why the expedition exists. The expedition and the construction efforts had to begin years in advance of the Reaper invasion, so despite my earlier beliefs that this may be the motivation it isn't true. To me, the initiative is no different than us taking our first steps to the moon or going to Mars. Sure we might eventually need those resources and resources beyond our solar system. Those needs at some point may come down to the population of Earth becoming unsustainable. However, that's not the motivation for going to Mars right now. In fact there isn't any one reason to do something like that. Humanity leaving our solar system is about preservation of the species as much as its about resources, scientific discovery and giving people a place to live. Humans have always had the drive to push out into the unknown and conquer it. Explorers went to new territories throughout our history for reasons that never had anything to do with the "land being exhausted." Why on Earth would you think that's what the Andromeda Initiative is about?

I stated above I don't think the Andromeda Initiative has anything to do with the reapers, for basically the exact same reason you just gave. Where it fits into the timeline, the reapers we're accepted as a threat, nevermind the fact that years of planning would have gone into this. So, we're agreed that reapers have nothing to do with it. And yeah, of course I'm making assumptions as to why the expedition exists... and I'd love to see that question answered... but by assumption is that it wont... that we're just supposed to role with the provided narrative.

I don't compare this to us going to the moon or mars, for the very big difference that those aren't one way trips. People can come and go. Any scientific research done can be brought back home. You say its about resources, scientific discovery, and a place to live. What benefit is that in the case of going to a new galaxy where you're 600 years beyond whatever you left behind? You can't send resources back. If there is communication maybe you can send back scientific data, but is that even beneficial to anyone other than the people forced to live in Andromeda? And if a place to live is necessary, that takes us back to the notion that surely there's a place left someone in the milky way for people to colonize where they can have a place to live, without leaving everyone and everything behind, or being potentially cut off from contact from their species.

Maybe by the end of the game we'll find out that the 600 year gap was supposed to be used by everyone back home to develop the technology to make contact, transport, etc. between the milky way and andromeda more viable, thus benefiting both those who colonize the new galaxy and those who stay behind.

Or maybe I'm just over thinking it and need to shut up and play the game

 

[Brackle]

\\

Or maybe I'm just over thinking it and need to shut up and play the game

Now i wouldn't tell ya to shutup, but yes you need to play the game.

Traveling in space is so badass....Yea I like this game quite a bit. Other than the models It is a step in the right diretion.

 

[polydiol]

I'm hoping that a lot of what I'm reading is corrected in patches and I'm extremely forgiving when it comes to this franchise so I'll still be playing on day one. I'm one of the few that really enjoyed Mass Effect 3 and I didn't give a crap about the endings because I was too busy starting another playthrough.

 

[Savi]

Loved ME3 till that ending :/ still salty on about that dam ending lol

Have about 5 and half hours into this one so far, and I'm sold, The animations and the eyes do look and feel bad at times, but I'm starting to get sucked in the game so starting to notice the flaws less. Not perfect but having fun, exploring, talking to the npc's and the combat is good

 

[Dan_D]

I'm hoping that a lot of what I'm reading is corrected in patches and I'm extremely forgiving when it comes to this franchise so I'll still be playing on day one. I'm one of the few that really enjoyed Mass Effect 3 and I didn't give a crap about the endings because I was too busy starting another playthrough.

Don't get your hopes up. Enough outcry they may address some more prominent character animation issues but that's really the biggest flaw with the game. I don't know what to tell you if that's enough to spoil your enjoyment of it.

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

You can tell when people don't like a developer/publisher because it seems like they celebrate when a game flops. Sort of like what we see with pretty much every Ubisoft game.
As someone who dearly loved the original trilogy, seeing all of the technical issues, animation bugs, and poor writing coming out about Andromeda really makes me sad.

 

[Dan_D]

I haven't seen any technical issues to speak of with the game so far. The original trilogy is full of animation bugs, clipping issues and poor writing.

 

[Brackle]

You can tell when people don't like a developer/publisher because it seems like they celebrate when a game flops. Sort of like what we see with pretty much every Ubisoft game.
As someone who dearly loved the original trilogy, seeing all of the technical issues, animation bugs, and poor writing coming out about Andromeda really makes me sad.

Only issues I have come across is the models and animations. Other than that the game runs smooth. Graphics are great.

I have had 0 crashes, and no bugs. Just the models/animations suck ass. I can look past that.

 

[polonyc2]

polonyc2 Here's a good early review from Skill Up, who is quite trustworthy IMHO

I like that reddit impression article...seems fair and balanced for the most part...the biggest thing I took out of it is that-- "If you like Mass Effect, you’ll probably like this game. If you want to find reasons not to like it, there are a few of those too"...I think a lot of people playing the game as part of the Early Access thing are either new to the ME universe or are being overly critical...the game definitely sounds like it has some flaws as far as facial animation, lip synch etc but overall it sounds like a decent game...I'm looking forward to reading full reviews of the entire game once the embargo lifts this Monday...Bioware games tend to start slow and build up

too many online forums are filled with extremes nowadays...you either hate a game or love it...there's no middle ground anymore...I can enjoy a game and not have it be the greatest game of all time or have the greatest graphics ever...gameplay is always king for me and Andromeda while it may not be the best ME game sounds like a pretty good one

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

Are the proportions for the NPCs way off? It seems like they have big heads, hands, and feet, with small bodies. Like Troll dolls or something? It just looks weird.

 

[spaceman]

Eh. I am going for the early access and play a bit this weekend. Sounds like I will enjoy myself. Hopefully mods can fix some of this stuff eventually. I know ea won't.

 

[Damar]

Anyone who's played able to comment on this at all??

http://www.pcgamer.com/why-i-hate-mass-effect-andromedas-planet-scanning-system

 

[Derangel]

Anyone who's played able to comment on this at all??

http://www.pcgamer.com/why-i-hate-mass-effect-andromedas-planet-scanning-system

It's not a great system, but eh it's okay. It's nowhere near as annoying as scanning in ME2 was. I like the way it moves from planet to planet and shows a full render of each planet when you get to them. It's fairly quick and easy, no spending tons of time messing around like in 2. No worrying about running away from Reapers like in ME3. I went through and looked at every planet I could while playing and didn't feel like it took too long or was annoying.

 

[Brackle]

It's not a great system, but eh it's okay. It's nowhere near as annoying as scanning in ME2 was. I like the way it moves from planet to planet and shows a full render of each planet when you get to them. It's fairly quick and easy, no spending tons of time messing around like in 2. No worrying about running away from Reapers like in ME3. I went through and looked at every planet I could while playing and didn't feel like it took too long or was annoying.

Dont forget you can scan the solar systems too for hidden stuff. Nothing Major though.

 

[Sprayingmango]

So after playing the Trial for a few hours...I like the overall gameplay. I've been a mass effect fan since the beginning. I still can't believe how absolutely awful the facial animations are though.... plus most of the voice acting is pretty terrible.

It shocks me that someone at Bioware thought that all of the characters look good??! They are so terribly bad it's comical.

 

[CrimsonKnight13]

I'm really starting to wonder if I should cancel my preorder & just use the money for something else. It doesn't appear that Bioware has learned all of their lessons from 2 major game series which I've put money into heavily. The chorus of issues is getting louder & louder everywhere I look with what people are saying about the game.

 

[polonyc2]

I'm really starting to wonder if I should cancel my preorder & just use the money for something else. It doesn't appear that Bioware has learned all of their lessons from 2 major game series which I've put money into heavily. The chorus of issues is getting louder & louder everywhere I look with what people are saying about the game.

I was 100% going to buy but now I'm hesitating a bit...still 98% sure but I'm thinking about waiting for a patch or 2 and playing the new Dark Souls 3 DLC instead (comes out 1 week after Andromeda)...I'm going to wait to see what the full reviews say on Monday before making my final decision

 

[jiminator]

figured out the problem with the facial animations. They are not animating the muscles around the cheekbones. that is why their mouths look flat, dead....

 

[Viper87227]

Anyone who is playing early access right now... take your time. I just hit the end and I've only got about 4ish hours in. I've done some other stuff too, other than just following the plot. You can keep play and doing side missions, but don't be afraid to do them as they pop up. You won't run out of time.

 

[Derangel]

I was 100% going to buy but now I'm hesitating a bit...still 98% sure but I'm thinking about waiting for a patch or 2 and playing the new Dark Souls 3 DLC instead (comes out 1 week after Andromeda)...I'm going to wait to see what the full reviews say on Monday before making my final decision

I'm waiting to see how the PC version of Neir Automata ends up and then I think I'll be deciding between that, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and ME: A for my next big game to play along side Zelda.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Got the preview to work, and the problem was me: I bought the Deluxe (can't say why) and clicking on the game in the Origin Access list defaulted to Standard which gave no opportunity to install. Not sure why I didn't just click around, must be actually getting old.

I've seen a few performance issues that didn't make sense, where the game stuttered visibly while rendering 165FPS (my G-Sync max, which at least that is working), and I see that SLI is not working. I also saw some pixelation in out of focus stuff; not sure if that's related to low-res shaders performing the depth of field effect or the temporal AA, but I plan to drop it to FXAA and see.

And I'll echo everyone elses complaint: while the facial animations themselves are a bit awkward and you could attribute that to being part of the games 'style', not syncing up with voice actors breaks it a bit. I can ignore it as always, but it sure would be nice to see Bioware get this sorted.

 

[Dan_D]

I've made it through all the single player content. My general comments still stand. The game is a lot like ME1 without the things ME1 did badly so far. The facial animations are ugly and most model issues are animation related. In one scene a woman walking will look normal and then she'll do something with her arms which make the tops of her arms look too roundd. The arm comes up in an unnatural way which distorts the model. I don't get it. Honestly I have to wonder if this game's scope was so big that it ended up being rushed despite the long development cycle. The animation and modeling issues on characters would seem to indicate that. As I said, some are well done while others aren't. I wouldn't get your hopes up about this getting fixed. As I've stated many times, the original trilogy has animation, clipping and other issues galore that were never addressed. There is no reason to think that will change here.

I did run into the performance issues on the desert planet. To the comments about it not being as visually demanding as the opening world I'm not certain I agree. You have a lot more individual objects on the desert planet as well as sandstorm and lighting effects. The first planet's area appears to be a lot smaller when you really look at it. That planet forces you down some specific paths and gives the impression of being open by giving you more than one ingress point into a give area at times. While it might seem like the desert environment should be easier to render I'm not certain that it is. Nor am I certain that it is a performance issue specifically. More people will need to chime in on this. Apparently the benchmarks that are starting to make their way around the internet indicate that SLI doesn't work at all. Surprise, surprise. It never did much in the previous games either.

To all the people on the fence, I think there is more good here than bad. If you are a fan of the series I think this is a good game to support. Hopefully, we get some support in return on a few of the issues that exist but that might be wishful thinking on my part.

 

[polonyc2]

the things that have me the most concerned are the complaints about the dialogue and writing...those were previously Bioware's strong suits (before the EA buyout)...the bad animation I can deal with and get used to but the writing/dialogue are key aspects...I also think getting rid of Paragon/Renegade was a mistake...now it seems every conversation will basically have the same outcome with very little extreme variance

 

[Derangel]

the things that have me the most concerned are the complaints about the dialogue and writing...those were previously Bioware's strong suits (before the EA buyout)...the bad animation I can deal with and get used to but the writing/dialogue are key aspects...I also think getting rid of Paragon/Renegade was a mistake...now it seems every conversation will basically have the same outcome with very little extreme variance

Conversations in previous games basically had the same outcome with very little extreme variance. There were maybe 6-12 times per game where paragon and renegade options actually matter beyond filling a meter one way or another. There is nothing stopping the same from happening in ME: A it just forgoes the half-assed and rather stupid "morality" system. ME: A still has interrupt options in conversations, so that will obviously change how those conversations flow. The paragon/renegade system in the previous games was never good or well designed. 3 was about the only time where you could make choices that radically alter anything and quite frankly the big Renegade options in 3 almost all sucked and made zero sense for any kind of Sheppard from the prior games.

 

[Brackle]

I've made it through all the single player content. My general comments still stand. The game is a lot like ME1 without the things ME1 did badly so far. The facial animations are ugly and most model issues are animation related. In one scene a woman walking will look normal and then she'll do something with her arms which make the tops of her arms look too roundd. The arm comes up in an unnatural way which distorts the model. I don't get it. Honestly I have to wonder if this game's scope was so big that it ended up being rushed despite the long development cycle. The animation and modeling issues on characters would seem to indicate that. As I said, some are well done while others aren't. I wouldn't get your hopes up about this getting fixed. As I've stated many times, the original trilogy has animation, clipping and other issues galore that were never addressed. There is no reason to think that will change here.

I did run into the performance issues on the desert planet. To the comments about it not being as visually demanding as the opening world I'm not certain I agree. You have a lot more individual objects on the desert planet as well as sandstorm and lighting effects. The first planet's area appears to be a lot smaller when you really look at it. That planet forces you down some specific paths and gives the impression of being open by giving you more than one ingress point into a give area at times. While it might seem like the desert environment should be easier to render I'm not certain that it is. Nor am I certain that it is a performance issue specifically. More people will need to chime in on this. Apparently the benchmarks that are starting to make their way around the internet indicate that SLI doesn't work at all. Surprise, surprise. It never did much in the previous games either.

To all the people on the fence, I think there is more good here than bad. If you are a fan of the series I think this is a good game to support. Hopefully, we get some support in return on a few of the issues that exist but that might be wishful thinking on my part.

I tried to explore the desert more beyond the black areas, but the radiation kept spiking to keep me out. I take this as they didn't want people with the 10 free hours to go further, or you just need to upgrade your Nomad. There was a memory block i wanted to get. I did find ways to get up there, but the radiation kept stopping me.

At 4k im shocked you cant get a steady 60fps with that 1080ti. Might need that game ready driver to fix some things. This is a good game for benchmarks at 4k because graphically it is stunning in my eyes (not talking about models etc). I like how it leaves the footprints in the sand when you walk around.

I wish i could go further in the game as I am interested WTF the aliens are all about. I was able to finish all side quests and i think all mining nodes on the first planet.

Cant wait for next week!

 

[schoolslave]

I'm sorry, not sure if it's artstyle or w/e, but I feel the character design/faces have taken a MAJOR step back compared to the previous games.
Why does everyone look like a troglodyte? It's like every single facial feature is over-dimensioned and the proportions are completely out of whack.

I mean come on, I don't even see this many "ugly" faces when I go to the shitty McDonald's downtown ._.

 

[Derangel]

I'm sorry, not sure if it's artstyle or w/e, but I feel the character design/faces have taken a MAJOR step back compared to the previous games.
Why does everyone look like a troglodyte? It's like every single facial feature is over-dimensioned and the proportions are completely out of whack.

I mean come on, I don't even see this many "ugly" faces when I go to the shitty McDonald's downtown ._.

I wouldn't call any of them downright ugly per-say but the human faces do all look weird. Even when they're not animating there is something off. Everyone seems to sit squarely in the uncanny valley and it can be distracting at times. The previous games had some of the same issues as well but graphically it wasn't good enough to push it over that uncanny valley hump, Andromeda on the other hand looks too good so every little issue is amplified.

 

[Dan_D]

I tried to explore the desert more beyond the black areas, but the radiation kept spiking to keep me out. I take this as they didn't want people with the 10 free hours to go further, or you just need to upgrade your Nomad. There was a memory block i wanted to get. I did find ways to get up there, but the radiation kept stopping me.

At 4k im shocked you cant get a steady 60fps with that 1080ti. Might need that game ready driver to fix some things. This is a good game for benchmarks at 4k because graphically it is stunning in my eyes (not talking about models etc). I like how it leaves the footprints in the sand when you walk around.

I wish i could go further in the game as I am interested WTF the aliens are all about. I was able to finish all side quests and i think all mining nodes on the first planet.

Cant wait for next week!

Two 1080Ti's should be able to run anything out now at 60FPS but that's not the case. Ghost Recon Wildlands is a solid 45-60FPS most of the time but does occasionally dip below that. SLI does help but only by about 8-10FPS. When its the difference between 35FPS and 45FPS that's not insignificant. For Mass Effect Andromeda, it appears SLI does nothing at all. Open world games frequently demand more performance tha the average corridor shooter or a single multiplayer map (even if on the large side) due to their complexities. I'm not surprised it's not getting a full 60FPS maxed out there but I am surprised that its hitting sub 30FPS levels at times. Reverting from temporal AA to FXAA helped but of course image quality dives doing that. Also, I'm not sure what the resolution scaling does. I set it to max and the game looked better but choked hard down to about 5FPS. Not entirely sure what that is or how best to use it. I've never seen it i any other game.

I'm sorry, not sure if it's artstyle or w/e, but I feel the character design/faces have taken a MAJOR step back compared to the previous games.
Why does everyone look like a troglodyte? It's like every single facial feature is over-dimensioned and the proportions are completely out of whack.

I mean come on, I don't even see this many "ugly" faces when I go to the shitty McDonald's downtown ._.

This has been beaten to death. Yes, the models look weird, mostly because of facial and skeletal animation used in the game being "off" to some degree. As human characters get more realistic in games, they'll start to look a little weirder. See some of the life like sex dolls or robot projects where they look pretty realistic. When they move its fucking freaky looking. They look more off than low poly human characters from games 10+ years ago.

I wouldn't call any of them downright ugly per-say but the human faces do all look weird. Even when they're not animating there is something off. Everyone seems to sit squarely in the uncanny valley and it can be distracting at times. The previous games had some of the same issues as well but graphically it wasn't good enough to push it over that uncanny valley hump, Andromeda on the other hand looks too good so every little issue is amplified.

The woman are in general, not pretty. Most don't seem to wear makeup and have hair that makes it look like they just got out of bed. I think in part its the application of technologies for making things look more realistic that's early in terms of implementation that's largely responsible for that. Meanwhile, Turians, Korgan and Salarians have never looked better.

There is also a very good chance that an NVIDIA Game Ready driver may help the performance of the game when it comes out and alleviate the performance issues on the desert planet.

 

[CrimsonKnight13]

Most of the uncanny valley seems to be occuring with the lack of proper detail with the eyes