[Mikes]

femryder looks stoned in every damn scene

Perhaps that's part of appealing to the "younger audience"?   

[Col.Hornet]

OK. After finishing the writing of my bachelor of science thesis I finally got some time to play.

   It's been pretty fun. Animations are indeed bad but I honestly stopped noticing that after some time (maybe except the "iconic" moments like PeeBee pointing the gun in her own face. Still not fixed). So far I haven't experienced any game- breaking bugs though I spotted NPC's spawning from the sky in front of me. Combat is brilliant but I still need to get used to it (lack of the power wheel and the squadmate order system from ME3 is a pain in the ass though. But I guess it's a matter of mastering the new system). I play on Insane of course so it's pretty challenging sometimes. The game runs pretty stable but I can't really say anything constructive about graphics as I'm forced to play on very low settings (Asus R510j: GTX 950m+ i5-4200H+ 8GB RAM). I manage to get between 60-40 fps in locations like Eos but during more intense moments it can drop to 30 for a short period of time.  Still, can't wait until I will be able to buy GTX 1050 for my PC.

As for the story:

Spoiler:

   Intro was very fun until we were dropped on Habitat7 and encountered the Kett. 634 years of journey and then... exchange a few words with the aliens and we go full Michael Bay for the rest of the mission. We all knew that these guys will be outright hostile but I expected some more complex first-contact-situation.

   Exploration is fun but what I'm really interested in is the SAM and Ryder family related stuff. There is something here. I feel it

   The game is really packed with dialogues. Once I set an outpost on Eos and returned to the Nexus I really started feeling the pressure. Everyone and everything is talking. Game really throws a lot of content at the player in a very short time.

   

[Mikes]

Spoiler:

   Intro was very fun until we were dropped on Habitat7 and encountered the Kett. 634 years of journey and then... exchange a few words with the aliens and we go full Michael Bay for the rest of the mission. We all knew that these guys will be outright hostile but I expected some more complex first-contact-situation.

   Exploration is fun but what I'm really interested in is the SAM and Ryder family related stuff. There is something here. I feel it

   The game is really packed with dialogues. Once I set an outpost on Eos and returned to the Nexus I really started feeling the pressure. Everyone and everything is talking. Game really throws a lot of content at the player in a very short time.

   

I'm still on the fence. Dragon Age Inquisition really burned me with the huge amounts of "MMO style grinding" content. What I would like to know:

Is all that content "engaging" or is it all sort of "filler content" that has no other purpose than to keep people busy?

I.e. is the story and are the quests/tasks actually any good? Or is there just a huge amount of spoken text that makes you wish there was less?

[MP-Ryan]

I have played over 20 hours of multiplayer, and about 2? of singleplayer.  Basically, I just got to the Nexus.

On the basis of that experience:

- The combat model is great, fun, challenging, and allows for a lot of customization.  The multiplayer is a straight-up upgrade of ME3, though desperately needs some balance patches.  However, with the state of the singleplayer criticism I'm not expecting them terribly soon.  Mostly, the guns feel like water pistols.  There are a few standouts (none of which I have unlocked), but for the most part the reaction on weapons in multi is one of "meh."  Several of the powers could also use some buffing.

- I can see why people treated the game so harshly on the basis of the early singleplayer, because I am left overwhelmingly with the hope that it gets better.  Most of the dialogue and accompanying animations are decent rather than spectacular, but there are some truly awful examples of animation and dialogue that stand out and leave you wondering if BioWare actually played their game.

- Speaking of things that make you wonder if BioWare played their game, I can't help but think nobody bothered to ever play the opening sequence of the game on Insanity using any sort of fragile character build, because that is easily the best way to determine the Save system is ****ING ATROCIOUS and the person/people who decided how priority saves work should be taken out back and shot repeatedly with their own underpowered multiplayer weapons.  Implementing a checkpoint-only save system in a game where you have large sequences of exploration, scanning, and dialogue between short sequences of unforgiving (at least on Insanity) combat is idiocy.  Alternatively, they could have had the decency to checkpoint BEFORE and AFTER each of the fights.  Instead, the opening sequence took me three times longer than it needed to because I spent many minutes repeating all the same exploration steps between fights (level 1 charge and Insanity don't get along very well, especially after multi with a level 20 vanguard).  Every major RPG over the last 20 years has had a quicksave, and why BioWare couldn't be bothered to implement it here is beyond me (especially considering the immersion-breaking nature of the manual save when the game does allow you to do it).

I've only proceeded this far in SP in order to be able to "cash" rewards earned in MP, and I'm hopeful there will be some patches before I leap into SP more fully down the road.  I mean, it's BioWare so it's still better than a lot of other content out there, but it definitely has problems.

All that said, there a some decent discounts on the game now and multiplayer is a ridiculous amount of fun, so if anyone is in the "not sure but I'd really like to coop again" camp, I'd say pick it up.

[MP-Ryan]

Patch coming on Thursday:  some fairly big fixes incoming:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/bioware-says-mass-effect-andromeda-bugfixes-and-improvements-are-coming/

Multiplayer balance changes aren't detailed yet, but says "check back."  They also drop Thursday.

[Grizzly]

I'm suddenly split for being a bit worried that a property as big as Mass Effect has to run with having to procedurally generate a lot of their animations and yet on the other hand rather surprised, having seen the game in action via live streaming, that that tech is actually quite decent. Not on par of what you can expect of such a high profile release in 2017, but still.

[StarSlayer]

Well it still better animation than the 2016/7 Berserk series.

not like I'm pissed about that or anything...

No, seriously why isn't it being produced by Madhouse or Bones?  Have these turkeys seen Kentaro Miura's artwork?  I mean Initial D First Stage looks better and that was 98!

Sorry they previewed the second season at AB last weekend and I can still taste were I vomited in my mouth a little .

[Grizzly]

In my mind there's currently a circle with a few post options. On the left it says "Investigate".

[Grizzly]

Eurogamer is talking about facial animations.

[MP-Ryan]

Patch 1.06 dropped today.

By most accounts, a major and overdue fix for multiplayer in particular.

[Luis Dias]

http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285

BW Montreal is dead. Mass Effect is in the freezer.

Thanks, EA.

[The E]

I really, really want to read the post mortem for this game.

[Phantom Hoover]

They thought they could break in a new studio with a franchise title which was guaranteed to sell well, I suppose.

[Col.Hornet]

http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285

BW Montreal is dead. Mass Effect is in the freezer.

Thanks, EA.

Honestly, I could wait a few years until they find a proper team to handle the production of such a big title but at the same time it's troubling. Because in terms of story itself, Andromeda is really mediocre/weak. The whole game looks like a big opening for more stories. For now, in my opinion continuation and expanding the story is the only way to save Andromeda plot-wise. And they promised us a complete story. No no, Bioware&EA, I'd rather start believing that politicians are all honest and want to do their best for us.

[Mikes]

So the verdict is EA killed Bioware finally?

Well surprise ... took a bit longer than all the other studies they killed before Bioware though.   

[Grizzly]

This is just Bioware Montreal, the Bioware studio we know as "Bioware" is Bioware-Edmonton.

[General Battuta]

So the verdict is EA killed Bioware finally?

Well surprise ... took a bit longer than all the other studies they killed before Bioware though.   

why, why is it so hard to just click the link and read it

[Firesteel]

I'd still be worried about Bioware given how little of their old staff (if any) are still there (after reading Shamus Young's essay). If I recall Dragon Age: Inquisition was the main Bioware studio and it had a lot of problems from the bit I played.

[Charismatic]

Is this game worth it to buy on the Origin sale? Or did they botch it up?

[The E]

I think it's as good as it's going to get right now. The patches have addressed a few complaints that made the original release a real mess, and so what you'd get now is a game that is good where Mass Effects have been good traditionally (Moment-to-moment gameplay, cast, production design) and bad where they've been bad traditionally (wonkiness around the edges, little to no thought put into the "why" of certain sidequests, a shall we say underwhelming villain). It's honestly a lot like what I would imagine ME1 would be like, if it were ported to the gameplay of ME2/3.