Mass Effect: Andromeda

So based off of recent mainstream gaming controversies:

Is this another Batman Arkham Knight situation? They did end up yanking that title for a time. Is that what needs to happen here? (Doesn't seem like it but I'm not playing it yet.)

Not at all. Arkham Knight was fine on the consoles. On the PC it was clearly unfinished, poorly optimized and virtually untested. The studio responsible for porting it was lazy and useless. In this case Andromeda is probably the best PC game out of the gate across all Mass Effect titles. It runs well and has the most PC oriented options in the graphics menus out of all the Mass Effect series. The issues with Mass Effect Andromeda are not platform specific. Animations are rough, unfinished and glitchy. The character models have heads that just look ugly. Its not that they aren't well done but rather disturbing that they are all evidently intentionally ugly for some reason. That's probably what triggered a lot of the anti-SJW shit given that it looks like an intentional decision on the developers part to model the women more realistically. All the male and female character presets are ugly too and are designed after non-whites.
 
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Yea I wouldnt call it Arkham Knight. I honestly have had no issues with the game. Will be trying out the game ready drivers too.

Now the story....that I will find out later tonight when I get off work. I won't bring up animations....We all know how much of a cluster fuck that is.

Sucks I was hoping ME:A would at least get good reviews. I guess the story is much to be desired, but I will hold judgement on that.
 
Yea I wouldnt call it Arkham Knight. I honestly have had no issues with the game. Will be trying out the game ready drivers too.

Now the story....that I will find out later tonight when I get off work. I won't bring up animations....We all know how much of a cluster fuck that is.

Sucks I was hoping ME:A would at least get good reviews. I guess the story is much to be desired, but I will hold judgement on that.

The story is going to be a matter of personal preference. In part, the long development cycle and the original trilogy are going to impact people's feelings on the story. There was a lot of hype leading up to this release. Think about it though, weak story isn't new with the series. Mass Effect 2 really had a very simple story line that was basically completed in 5 or 6 missions. It was an Ocean's 11 type of deal where the meat of the game came from building your team rather than the actual objectives in the main quest line. It was a weak story that paled in comparison to the original game. Many people criticize the second game for this. Despite recognizing this I thought it was an excellent game. And as a game, it was excellent despite some issues with the story. ME3 was the same way. The story was both excellent and weak in parts with the main story being more complex than ME2's but being worse overall. As a game, I probably got more entertainment out of ME3 given the multiplayer and modding I did with the game.

I've already enjoyed the piss out of MEA's multiplayer and so far the single player story is fine. That said, it's still early to call it one way or another.
 
The story is going to be a matter of personal preference. In part, the long development cycle and the original trilogy are going to impact people's feelings on the story. There was a lot of hype leading up to this release. Think about it though, weak story isn't new with the series. Mass Effect 2 really had a very simple story line that was basically completed in 5 or 6 missions. It was an Ocean's 11 type of deal where the meat of the game came from building your team rather than the actual objectives in the main quest line. It was a weak story that paled in comparison to the original game. Many people criticize the second game for this. Despite recognizing this I thought it was an excellent game. And as a game, it was excellent despite some issues with the story. ME3 was the same way. The story was both excellent and weak in parts with the main story being more complex than ME2's but being worse overall. As a game, I probably got more entertainment out of ME3 given the multiplayer and modding I did with the game.

I've already enjoyed the piss out of MEA's multiplayer and so far the single player story is fine. That said, it's still early to call it one way or another.

ME2 did have a weak story, but at least it had strong cinematics and the story build up in the previous installment. I have not played ME:A, but I at least hope the universe they created is worth caring about. Even though ME2 had a weaker story, at least there was desire to figure out what happened. A lot of games just have enough story to string along the game. I hope ME:A is not one of them.
 
just getting it setup and configured

Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 00.44.42.02.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 00.45.07.03.png
 
ME2 did have a weak story, but at least it had strong cinematics and the story build up in the previous installment. I have not played ME:A, but I at least hope the universe they created is worth caring about. Even though ME2 had a weaker story, at least there was desire to figure out what happened. A lot of games just have enough story to string along the game. I hope ME:A is not one of them.

I saw ME2 as a bridge meant to elucidate mysteries from ME1 and introduce new plot lines and characters leading to the denouement in ME3 -- like Empire Strikes Back, in a sense. They simply threw a bunch of sub-plots and dead ends that, while diverging the focus, were still very good in their own right e.g. Miranda's daddy issues. Unfortunately, instead of ending with a sense of "all is lost" with Luke and Leia looking out at the stars (with a metaphor for continued hope and things to come) i.e. the typical hero arc, we got that ridiculous, shoe-horned, Cronenberg'ed end boss from Contra. Nonetheless, it was still the strongest entry in the series.

I haven't played ME:A all the way through, but the story is thus far rather unfocused.
 
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Anyone with the Standard Edition of Andromeda on PC - Now that the game has formally launched (I think), do you see an option on Origin (client or site) to upgrade to the Deluxe (or even Super Deluxe) edition? Usually EA titles have an upgrade option for this sort of thing, but it may not be visible unless you already have a key for the base game registered on your account.
 
So far my only gripe is the checkpoint save system. If you're a Mass Effect fan you owe it to yourself to play this game. I made a female scrapper on the level above normal difficulty and got my ass handed to me, I need to get familiar with the controls. If it wasn't after 4am and a workday I'd still be playing. So far my impressions are positive, I cant wait to play again. Obligatory screenshots follow.

Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.09.05.18.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.13.02.25.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.22.46.33.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.37.15.40.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.39.45.44.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 03.35.36.49.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 04.01.38.57.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 04.06.09.60.png Mass Effect Andromeda 03.21.2017 - 02.51.42.46.png
 
Turning in for the night/morning. This game is seriously scratching my itch for an expansive RPG, mysteries galore.

EDIT:

If anyone wants to see the bandwagon effect go look at the user score over on metacritic. I swear, the young lemming gaming population that is filled out with a bunch of 12 year olds sure can parrot the same critiques of animation issues and other minor distraction quite a bit. The hate is, once again, outsized. But then that was a foregone conclusion since it was getting hate before it was even released because of who was associated with the creation and some people not agreeing with past tweets.
 
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Hah yep, but if you were born 600 years from now you would probably be like "man I with I could go back in time and live in the 21's century."


Man I started preloading yesterday and its going to take me about 2 weeks to dl it, so sad

Dude what??? Are you on a 56k modem line or something? I just got 750/750 Fios it downloaded in like 4 minutes.
 
I picked back up last night around 7pm (using a VPN) and had a blast so far.

I still have not seen any of the T models or a human running with an alien gait. Playing Scott Ryder, I have not seen the odd squatting run that some of the trial videos showed.

The human characters do have a stiff gait, much like they did for all the prior Mass Effect games. My biggest gripe is that that the characters have zero idle animations. If they are not in some scripted stance (leaning against a rail, holding a clip board, etc) they just stand there with this odd shoulder back posture.

Facial animations are a over the place. Aliens for the most are well done and it seems that time was put into syncing the voices. Humans however are a mess. Some may have decent facial animations while others are just fucked up.

Audio is another issue, the game settings allow for surround sound, but it only seems to work sometimes, I can be in a conversation and turn and look around and the npcs voice shifts between the speakers as you would expect, you can then walk ten feet and speek with someone else and their voice comes from all the speakers. Conversations trigger from across rooms, which is especially bad on the Tempest. The worst offender being a conversation between two party members you meet on Eos, but whom I had not yet accepted to the crew, IE they were not yet on thd ship.

I have mixed feelings on the writing, it is good overall, but some responses seem like they were written for the MTV studio/CW crowd.

I really enjoy the combat so far. I like the dynamics of it and what the jump jet brings to the table. I think it is what ME combat has been missing. The fact you can no longer direct your team is idiotic though, no load outs, no power selection nothing.

Personally I do not regret sticking with the pre order. So far.
 
I picked back up last night around 7pm (using a VPN) and had a blast so far.

I still have not seen any of the T models or a human running with an alien gait. Playing Scott Ryder, I have not seen the odd squatting run that some of the trial videos showed.

The human characters do have a stiff gait, much like they did for all the prior Mass Effect games. My biggest gripe is that that the characters have zero idle animations. If they are not in some scripted stance (leaning against a rail, holding a clip board, etc) they just stand there with this odd shoulder back posture.

Facial animations are a over the place. Aliens for the most are well done and it seems that time was put into syncing the voices. Humans however are a mess. Some may have decent facial animations while others are just fucked up.

Audio is another issue, the game settings allow for surround sound, but it only seems to work sometimes, I can be in a conversation and turn and look around and the npcs voice shifts between the speakers as you would expect, you can then walk ten feet and speek with someone else and their voice comes from all the speakers. Conversations trigger from across rooms, which is especially bad on the Tempest. The worst offender being a conversation between two party members you meet on Eos, but whom I had not yet accepted to the crew, IE they were not yet on thd ship.

I have mixed feelings on the writing, it is good overall, but some responses seem like they were written for the MTV studio/CW crowd.

I really enjoy the combat so far. I like the dynamics of it and what the jump jet brings to the table. I think it is what ME combat has been missing. The fact you can no longer direct your team is idiotic though, no load outs, no power selection nothing.

Personally I do not regret sticking with the pre order. So far.


Most spot on assessment in this thread. Animations and shit-in-my-pants running aside....the gameplay / exploration / combat are enough to overcome its flaws.
 
I saw ME2 as a bridge meant to elucidate mysteries from ME1 and introduce new plot lines and characters leading to the denouement in ME3 -- like Empire Strikes Back, in a sense. They simply threw a bunch of sub-plots and dead ends that, while diverging the focus, were still very good in their own right e.g. Miranda's daddy issues. Unfortunately, instead of ending with a sense of "all is lost" with Luke and Leia looking out at the stars (with a metaphor for continued hope and things to come) i.e. the typical hero arc, we got that ridiculous, shoe-horned, Cronenberg'ed end boss from Contra. Nonetheless, it was still the strongest entry in the series.

I haven't played ME:A all the way through, but the story is thus far rather unfocused.

I looked at it the same way. My point is that despite the rather thin story, the game made up for it in other areas. People shouldn't put a lot of stock into what others say about the story, especially when those comments come from people who haven't completed the game.

I'm sick of that false narrative. Realistic doesn't equal ugly. What they went for here is not realistic it's plain awful.

That's the only thing that makes sense. Some of the more major characters are OK when they aren't suffering from terrible animations. Cora has issues with facial animations. From certain angles or when her animations are working well enough she's reasonably attractive. The Scottish chick on the bridge is another matter. Her hairs a mess and I don't even know what to say about her makeup. Her skin color doesn't look right for hers or any other nationality. The way she's seated and the way the light often hits her, she looks like a Salarian with tits. Lexi looks "off" to me. From some angles she looks fine. The rest of the time her face is somewhat chubby looking and incongruent with her body. PB (however her name is spelled) has that awful looking face paint but otherwise is reasonably attractive. She's just not a drop dead gorgeous model type that we are used to seeing in the series.

Again I think a few things are going on here. The model quality is actually very good despite the character's being modeled with faces that are too round (not necessarily unnaturally) and just not attractive. There are people that look like the in game characters out there. What makes matters worse is that the eyes look plastic on most characters save for the default male Ryder and a few other male characters. The women all seem to suffer from the problem. Meanwhile I can see the wetness, reflections of a Salarian's eye. It looks like something you could physically touch. The next problem is that the skin coloring on the non-Caucasian characters is plain horrid. Many of them look like they are sporting spray tans. Finally, I don't like the hair. Some characters have their hair done well enough but again, many of the females drew the short straw. Cora's hair is just bad because she looks like a man hating dyke who's nickname should be "fisty". Other people have hair that appears too thin and stringy. One of the female Ryder presets is this way.

Turning in for the night/morning. This game is seriously scratching my itch for an expansive RPG, mysteries galore.

EDIT:

If anyone wants to see the bandwagon effect go look at the user score over on metacritic. I swear, the young lemming gaming population that is filled out with a bunch of 12 year olds sure can parrot the same critiques of animation issues and other minor distraction quite a bit. The hate is, once again, outsized. But then that was a foregone conclusion since it was getting hate before it was even released because of who was associated with the creation and some people not agreeing with past tweets.

That's what I said would happen. It's popular to hate on something and people will watch a couple of Youtube videos with animation errors and then comment on the game as though they are experts on it.

Concerning the "unfocused" nature of the story, I can't agree with that comment. By the end of Eos at least you are working on solving a mystery. That's not a lack of focus that's just hot its constructed. The quality of that story can't be known until the end or nearly the end. The rest of the side quests and other story elements are centered around the challenges of colonizing planets. You have lots of fires to put out and people look to Ryder for guidance.

If there is one thing I don't like about the story so far is that everyone looks to the Pathfinder and calls them such as though they are almost a religious figure. They expect you to solve every fucking problem big or small despite being relatively young and damn well knowing you have zero experience. I do like the fact that Scott Ryder, by his own account was nothing more than an average Alliance Soldier who saw a little action but nothing like Shepard had. I also like the reasons why the Ryder's came to Andromeda. Those reasons are relatable and understandable.
 
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I wonder if multiplayer might become a bit of a hit. I do like the jump jets angle.

ME3's multiplayer was surprisingly good. I never had trouble finding a match from the day the game launched to the day Andromeda dropped. I'd bet I could find one now If I was at home to try. MEA's multiplayer is even better since it lacks the sticky cover system and has the jet pack and the dodge move. The maps now have a vertical element to them. The multiplayer is faster and more variable. Maps look great and the performance under MP is even better than in the SP.
 
Dan_D - is "Scott Ryder" the male player character, or is it the Ryder twins' father? I was under the impression that the father was a N7 soldier and though not a near-deified Shepard type character (ie Spectre status etc), I though the father had both extensive scientific and military command experience? Wasn't he one of the first through the Charon Relay back when humanity first learned about the relay system, and subsequently became N7 Rated which, like Shepard, was the Alliance military equivalent of most-elite special forces training etc? I've kept away from too many spoilers, so this is just the blurbs I remembe reading on the official site/vids, but it seemed like Ryder (the father) was the exact kind of guy you'd pick for Pathfinder, in charge of such a momentous responsibility that requires military, scientific, and overall quasi-political-social leadership skills. He may not have Shepard's record, but I thought he was far more than an average alliance officer.

Oh and if anyone can check on the possibility to upgrade a standard edition to Deluxe , as I mentioned above, please let me know.
 
Dan_D - is "Scott Ryder" the male player character, or is it the Ryder twins' father? I was under the impression that the father was a N7 soldier and though not a near-deified Shepard type character (ie Spectre status etc), I though the father had both extensive scientific and military command experience? Wasn't he one of the first through the Charon Relay back when humanity first learned about the relay system, and subsequently became N7 Rated which, like Shepard, was the Alliance military equivalent of most-elite special forces training etc? I've kept away from too many spoilers, so this is just the blurbs I remembe reading on the official site/vids, but it seemed like Ryder (the father) was the exact kind of guy you'd pick for Pathfinder, in charge of such a momentous responsibility that requires military, scientific, and overall quasi-political-social leadership skills. He may not have Shepard's record, but I thought he was far more than an average alliance officer.

Oh and if anyone can check on the possibility to upgrade a standard edition to Deluxe , as I mentioned above, please let me know.

Alec Ryder is the father. Scott is the playable one. Alec Ryder was an N7 soldier with an obviously high intellect and a passion for Ai development of it despite the restriction of AI development in council space. After he lobbied for AI development and the Alliance saying "no" on the basis it would hurt their standing in council space he went ahead and developed SAM illegally.

And yes, Alec is the Pathfinder originally and exactly the right guy for the job. For reasons I won't get into (spoilers) Scott is named his successor. This pisses off Cora as she was actually groomed by Alec to be his successor. Alec is in good shape and still a badass, but he's getting up there in age by the time Ark Hyperion launched.

As a separate note: while Alec is no Shepard, he's close. N7 badassery isn't limited to Shepard alone. When separated from the group, Alec is like the fucking terminator. Like Shepard, he's not entirely human and he wastes through Kett soldiers like they are nothing. His implant (and consequently yours) is the reason why story wise you aren't class limited.
 
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Anyone tried this at 4k with 980Ti SLI? I'm debating between getting this on PC or PS4, and I'm not getting it on PC if it runs like shit on my rig at 4k.
 
I have mixed feelings on the writing, it is good overall, but some responses seem like they were written for the MTV studio/CW crowd.

This is probably my biggest gripe. I've run into quite a few lines that illicit bowel-shaking embarrassment cringes. The dialogue is both very inconsistent in quality (to just plain badly written), and at the same time, panders to a certain young demographic. It's like some of the lines were written by 10 year-old script writer, then wrung through Google translate three times over.

While prior MEs were chock full of clichés and hyperbole, I never recall them crossing over into the "I need brain-bleach" territory.

They should have brought someone like Drew Karpyshyn, Jennifer Hepler and/or David Gaider in for ME:A, at least for a treatment, but I think that crew got pushed out of Bioware/EA.
 
Anyone tried this at 4k with 980Ti SLI? I'm debating between getting this on PC or PS4, and I'm not getting it on PC if it runs like shit on my rig at 4k.

A couple friends of mine are running 980Ti SLI setups. I'll have to ask them what their settings are and how it runs. Another friend of mine has a single 980Ti and it's running fine for him at 4K, then again I don't know what his settings are. He left it on whatever it autodetected for performance. All three people are running the game at 4K. A single Titan X (Maxwell) and ostensibly a 980Ti can run the game on Ultra settings at 2560x1600 with no problem. Its running great on my girlfriend's machine. She's got a Core i7 4770 at 4.3GHz or so and 16GB of DDR3 1866MHz RAM.
 
To expand on Dan_D comments about salarian eyes, the alien races, especially the Krogan and Salarians look amazing. Drack's skin looks real, you almost want to pet him on the head and the Salarians eyes are great. Their skin looks soft and smooth. The Turians look good as well.

Asari are another story, I would guess the same animation team that did the humans did the Asari. For one they all look like they share the same face, with the exception maybe of Lexi.

I have also ran into several people, primarily on the Nexus that are pretty much carbon copies, same head, same uniforms etc, and I am not talking about scattered across the Nexus, but 2-3 in the same room.

And the hair is atrocious, it is for a fact worse then DA:I. It is all plastic, and in most cases has no depth, like it missing textures or something.

The armor and clothing all look hi res and well done, the weapons look great as well.

I am also pretty happy about the crafting system. There are so many options. That being said if you thought the ME1 system was too complex, or overwhelming then you will hate the one in MEA. It is a complete 180 from the ultra basic one used in ME2, while still having the modularity of the one found in ME3.
 
Fired it up for 10 minutes just to get everything configured. Like Resident Evil 7, it auto-detects HDR and gives you a configuration utility to control brightness for it. Resolution scaling offers straight-up 1080p and 720p options for those with high-resolution monitors but without insane hardware. Will give the game itself a go this evening.
 
To expand on Dan_D comments about salarian eyes, the alien races, especially the Krogan and Salarians look amazing. Drack's skin looks real, you almost want to pet him on the head and the Salarians eyes are great. Their skin looks soft and smooth. The Turians look good as well.

Asari are another story, I would guess the same animation team that did the humans did the Asari. For one they all look like they share the same face, with the exception maybe of Lexi.

I have also ran into several people, primarily on the Nexus that are pretty much carbon copies, same head, same uniforms etc, and I am not talking about scattered across the Nexus, but 2-3 in the same room.

And the hair is atrocious, it is for a fact worse then DA:I. It is all plastic, and in most cases has no depth, like it missing textures or something.

The armor and clothing all look hi res and well done, the weapons look great as well.

I am also pretty happy about the crafting system. There are so many options. That being said if you thought the ME1 system was too complex, or overwhelming then you will hate the one in MEA. It is a complete 180 from the ultra basic one used in ME2, while still having the modularity of the one found in ME3.

While I hate the menus for a lot of the game, I have to say I'm not totally hating the crafting system. Normally that shit annoys me. Here it not only makes sense but it works. You have finite resources and only resources to work with that you've gathered. You can fabricate anything in Mass Effect via a 3D printer essentially, but it needs the raw materials to do so. The codex in the earlier games mention FRM (fabrication rights management) as a copy protection algorithm and states in the codex how these weapon blueprints were obtained. You almost have access to all the previous games' weapon blueprints. You have to craft the guns you want since you aren't going to find too many of them. They are rare and only found on dead colonists. Kett weapons I've seen aren't really better than milky way weapons. Remnant weapons may be another story. I haven't checked into their stats too much. I lack the resources to craft very much at all. Effectively, it may take a couple playthroughs or more to craft everything and level it up.

I agree with you on the NPC's but keep in mind that these same carbon copied NPC's were how shit was done in the previous games as well. Walk around Ilium or Omega and you'll see. The Citadel is chalk full of it in ME1. BioWare's SWTOR MMO is the same way. In fact, the faces for some NPCs are drawn using the same set of options you have in the character customization and as a result you can run into NPC's that look like your character. This is par for the course with BioWare.

BioWare's strengths have NEVER lied with technical ability. If anything MEA is the strongest technical achievement. Their strength isn't even in story telling which is what they are typically known for. Really, its their characters. Their characters can attach you and draw you into giving a shit about a story that otherwise wouldn't be all that engrossing. They are also very good at selling you on presentation. On the surface, games in the series are well presented. They can be pretty and cinematic. On the other hand, the façade doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. You people that haven't noticed this are most likely the same ones who only went through each game in the series a time or two. I've got 6 play throughs of ME1, 22 of ME2, and 14 play throughs of ME3 under my belt. When you've gone through these game environments that much, you can see how repetitive they are and what trickery was employed to keep you from noticing that in one or two play throughs.
 
The story is going to be a matter of personal preference. In part, the long development cycle and the original trilogy are going to impact people's feelings on the story. There was a lot of hype leading up to this release. Think about it though, weak story isn't new with the series. Mass Effect 2 really had a very simple story line that was basically completed in 5 or 6 missions. It was an Ocean's 11 type of deal where the meat of the game came from building your team rather than the actual objectives in the main quest line. It was a weak story that paled in comparison to the original game. Many people criticize the second game for this. Despite recognizing this I thought it was an excellent game. And as a game, it was excellent despite some issues with the story. ME3 was the same way. The story was both excellent and weak in parts with the main story being more complex than ME2's but being worse overall. As a game, I probably got more entertainment out of ME3 given the multiplayer and modding I did with the game.

I've already enjoyed the piss out of MEA's multiplayer and so far the single player story is fine. That said, it's still early to call it one way or another.

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to hear. :cool:

I've also recognised ME's faults over the years, but have always largely let them slip because I found the Universe and characters as a whole so endearing. If Mass Effect Andromeda's 'world' is even a patch on the prior games, then I don't think I've got anything to worry about when I pick it up at the weekend...
 
Fired it up for 10 minutes just to get everything configured. Like Resident Evil 7, it auto-detects HDR and gives you a configuration utility to control brightness for it. Resolution scaling offers straight-up 1080p and 720p options for those with high-resolution monitors but without insane hardware. Will give the game itself a go this evening.

The only thing about resolution scaling is it does make the game look a little fuzzy. This effect is compounded by Temporal AA. With FXAA you might as well be running no AA. It's blocky as fuck. Don't use the scaling unless you need to.
 
The only thing about resolution scaling is it does make the game look a little fuzzy. This effect is compounded by Temporal AA. With FXAA you might as well be running no AA. It's blocky as fuck. Don't use the scaling unless you need to.

Interesting. In Gears, GTA5, Street Fighter 5, etc. I usually like the look of running the games at my native res (4K) but at 50% scaling. It's better than 1080p in those. Will have to play around with ME's settings.
 
I looked at it the same way. My point is that despite the rather thin story, the game made up for it in other areas. People shouldn't put a lot of stock into what others say about the story, especially when those comments come from people who haven't completed the game.



That's the only thing that makes sense. Some of the more major characters are OK when they aren't suffering from terrible animations. Cora has issues with facial animations. From certain angles or when her animations are working well enough she's reasonably attractive. The Scottish chick on the bridge is another matter. Her hairs a mess and I don't even know what to say about her makeup. Her skin color doesn't look right for hers or any other nationality. The way she's seated and the way the light often hits her, she looks like a Salarian with tits. Lexi looks "off" to me. From some angles she looks fine. The rest of the time her face is somewhat chubby looking and incongruent with her body. PB (however her name is spelled) has that awful looking face paint but otherwise is reasonably attractive. She's just not a drop dead gorgeous model type that we are used to seeing in the series.

Again I think a few things are going on here. The model quality is actually very good despite the character's being modeled with faces that are too round (not necessarily unnaturally) and just not attractive. There are people that look like the in game characters out there. What makes matters worse is that the eyes look plastic on most characters save for the default male Ryder and a few other male characters. The women all seem to suffer from the problem. Meanwhile I can see the wetness, reflections of a Salarian's eye. It looks like something you could physically touch. The next problem is that the skin coloring on the non-Caucasian characters is plain horrid. Many of them look like they are sporting spray tans. Finally, I don't like the hair. Some characters have their hair done well enough but again, many of the females drew the short straw. Cora's hair is just bad because she looks like a man hating dyke who's nickname should be "fisty". Other people have hair that appears too thin and stringy. One of the female Ryder presets is this way.



That's what I said would happen. It's popular to hate on something and people will watch a couple of Youtube videos with animation errors and then comment on the game as though they are experts on it.

Concerning the "unfocused" nature of the story, I can't agree with that comment. By the end of Eos at least you are working on solving a mystery. That's not a lack of focus that's just hot its constructed. The quality of that story can't be known until the end or nearly the end. The rest of the side quests and other story elements are centered around the challenges of colonizing planets. You have lots of fires to put out and people look to Ryder for guidance.

If there is one thing I don't like about the story so far is that everyone looks to the Pathfinder and calls them such as though they are almost a religious figure. They expect you to solve every fucking problem big or small despite being relatively young and damn well knowing you have zero experience. I do like the fact that Scott Ryder, by his own account was nothing more than an average Alliance Soldier who saw a little action but nothing like Shepard had. I also like the reasons why the Ryder's came to Andromeda. Those reasons are relatable and understandable.

From the little backstory I got while playing the trial I feel like Cora have a more "butch" hairstyle makes sense for her character.

She hints at how poorly other humans treated her and you can see the distrust and pain from that even in your early interactions with her on the first planet when she reveals she is a biotic. Combine that with her being an Asari Commando, which even among Asari tend to have their own style and look that separates them from others of their race, her deciding to go with that hair style does make some sense. I can imagine that her fellow Commandos would have approved of that look.

Speaking of colonizing, how do you like that aspect? From what I've seen going to planets and getting them ready to colonize and upgrading/expanding the Nexus seem like the most interesting parts of the game to me. Or at least some of the most unique elements of it.

This is probably my biggest gripe. I've run into quite a few lines that illicit bowel-shaking embarrassment cringes. The dialogue is both very inconsistent in quality (to just plain badly written), and at the same time, panders to a certain young demographic. It's like some of the lines were written by 10 year-old script writer, then wrung through Google translate three times over.

While prior MEs were chock full of clichés and hyperbole, I never recall them crossing over into the "I need brain-bleach" territory.

They should have brought someone like Drew Karpyshyn, Jennifer Hepler and/or David Gaider in for ME:A, at least for a treatment, but I think that crew got pushed out of Bioware/EA.

To me it seems like someone was trying to copy Joss Whedon's writing without understanding what makes that style of writing work. The trilogy had a lot of problems with this as well though. There were several groan worthy lines and snarky quips that just feel flat. Jack had a lot of really horrible lines as did Jacob. Over-all 2 and even 3 didn't have too many of those lines, but 1 had a lot of clunkers and just awkwardly written quips between some of the characters.[/spoiler]
 
Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to hear. :cool:

I've also recognised ME's faults over the years, but have always largely let them slip because I found the Universe and characters as a whole so endearing. If Mass Effect Andromeda's 'world' is even a patch on the prior games, then I don't think I've got anything to worry about when I pick it up at the weekend...

Don't worry. The game still feels like Mass Effect. Granted, the game feels a little different because it isn't Shepard and you are in another galaxy. One reviewer made a comment that it didn' feel like you were in another galaxy yet, I disagree completely. Your lack of resources, totally new enemies, alien architecture that's totally different from what the Asari, Salarians, Alliance, Turians, or Prothians had does give it an alien feeling. In their large underground structures, the shit looks alien compared to what you've seen from the series. It's massive, expansive and the purpose of much of it can only be understood via context. It's as close to the feeling we'd get by saddling up and heading for another galaxy as you are going to find right now. Out of what I've played anyway.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about.
 
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I agree with you on the NPC's but keep in mind that these same carbon copied NPC's were how shit was done in the previous games as well. Walk around Ilium or Omega and you'll see. The Citadel is chalk full of it in ME1. BioWare's SWTOR MMO is the same way. In fact, the faces for some NPCs are drawn using the same set of options you have in the character customization and as a result you can run into NPC's that look like your character. This is par for the course with BioWare.


Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I expected clones, it was just jarring to see them all clustered together. Worst part about it is they were all bald.

Something else they did a great job on so far are the environments.
 
From the little backstory I got while playing the trial I feel like Cora have a more "butch" hairstyle makes sense for her character.

She hints at how poorly other humans treated her and you can see the distrust and pain from that even in your early interactions with her on the first planet when she reveals she is a biotic. Combine that with her being an Asari Commando, which even among Asari tend to have their own style and look that separates them from others of their race, her deciding to go with that hair style does make some sense. I can imagine that her fellow Commandos would have approved of that look.

Speaking of colonizing, how do you like that aspect? From what I've seen going to planets and getting them ready to colonize and upgrading/expanding the Nexus seem like the most interesting parts of the game to me. Or at least some of the most unique elements of it.



To me it seems like someone was trying to copy Joss Whedon's writing without understanding what makes that style of writing work. The trilogy had a lot of problems with this as well though. There were several groan worthy lines and snarky quips that just feel flat. Jack had a lot of really horrible lines as did Jacob. Over-all 2 and even 3 didn't have too many of those lines, but 1 had a lot of clunkers and just awkwardly written quips between some of the characters.[/spoiler]

Spot on about Cora. She's becoming more interesting as the game progresses. Actually, the main squad mates all are so far. The colonization by itself is only interesting in that we haven't done it before. It definitely makes the mundane tasks we did have (gathering resources) in the previous games far more enjoyable. The terrain isn't procedurally generated like it was in ME1. Or at least, not copied and pasted the way it was. The terrain the Mako had to traverse was far more difficult and annoying to navigate. I actually enjoy driving around in the Nomad. It also leaves tire tracks which helps you to keep your bearings. As for what I find interesting, I think the bigger mystery is concerning the Remnant and their technology. While the idea of a lost or dead alien race and left over technology is certainly not new or even new to the series' the similarities are over shadowed by the presentation of it all. Walking into a Remnant structure is a treat visually. It looks alien and it takes some doing to figure it all out. Who were they? What did they look like? What killed them? Why are the Kett obsessed with them?
 
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong I expected clones, it was just jarring to see them all clustered together. Worst part about it is they were all bald.

Something else they did a great job on so far are the environments.

The baldness may be a glitch. I don't know, I haven't seen that or haven't noticed that. The environments are fucking spectacular. The armors and weapons are good looking too. The lighting is generally good, HDR is well implemented, and so far I'm enjoying the overall story arc even if its muddled with some groan inducing dialog here and there. So far I haven't been bothered by side quests that turn me into a glorified UPS man either. (It's still early in the game for me though.)
 
The baldness may be a glitch. I don't know, I haven't seen that or haven't noticed that. The environments are fucking spectacular. The armors and weapons are good looking too. The lighting is generally good, HDR is well implemented, and so far I'm enjoying the overall story arc even if its muddled with some groan inducing dialog here and there. So far I haven't been bothered by side quests that turn me into a glorified UPS man either. (It's still early in the game for me though.)

Yeah the side quest, while sometimes clearly being fetch quests, all so far make it seem like they actually have a purpose. You are not running across the Citadel looking for a lost necklace, you are however scanning stuff in the Nexus looking for damage or sabotage or looking for dead colonists on Eos. I usually grind through the side quests, because I must do them all, and so far none of them have left me asking "what in the hell was the point in that?".

But yes it is early, hopefully it will not be an issue where the new planets end up with the same quests over and over again.
 
God damnit guys, is it worth buying? I canceled my preorder but no I'm starting to feel that it was a mistake.
 
God damnit guys, is it worth buying? I canceled my preorder but no I'm starting to feel that it was a mistake.

Again, the animation issues are somewhat distracting and even hilariously bad at times. That said, I'm really enjoying the game. I'm enjoying it as much as I have any of the previous games. Unfortunately, its still early to tell how the story will ultimately pan out.
 
God damnit guys, is it worth buying? I canceled my preorder but no I'm starting to feel that it was a mistake.

You can't just rely on reviews, everyone's opinions are their own. Reviews do help but I've found myself really enjoying games that got bad reviews. In addition, you have to factor in the unrealistic expectations that came with this game.
 
You can't just rely on reviews, everyone's opinions are their own. Reviews do help but I've found myself really enjoying games that got bad reviews. In addition, you have to factor in the unrealistic expectations that came with this game.

Bingo.

I'm a big Street Fighter fan and it currently has a 74 on Metacritic. It's the lowest reviewed game I've ever played, but it's actually the game I've put the most hours in, ever. 560 hours and no signs of stopping.
 
PSA and likely repeat:


Save workaround:
While doing a "priority mission", switch your active quest objective, save, switch back.
 
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