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E3 Announcement Trailer: https://youtu.be/uG8V9dRqSsw
To be released Q4 2016.
That's a long wait, but we'll bang, ok?
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Hoping like hell they learned some lessons from ME3's flawed but ridiculously fun multiplayer mode. I put far more time into ME3 multiplayer than I did into singleplayer.
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Hoping like hell they learned some lessons from ME3's flawed but ridiculously fun multiplayer mode. I put far more time into ME3 multiplayer than I did into singleplayer.
At this point ... just hoping it won't be another stupid MMO. lol.
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I'm gonna play the hell out of MASS EFFECT: FIREFLY GALACTICA UNIVERSE myself!
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Curious as to how this will fit with existing cannon
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Depends on caliber of the cannon. It's gotta be fairly big.
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They made a sequel to Mass Effect? **** this, I don't have time to play all of these games. Fml.
Curious as to how this will fit with existing cannon
JOKE ABOUT CANNON VS CANON
SELF-DEPRECATING COMMENT ABOUT HOW MUCH I SUCK FOR MAKING THIS OBVIOUS JOKE RIGHT AFTER FURY
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They made a sequel to Mass Effect? **** this, I don't have time to play all of these games. Fml.
Hmm, you do know that the original Mass Effect had two sequels? Making Andromeda the fourth Mass Effect, and Andromeda starts completely new storyline with new main character.
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They made a sequel to Mass Effect? **** this, I don't have time to play all of these games. Fml.
Curious as to how this will fit with existing cannon
JOKE ABOUT CANNON VS CANON
SELF-DEPRECATING COMMENT ABOUT HOW MUCH I SUCK FOR MAKING THIS OBVIOUS JOKE RIGHT AFTER FURY
Yeah, the Thanix cannon probably takes up some space. Not easy to fit another cannon next to it.
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Is it terminator genecyst style offspring of joker and evi?
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We'll see how long EA can drag the corpse of Mass Effect behind their truck until it stops resembling Mass Effect.
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Despite their efforts to correct, 3 burned a lot of my appreciation for the franchise.
Andromeda's going into the box where I keep the new Nanoha anime, Kerberos-made games, Civilization: Beyond Earth and anything related to it, the Lost Planet series, and similar stuff. The one labeled "I suspect you're scum, but we'll see if I need to put you in the box with Tiberian Twilight and SOTS 2."
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ME3 is actually pretty damned good, I'm making a playthrough of it right now. Dat ending ruins most of the experience retrospectively, *sure*, but at the end of the day, it just confirms what we already suspected: Bioware is really bad at answering the high-level concept questions that it itself correctly *asks*, but terrifyingly good at low level every-moment world building.
So no, I won't expect any Asimov-level of thought in it, but if it delivers at providing a Firefly-esque experience of commanding a ship in a new "western" yet unexplored world, I'm into it.
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All they had to do to stick the landing on ME3 was to use my ending :nod:
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What was your ending?
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Reapers are a logical and responsible (but incredibly violent) solution to the problem of hegemonic civilizations taking over the galaxy and erasing all the possible things that might yet be. They're the Krogan to our Rachni, the genophage to our Krogan. They preserve what they reap as new Reapers. We would never have existed without them. They're an alternate end stage to the life cycle of civilizations.
Crucible is a mass effect weapon that will peel apart every star in the galaxy using the dark energy foreshadowing from ME2. It's a gun to our own foreheads: leave us be or we'll force your ultimate fail state.
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Reapers are paragon as ****.
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Reapers are a logical and responsible (but incredibly violent) solution to the problem of hegemonic civilizations taking over the galaxy and erasing all the possible things that might yet be. They're the Krogan to our Rachni, the genophage to our Krogan. They preserve what they reap as new Reapers. We would never have existed without them. They're an alternate end stage to the life cycle of civilizations.
Crucible is a mass effect weapon that will peel apart every star in the galaxy using the dark energy foreshadowing from ME2. It's a gun to our own foreheads: leave us be or we'll force your ultimate fail state.
So, in your ending, the Reapers are a lot like the Shivans?
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Bioware has been disappointing me horribly my entire life, and I still always get super hyped and excited when they announce the next game. Why change a perfectly dysfunctional relationship?
Anyway, what Luis Dias said: ME3 was a great game with a ****ed up ending and a couple of offensively bad characters. One should get over it. By this point it's almost guaranteed that this one will also be ****ed up in many different ways, and I'll be ranting about each one of them to anyone willing to listen come Q4 2016. But it's also almost certain that it will have a great cast of NPC's and that at least parts of the main storyline will be exceptionally well done and interesting. And I'm also hoping for a fun gameplay, because for me ME3 was perfect in that regard.
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I took no great offense at ME3's ending. But I only played the director's cut (or whatever they called it) version and accidentally stumbled into the "make no choice" ending as I was trying to just see what all the options were.
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Reapers are a logical and responsible (but incredibly violent) solution to the problem of hegemonic civilizations taking over the galaxy and erasing all the possible things that might yet be. They're the Krogan to our Rachni, the genophage to our Krogan. They preserve what they reap as new Reapers. We would never have existed without them. They're an alternate end stage to the life cycle of civilizations.
Crucible is a mass effect weapon that will peel apart every star in the galaxy using the dark energy foreshadowing from ME2. It's a gun to our own foreheads: leave us be or we'll force your ultimate fail state.
So, in your ending, the Reapers are a lot like the Shivans?
They're close to one interpretation of V's Shivans, but not an interpretation I think is most interesting.
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Please, get over ME3's ending already folks, that train left the station years ago. Or go back to the old topics discussing it, this topic is not about ME3.
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yeah why would you even discuss the end of the previous instalment of a series when speculating about the direction the next one will take
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Please, get over ME3's ending already folks, that train left the station years ago. Or go back to the old topics discussing it, this topic is not about ME3.
That BioWare has elected to do everything possible to make the ending to ME3 matter as little as possible is a valid topic of discussion in a topic about ME4.
I mean, I totally understand if people are reluctant to once again jump on the ME hype train after being burned by ME3.
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They made a sequel to Mass Effect? **** this, I don't have time to play all of these games. Fml.
Hmm, you do know that the original Mass Effect had two sequels? Making Andromeda the fourth Mass Effect, and Andromeda starts completely new storyline with new main character.
As a man who has not (and probably will never) get around to playing Mass Effect 2 and 3, I float aloof and free above this discussion of "endings" and "hype trains".
As far as I know, anything could have happened in these last two installments. Anything. I could play this new game ("androgenerousity" or whatever) with an open mind, free from the loathsome baggage of the past. It's like starting a book at the 300th page.
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That BioWare has elected to do everything possible to make the ending to ME3 matter as little as possible is a valid topic of discussion in a topic about ME4.
I mean, I totally understand if people are reluctant to once again jump on the ME hype train after being burned by ME3.
Since Andromeda is not a direct sequel to ME3, I don't think that is entirely valid. In addition, developer like Bioware is a big house. People who made ME3 single-player are not making Andromeda, as a matter of fact it's the studio behind ME3 multiplayer that is making Andromeda.
Nevertheless, there used to be topics where ME3 and its ending were discussed thoroughly, please consider using those topics instead to discuss ME3. When new stuff about Andromeda gets published, I wouldn't want to wade through pages of posts discussing nothing but ME3's ending.
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If we used those topics we'd get *****ed at for necroing. I haven't seen Battuta's ending stated in this much detail anywhere before, so this thread has been a net gain in my book.
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Were they just previously connected with the multiplayer? Didn't they do one or two DLCs or something? If not, they have quite the task to become up and running and improving in a very complex work ahead of them. I wish them luck.
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Please, get over ME3's ending already folks, that train left the station years ago. Or go back to the old topics discussing it, this topic is not about ME3.
See the thing is we get this ridiculous monstrosity that directly leads to this game as far as actual, on-screen narrative is concerned.
While meanwhile let's go check in with the dudes working on The Old Republic, who are probably the Bioware team least cared about by anyone inside or outside the company. What's that? They've released a new planet to explore? Cool, cool, nothing to write home about, but Makeb's a solid experience. Wait what? You say they're releasing another two and more class-quest content which progresses the game story? Sounds good, sounds good, but you're all part of the Expanded Trashcan anyways-what? They don't give a flying rat****? **** the Disney police, we're making Risha some of the best writing in the game? Okay guys, but you're working on a legacy title here...
Oh. You're going to release another expansion that updates the storyline a few years and depicts a galaxy where the war has collapsed both the Republic and the Empire. Add a bunch of features. You're talking about it like it's practically a full game, and you've said it's basically going to be a big single-player type expansion, you can do it with friends if you really want, but...wait who are you and aren't you owned by EA? Are you allowed to say things like this?
Bioware is capable of doing a coordinated, intelligent, workmanlike job when they chose to. I don't expect them to answer big deep questions. I just expect them to know better than to let the Head Writer lock himself in his office and write the ending completely alone when the project is well-advanced. Even I know better than to let me do that; at least I get Alessia to reality-check me. And I'm not even a professional. All we know is it's a Mass Effect game. Are we dealing with the same team? Dunno. Hope not.
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Patrick Weekes is in charge of Dragon Age now and I think David Gaider moved over to Mass Effect. Or I might have that backward.
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Anyone dwell in thoughts about the trailer at all here?
Things of notice. The completely westernized shepard with the N7 logo (doh), but also, how are they jumping from system to system? Are there mass relays or not? If there are, well, that's auspicious, but if there aren't, how do they manage to go from system to system?
Also, Krogan. There are Krogan there. And jetpacks. ****ing jetpacks!
Aaaand.... reaper horns? I did listen to reaper horns didn't I? Because that instant-growth thing-like-a-city seems a tad reaper-ish to me as well.
So my guess is it's gonna be about a Firefly-esque camarederie bunch of people of different races from the Milky Way with a ship trying to figure out this new galaxy and perhaps establish a new home. It will have a quest that will be archaeological in nature, with some dark ancient secrets to find out some kind of tech or solution to any horror that gets in the way of the new Alliance colonies. If done good, it will bring back the scent of exploration of a big unknown universe with unknown dangers and so on.
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Or they might get frozen on the edge of a black hole for a few thousand years while the galaxy changes and captain dylan hunt will lead them on a quest to resurrect the alliance etc...
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Or they might get frozen on the edge of a black hole for a few thousand years while the galaxy changes and captain dylan hunt will lead them on a quest to resurrect the alliance etc...
Wondered how long it would take for someone to make that reference :p
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Vanguards need a Gravity Hammer.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
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...how are they jumping from system to system? Are there mass relays or not? If there are, well, that's auspicious, but if there aren't, how do they manage to go from system to system?
Screw that, how in the blue blazes did they get to frakking Andromeda galaxy?
Mass relays were Reaper (or Leviathan?) tech, and they always seemed like being endemic to our own Milky Way galaxy. So, if they jumped to Andromeda via some super special mass relay - which they somehow managed to connect to, despite all (?) pre-existing relays having been wiped out by space magic, that would imply that Reapers, or the Leviathans, were much more widespread than we've previously thought.
If they didn't use a relay, then that implies that the galactic civilization has produced an effective very long range method of FTL travel, and if that is the case then they really don't need relays to move from system to system within Andromeda galaxy.
All things considered I would put my money on the latter case. After the cataclysmic ending of ME3, one of the most important things for getting the galaxy on its feet again would have been establishing reliable transportation without the relays. It seems to me as though it was always possible to travel from system to system in FTL without using relays, but since the relays were there, no one ever had the drive to develop those systems further than what was needed for effectively maneuvering within systems - from planets to relays and so forth.
Odds are that this super-FTL will use quite a bit more energy than the FTL systems used before the relay system collapsed, and considering the way resources have been mentioned, I would hazard a guess that this might be related.
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I would make a small wager that the Andromeda expedition left before ME3 so that they don't have to talk about the ending at all. It was probably an anti-Reaper contingency.
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Well they would still need to have had a super duper faster than FTL drive to reach Andromeda within human life span, I think. So the alternatives are that they left after ME3 when they had developed the super duper FTFTL drive, or they did the whole SMAC skit with a generation or sleeper colony ship.
There's also a small chance that they had a super duper FTFTL drive available all along and they sent an expedition to Andromeda at some point before ME3 ending, but I don't think that fits the narrative very well.
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Every weapon heatsink in the galaxy was stripped and replaced by a disposable version. The yield was transformed by Council space's entire supply of lock-breaking omnigel to create a hull capable of 'surfing' the 'great wind' produced by a team of biochemically activated biotic
drell volus across intergalactic space.
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Every weapon heatsink in the galaxy was stripped and replaced by a disposable version. The yield was transformed by Council space's entire supply of lock-breaking omnigel to create a hull capable of 'surfing' the 'great wind' produced by a team of biochemically activated biotic Drell across intergalactic space.
Team? Pfft you only need one Niftu Cal.
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Oop I fix
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Could it have been funded by cerberus?
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Doubtful, those Krogan and all. Can't see Cerbieman introducing that kind of competition into a human promised land scenario.
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To me it looks that we will have some new type of technology to make jumps. look at the trailer. Our protagonist was just watching the photos of different locations in different systems and then, with a swing of a finger he hit the jump drives. relays were Reaper technology and I doubt that they were watching over other galaxies. My money goes for the scenario where action takes place after the events of ME3.
My speculations.
I will talk a bit about ME3 endings and how it could affect the idea for new ME game so I will hide it if somebody doesn't want to read it:
Red ending.
Relay cores are damaged, Reapers are dead so we will have to solve the problem of long distance jumps on our own. But what if we can develop a jump drives that will make each ship a small relay itself? Well, if the Protheans managed to create a smaller and simpler version of the Relay, then why not we? There are millions of Reaper corpses all over the Milky Way, so a lot of information could be recovered (even if the Crucible's blast caused tremendous damage) Lets keep in mind that Reaper "neural network" which contain all the information, knowledge and conciousness is made of organic matter from harvested species (Crucible's blast destroyed synthetics). In fact the Reapers were like.... 3/4 synthetics so I guess that habitants of the galaxy may somehow be able to retrieve some information from the Reaper corpses. In the end of ME3 we have seen that the Citadel (which is a huge relay itself and there are Keepers aboard who know everything about the station!) and the London conduit being operational so my guess is that we are or will be able to master the technology of the relays :) Or, that's also a possibility, we used the Citadel relay, but somehow it fired us outside the Milky way ;)
Green and blue endings make things even simpler because Reaper are alive so they just help us rebuild relays and maybe even after we will improve that technology.
And I also hope that we will now hear a word about Shepard in the new game. I really enjoyed my ending of the 3 and I would like to keep his story opened for different scenarios of what can happen after the Reaper war (paragon MaleShep in relationship with Miranda, Reapers are dead, Shepard survived in the rubble on the Citadel :D)
I hope that we will see more details soon, because right now I'm very excited. To be honest I finished the trilogy for the first time this year (and I regret very much that I did it all these years after the ME series came out. I simply drowned in this universe, it's characters and storyline). I also heard that the remastered version of the Trilogy is in progress, so when it comes out, I will hit it for sure :D
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Remastered?
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**** the textures and ****, I just hope they fix the combat system in ME1!
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ME1 remade with 2 or 3's combat would be ****ing sweet.
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I thought ME2 wrecked ME1's combat. 3 fixed 2 a little. "Thermal clips" is the STUPIDEST retcon I've ever encountered. 1's atmosphere and combat with 3's polish would have been the perfect game.
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Thermal clips are idiotic from a fluff perspective but they're OK from a gameplay one. ME1's combat was really clunky and lifeless whereas 2 and 3 were fast-paced and thrilling, at least if you picked the right class.
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All they had to do to stick the landing on ME3 was to use my ending :nod:
No, they would have to re-write half the thing.
There are far more problems than the ending.
Personally, I vommited at the beginning.
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Yeah I think ME3 had a lot more wrong with it than just the ending. Presentation issues like the art and the character animations (good god the character animations) aside I think the writing got pretty lazy and caricatured in places. Mordin's arc, for instance, did such a great job of tugging fan heartstrings that most people didn't notice that it was a total betrayal of his character in ME2.
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Thermal clips are idiotic from a fluff perspective but they're OK from a gameplay one. ME1's combat was really clunky and lifeless whereas 2 and 3 were fast-paced and thrilling, at least if you picked the right class.
I absolutely loved the overheat system, and it fit perfectly in the mass accelerator themed universe they went to great pains to construct. It was new and interesting. In the very early levels the overheating was a bit much, but that went away pretty damn quick.
And then I played 2, and it felt like I got downgraded from badass railgun to stupid pea shooter. Everything about ME2's gunplay felt lame, except for the super guns you end up getting by the end. And even then I think that was just by comparison. And I think mods should have been expanded upon, not neutered.
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Thermal clips make perfect sense fluff wise, I kept wondering why we didn't have them in ME1. :confused:
The weird thing isn't the presence of thermal clips, it's the inability to fall back from clips to the old overheat model once your clips are gone.
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The weird thing isn't the presence of thermal clips, it's the inability to fall back from clips to the old overheat model once your clips are gone.
Bang on. In ME1 they tried to innovate gameplay with a clipless weapons feature, only to find out that it's still more interesting to control weapon ammo through thermal clips.
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There were plenty of planets and missions in ME1 I ground through purely for the fluff, not because they were fun. Mass Effect certainly had its strong points but a lot of gameplay elements were a chore.
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I would love to play ME 1 with the combat system from 3. Sorry but for me the combat system from the first game was a bit problematic. Actually our shooting and aiming skills were less relevant then the weapon itself and the upgrades and character talents. I know I know that's an RPG. Such systems are cool when we have to fight hand-to-hand with swords etc. But when it comes to firearms that makes no sense at all. Combat system from mass effect 3 was in my opinion the best one.
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Thermal clips make perfect sense fluff wise, I kept wondering why we didn't have them in ME1. :confused:
The weird thing isn't the presence of thermal clips, it's the inability to fall back from clips to the old overheat model once your clips are gone.
I would have been plenty happy with that. Provided they also used ME1's sounds and effects. The slow moving tracers and the wimpy pew-pew sound that brought to mind a small child making blaster noises with his mouth drove me up the wall. Oh, and drop the rock-paper-scissors armor system also. A small bonus/resistance would be fine, but "kill shields, switch guns, kill armor, switch guns, kill health" was immersion-breaking and annoying.
But the andromeda devs aren't reading this and taking suggestions so I'll stop polluting the thread now.
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Well, they did maintain the overheat sound at the end of your clip count ....
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If you thought ME2's weapons felt anemic all you need to do to recalibrate how they feel is play through ME1's campaign on Insanity at high level. Everything takes for-goddamn-ever to die it's infuriating. Try fighting an Armature, even with an assault rifle that never overheats (lame) and never loses accuracy (also lame) from being so high level. It was a slog of the highest order and ME2 fixed most things wrong with it.
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And then I played 2, and it felt like I got downgraded from badass railgun to stupid pea shooter. Everything about ME2's gunplay felt lame, except for the super guns you end up getting by the end. And even then I think that was just by comparison. And I think mods should have been expanded upon, not neutered.
The problem with ME2 is that on higher difficulties you feel completely powerless. It's not that you can't win, it's just that it's going to be a long and boring bullet-by-bullet grind (but I still think it's better than what passed for combat in ME1).
ME3 on the other hand makes both you and your enemies ridiculously overpowered which miraculously fixes the problem and makes for maybe the best gameplay possible, so I'm hoping they stick to it.
As for the setting of ME:A, I fear Battuta may be right (expedition left before the ending of ME3), because that's the only way to sidestep the differences between the different endings I can see. Although as far as solutions go, it's about as elegant as commiting a galaxy-wide genocide every 50k years to prevent a possible emergence of a dengerous AI, but there you have it.
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Yeah, guessing here that main plotline will begin on Milky Way at the middle of the Reaper war, some high military guy (Hackett?) gets your ass into building an Noah's arc with some kind of new found FTL technology amidst all the confusion around you.
Very high secretive ****, main guy (the N7 guy) gets the job done of getting most genetic pool and you're one of the officers aboard this project.
There'll be Voyager-type of shenanigans between surviving Krogan and Salarians / Turians, because doh. I'm guessing the Krogans got on board either by force or by hard-line negotiations (you can use our resources for this if we're into it as well). Lots of potential here for you either to appease these different tribes or even for some of them going rogue on you, etc.
At some point, N7 John Wayne guy goes rogue too, and now not only you have to fight that bastard, you'll have to outrun him on your chase to do [MYSTICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDING] before something [DEEPLY DISTURBING] happens.
Yeah, it will be Saren all over ****ing again. Somewhat. I'm speculating.
Any guesses on who's gonna cameo? Shepard him/herself? Hackket? Mordin the science guy? Because, come on, there're gonna be cameos!
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Any guesses on who's gonna cameo? Shepard him/herself? Hackket? Mordin the science guy? Because, come on, there're gonna be cameos!
If it's really set in the far future of ME3 (ie. it causally follows ME3, and is not this ark stuff we're talking about) then Liara should still be alive and must make a cameo doing space archeology in the new galaxy.
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One thing I will say for ME2: the guns were actually different and there were reasons beyond raw damage output to pay attention. ME1 didn't have that.
Of course, mechanically there were some awkward bits. The pistols/SMGs were straight upgrades for the most part. (The Locust was head and shoulders above every other weapon its class, too.) I completed the game for the first time using the Avenger, because my first experiences with the Vindicator showed it didn't have the ammo capacity to play. Actually, the Vindie needs you to have gotten some AR damage upgrades before it generates enough death per shot for its low ammo capacity to balance out. You get it before you have the upgrades to make it good.
There's an actual choice between the three baseline ARs. (And the this-is-your-infinity+1-gun AR is actually a bit lacking, I usually complete with one of the others. That cannot be said of the high-end Sniper Rifle or Shotgun, of course.) You have to adapt your tactics to what you've got, but none of them are objectively not worth it, something that cannot be said about the majority of ME1's guns.
There'll be Voyager-type of shenanigans between surviving Krogan and Salarians / Turians, because doh.
You mean no shenanigans? (One of Voyager's great failings was that the supposed divide of the crew never really counted for much. I think the best use they ever made of it was when the crew wrote a fanfic about it that got out of control on the holodeck in "Worst Case Scenario".)
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More ME1 expansiveness and depth. More ME3 combat. There, I designed the perfect next Mass Effect game.
I kind of hope the jump-off is the middle of the Reaper war. I'd rather they didn't pull a Deus Ex Invisible War and try to write ending canon for ME3... though all the endings were ultimately such garbage that it likely wouldn't matter.
I maintain that the perfect ending to ME3 would have been ONE ending. The trilogy should have been conceptualized as an "eye" shape story - one beginning state, very diverse middles, but a single end state. It would have enabled a tighter and much-less nonsensical story, and your choice would have mattered in the details but would not have necessarily shaped the entire galaxies' future. It's one of the things that always annoys me about writers of expansive stories who are too willing to take the butterfly effect / chaos theory too seriously. Sometimes, a minor change may have large effects. The majority of the time, it likely has none at all.
At any rate, say what we will about BioWare, the studio has produced some incredible writing, characters, and games over the years. I am looking forward to the next ME installment, though I'd better get to work on my bloody backlog if I ever want to play it.
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Should've done endings KOTOR style.
One paragon, one renegade, left it at that.
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They did. Then the internet exploded over it.
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I don't remember the original endings being quite so dipolar as KOTOR.
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To me the endings in extended cut were just fine. I don't care about that Indoctrination theory stuff, it's garbage to me. The only problem I had with them were the details. I mean that a lot of our decisions turned out to be irrelevant in the end (like the fate of Collector base in ME2). One day I realised that there are plenty if small choices that should affect the ending somehow, for example if we save some people or find some artefacts they could affect the work of the Crucible. In my opinion that would be very rewarding for the player to see that the more you explore and obtain, the better the results can be in the end. The whole EMS stuff was very limited and I hate it. That was the only problem with ME3 for me.
We can only hope that developers of the Andromeda won't make the same mistake :P. But I'm rather calm about it because the Internet is flooded with sh*****rm about ME3's ending till today.
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They did. Then the internet exploded over it.
tbf, it really wasn't. The "renegade option" was ... Anderson's choice, while the paragon option was... TIM's choice? Control is paragon now? I thought TLoTR had demonstrated that it very much wasn't. Then, a third ridiculous choice that came out of nowhere? And because it's in the middle and you can only get it if you have enough points, does that mean that's the preferred choice by the story-tellers? I mean, these visual and gaming systems seem to give it prominence?
Now we even have a fourth, which is probably the saddest one, but at least it's the most coherent one. Then of course all the shenanigans about the relays being wrecked (does that mean star systems explode? Well we know they didn't, but those were some moments of confusion...), and what the **** was the Normandy doing between relays? .... it was a mess.
Now, it might be a different experience with the new endings DLC, and that's one of the reasons I'm playing it, to see if it feels different.
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Destruction as a renegade ending :wtf:? For me the most renegade option are the Rejection and Control. Destruction and Synthesis goes for paragon, depending on your beliefs. I had no regrets sacrificing the synthetics. The Reaper question is solved.
I also didn't like the way the developers changed the Reaper over time. In the first game they were so mysterious, god-like, mighty. And later it turns out that they are just controlled tools. Arrogant, pathetic hypocrites. Destruction was like a showing a middle finger to the Harbinger, Sovereign and their friends which was very satisfying :D
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I just would have gone for the ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH ending where Shepherd uses his massive Spiral Energy to reshape the very fabric of the galaxy and kick Reaper ass.
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This Omni Blade is the Omni Blade that will pierce the Heavens!
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If people start throwing galaxies around, I'm outta here.
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If people start throwing galaxies around, I'm outta here.
New Asari power, Galaxy Thrower. Use it right after Singularity, coz it's just fun to create a bunch of black holes everywhere.
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SO just wanted to post this small comment to at least get something on record so I can go back and see how much I got wrong on hindsight when more things leak from the game (probably only on december when a new trailer comes up on the VGAs, or perhaps only next year around E3).
I imagine that Bioware will absolutely fail to provide good answers to the many questions that were either directly or indirectly made in the previous trilogy.
The first of these is about the Fermi paradox, to which Bioware answers with a very good answer arc in Mass Effect 1: First, you are made to believe that Fermi was somewhat right, the aliens are indeed everywhere, and they even have a central hub in the galaxy where the main issues are dealt with. This is taken a bit in a kind of a campy tone at first, where we just shut down our brains a little, pretend that this is a kind of satisfactory answer ala "Star Trek", that it's just a matter of certain hegemonies rising and falling through the eons (Protheans, etc.). Then we know the truth, the Reapers are actually harvesting every single intelligent species that crop up every 50k years, and that's why billions of years have passed without Earth being bothered that much by anyone else.
That is a fine answer. It is, at least, consistent, whole. We might have huge issues how it was dealt with afterwards, but it poses a very striking question: What is the Fermi Paradox situation in Andromeda? If we are to be consistent, there are only two possible answers here. Either an hegemony was enacted in Andromeda that prevents the Singularity horror (that the Reapers were designed to prevent here), or the Singularity horror has already occurred and we are arriving in a post-Singularity galaxy. The second is somewhat obscure, difficult to write and almost impossible to get away with and still have a "western like" exploration theme in it. At its simplest, everywhere you went, small machines would detect you, analyse you, render you still and turn you into computranion before you made any trouble. So I'm guessing the former. There's something that should be behaving in a similar sense to the Reapers in Andromeda galaxy that maintained it in a somewhat pristine manner. Never forget, Andromeda is bigger than the Milky Way.
But what is it, and how it functions? More to the point, will the writers be brave enough to write another massive antagonists that are like the Reapers but not quite?
And, what would happen if a rogue Reaper agent went "hidden" within our "Arc" to the Andromeda Galaxy, instalinked with the Reapers back home and tried to enact similar strategies in Andromeda, building its own Reaper here, and even confront the present hegemonic power? Clash of titans kinda theme. Imagine nu-Shepard making an Alliance with a Reaper against Andromeda's hegemon. Anything's possible here. No one wants to contribute with ever more crazy scenarios?
Sorry, I just like to brainstorm about silly things like these.
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You're missing a third alternative: the conditions for the Fermi Equation are somehow different in Andromeda than they are in the Milky Way. There's a lot we don't know about the specific pathways towards intelligent life still and one could BS up that something just isn't there, or not in sufficient amounts.
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You could definitely BS up something. However, it flies in the face of the rest of the trilogy, for no case was ever made for the extraordinay situation in the MW, and this difference would need explanation.
Also we do know it's not a desert. We will find intelligence in there. Even if it's just one race, they had billions of years to colonize everything. Or are we to just accept the amazing coincidence of us going there right at the moment where this (or these) civilizations were beggining this colonization just like in the first trilogy? What a bullseye that is, a few hundreds of years of being on target within billions of years of possibilities.
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Small detail update.
Our ship will be named "Tempest"
And the action will take place long after ME3 :)
I bet my money on a special expedition to Andromeda as some kind of contingency to maintain the survival of human race in case we fail against Reapers. Alliance can launch an Arc which will arrive to another galaxy hundreds years later. That would be a good move to avoid touching any part of the story related to Shepard.
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Gotta source for that?
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http://overmental.com/content/mass-effect-4-story-leak-speculation-and-details-15677
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-20-probing-the-new-mass-effect-4-leak
Nothing official yet but they say that this stuff was leaked via some polls. Similar thing happened with the new dragon Age and turned out to be true in the end.
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Happy N7 Day everyone :)
Some content, as hot as rocket engine exhaust :D
"We are travellers..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn98FdSg-Fo
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Beautiful teaser ;).
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I thought they weren't going to do anything with shepherd? but also super cool
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I guess we won't.
You can find a lot of stuff about the "Arc theory". A contingency made in case of reapers victory. To launch an expedition with a large ship with people in cryostasis to Andromeda galaxy to make a settlement and save the existence of our species. And what we've seen on teaser makes it very probable if not certain :) The launch of an "Arc" could happen during ME3 so Commander could even know about it.
That was the final goodbye with Shep as the main protagonist :) Last word from him/her before we begin a new adventure. The only thing I would like to know is how the Milky way recovered from the war and how the lives of our team members or even Shepard himself carried on <Destruction FTW>. Maybe we will receive some transmissions/message or something? Even with a several hundred years delay. If they can punch a ship through to another galaxy why not comms? That would be a brilliant closure.
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So, the EA CFO went out and confirmed some have already been suspecting since the last EA earning projections:
ME: Andromeda is being pushed to 2017, the reason given is buisness related (spreading their projected "hits" across the fiscal year to keep the stock price at least level through the fiscal year) and are related to the interna of EA itself (Bioware just lost out on the competetive release windows at the end of 2016)
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The way I see it, the more development time the better. I'd hate to see it rushed like half of EAs games.
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EA games are not bad because they are rushed
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the more development time the better.
A later release date doesn't mean more development time ... the working hours per milestone surely will not change (that would require additional money and pushing back the release date already produces cost since the studio might not be able to reassign their workforce under the terms of the currenr contract with EA)
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the more development time the better.
A later release date doesn't mean more development time ... the working hours per milestone surely will not change (that would require additional money and pushing back the release date already produces cost since the studio might not be able to reassign their workforce under the terms of the currenr contract with EA)
True true, but a man can dream that they won't **** it up.
I think EA Games are bad for a multitude of reasons but them rushing products (like BF4) doesn't help.
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A later release date doesn't mean more development time ... the working hours per milestone surely will not change (that would require additional money and pushing back the release date already produces cost since the studio might not be able to reassign their workforce under the terms of the currenr contract with EA)
It kinda does, though. A postponed release date means that there's potentially less reasons for crunching, which means that developer productivity goes up. It can also mean more time for QA, leading to a more polished product.
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ME3 was also postponed.
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ME3 was also postponed.
Can't QA'n'Polish bad writing!
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A later release date doesn't mean more development time ... the working hours per milestone surely will not change (that would require additional money and pushing back the release date already produces cost since the studio might not be able to reassign their workforce under the terms of the currenr contract with EA)
It kinda does, though. A postponed release date means that there's potentially less reasons for crunching, which means that developer productivity goes up. It can also mean more time for QA, leading to a more polished product.
What I was saying is that manhours might not become more just because the deadline was moved; If the budget only goes for, say for arguments sake, 1,000 manhours per employee, it doesn't matter if these 1,000 hours are 3 months or 6 months.
Of course it does impact the quality of the work because there is less time pressue, but it doesn't allow for more time consuming tasks unless there is more money going to the project that would cover the additional hours the staff puts into those.
All of this of course is void if EA would be allocating more money to the studio besides covering the additional months of operating cost for the staff specific to the project.
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My previous point is void. More I cannot say.
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Not much but still... :)
http://www.masseffect.com/news/an-update-on-mass-effect-andromeda.html?utm_campaign=mea_hd_ww_ic_soco_fb_social-global-ic-fb-may-update-blog&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&cid=5197&ts=1462896614644&sf46188285=1
We'll see more on June 12'th.
And we have something that could have been posted as an April's fool joke but it's worth looking at.
Given the quality of the animation it looks like an early alpha leak :P
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That footage is from 2014, afaik.
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Yeah, it's a portfolio reel from someone who has worked (is working?) on Andromeda.
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Small detail update.
Our ship will be named "Tempest"
...
Baaang!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2vgHOXeps0&list=PL3a3tkpS9DNRUbHcBYrvv9GKtFlFoSqH7&index=1
0:19 ;)
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Let's hope they finally get around to throwing away their animation library. (Seriously, Bioware has been reusing the same goddamn walk cycles since, I dunno, KOTOR?)
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In the case of bastilla shan I welcome reuse.
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It sure does look as if they are updating all of their animations. I'm not entirely sold out on the protag's face though. Seems too cartoonish. Almost Disney-like in the eyes. Can't Bioware make a good realistically female looking protagonist?
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No more awkward lurching while walking? For role playing sake in ME I typically tried to walk in places where sprinting around would be weird but then that animation would happen. I could only imagine I had a tether from my ankle to my easily distracted party members.
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Boy they sure think they're clever naming the ship Tempest! I c wat u did thar
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Boy they sure think they're clever naming the ship Tempest! I c wat u did thar
I assume you mean something other than violating their established in-universe ship naming conventions.
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Boy they sure think they're clever naming the ship Tempest! I c wat u did thar
I didn't! ..... and now I'm dead curious about it.
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Shakespeare my dudes
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Never studied it. I'm portuguese you know? But thanks, that'll be sufficient to clue me in ;).
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Shakespeare my dudes
But then who is Prospero? Who is going to be Miranda? Will we get a singing Asari?
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Shakespeare my dudes
Okay but I don't actually see the connection with the Shakespeare play other than the name?
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A tiny boat of Milky Way refugees cast up on a foreign shore? That's all you need.
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Shakespeare my dudes
Okay but I don't actually see the connection with the Shakespeare play other than the name?
It is Shakespear's last play for one and one of the central conflicts is between in Prospero and Caliban (who had been the island before Prosepero and teaches him to survive there)
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Fair enough. I've never read or seen The Tempest, they just kept making me read Romeo and Juliet.
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Boy they sure think they're clever naming the ship Tempest! I c wat u did thar
I'd hate to imagine the implications if she were named Titus Andronicus
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Shepard McShipface
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Wrex McShipwrex
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The wikipedia entry made me remember, lightly, the plot of The Forbidden Planet.
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Wrex McShipwrex
Nah, that's the first Normandy. Completely wrexed.
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Ohhhhyeeeaaahh
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Well, it's "alien ruins template {insert number here}", one must wonder why of all the concepts they showed the chose this rather boring one (although it is kinda obvious since it a tech demo)
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Wow, these "Remnants"/flying drones or whatever they are, look awesome and really alien. I hope that devs will push their creativity harder to make really "alien" species instead of just taking a humanoid shape and giving them different amount of fingers, limbs, skin and face shape. I won't stand another Asari-like thing. TBH, that was the most annoying thing in ME lore for me.
Pity they showed only Ryder's and his blue companion's faces. But maybe they will hold them for N7 Day trailer.
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Don't read the youtube comments. They will only contribute to your health yearly diagnosis report have more red numbers than usual.
I won't stand another Asari-like thing. TBH, that was the most annoying thing in ME lore for me.
I disagree, I found it endearing, a big homage to Star Trek TOS and those kinds of shows. The most of ME is rather corny, and thus to expect Mass Effect to be "SIRIUS" hard sci fi is fooling your expectations. Yes, it does *include* some hard sci fi concepts, and they do try to write them as best as they... can, but at the core it's like a campy star trek tv show where you can date cool green skin alien babes and drink some hardcore beverages with the badass klingonesque races of the galaxy, while you surf with your FTL starship to the latest pirate adventure on some forbidden planet. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
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Don't read the youtube comments. They will only contribute to your health yearly diagnosis report have more red numbers than usual.
I won't stand another Asari-like thing. TBH, that was the most annoying thing in ME lore for me.
I disagree, I found it endearing, a big homage to Star Trek TOS and those kinds of shows. The most of ME is rather corny, and thus to expect Mass Effect to be "SIRIUS" hard sci fi is fooling your expectations. Yes, it does *include* some hard sci fi concepts, and they do try to write them as best as they... can, but at the core it's like a campy star trek tv show where you can date cool green skin alien babes and drink some hardcore beverages with the badass klingonesque races of the galaxy, while you surf with your FTL starship to the latest pirate adventure on some forbidden planet. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
I dropped reading any kind of comments on YT, news websides etc. some time ago. They often limit to insults, flaming and complaining. Reading this trash is just wasting empty space on your hard drive called brain :P.
As for humanoids... I get your point clearly. Besides "dating and drinking" there are also gameplay mechanics. Admit, it would rather look awkward to have a Hanar or Elcor squad mate :P. Putting some humanism into aliens also makes the interaction between characters easier (Sheploo- Garrus bros). But hey, we're going to another galaxy. And for example, finding another species which will REALLY resemble humans with it's looks would be rather weird. I'm sure however that we will see some ship and squad mates native to the Andromeda galaxy so it may be impossible to go around the things we mentioned above :) Doesn't change the fact that I would like to see some "exotic" aliens to play more significant role.
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http://www.gamesradar.com/mass-effect-andromedas-malefemale-heroes-are-brother-and-sister-and-dads-around-too/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=grtw
Mac Walters:
"At E3 we got to see our female Ryder character and now we're seeing the male Ryder character. What a lot of people don't know is that these two are brother and sister, and they both exist in the game world at the same time. So, if you're playing as the sister Ryder, your brother is somewhere in the universe. And another fun little titbit is the character you saw two E3's ago in the N7 is actually their father. So we've got the full Ryder family now revealed".
(http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xV4hSg77vhhCghNcXni8qD-650-80.jpg)
I can already smell the monomyth cliché. Son and daughter have to convince father he's doing A Really Bad Thing. They have to go through laundry **** between their relationship while fighting monsters. At the end they convince father that "You were right. You were right about me... Tell your sister [/brother]... you were right... ", then pops dies and they still have to figure out how to beat the real big meanie at the end.
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And for example, finding another species which will REALLY resemble humans with it's looks would be rather weird.
I don't know about that.
While part of me is pretty sure that we may have trouble recognizing alien life when we eventually do find it, another part of me wouldn't be at all surprised to run into something vaguely human in appearance, thanks to developmental biology.
Oddly enough, there is a stage in gestation where you're beyond ye-olde-ball-of-cells and into actual developmental features when it is nigh-impossible to tell a pig, an alligator, a chicken, a fish, and a human apart visually. All of these organisms pass through a couple stages, first where their gene expression is near-identical but their appearance is different, then there appearance is identical and their gene expression is different, then back to the first case, and finally both diverge. This is because, on Earth at least, there are certain physical features that absolutely must develop at a certain point in time for a viable animal to be produced, and this is - in part - why pretty much all vertebrates (even fish!) have the same basic features - 4 limbs, a head, and a tail. I would not be at all surprised if we ever find planets that could support human life that the life that developed on them is physically very superficially similar to life on Earth because of this. Mutations are random, but selection pressures and successful strategies to overcome them are not.
While Star Trek is often guilty of annoying me with things like "oooh nose ridges," the concept that alien life may look a great deal like life as we know it if it develops under similar planetary conditions really doesn't. Throw in a different set of planetary conditions, though, and all bets are off.
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Sentient plant life ahoy?
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Sentient plant life? What about large colonies of plankton-like life forms doubling as an organic data storage system? Let's call it/them Pattern Jugglers, for example.
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this game doesn't seem very exciting yet
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this game doesn't seem very exciting yet
I second that. Honestly, I still feel like I was burned too harshly by ME3 (doesn't help I bought it at release, apparently DLC helps), in particular the ending, which really affects my interest and excitement for Andromeda, especially as it's basically 'let's move the story as far away as possible from the entire galaxy of the three games prior'.
Besides, I think it would be interesting to play a ME4 that starts right after ME3 so a lot of the missions would involve helping to rebuild, solve lingering conflicts, make sure supplies can go where they should, etc. That could've brought back the 'choose which colony you'll help over the other' that one of the ME1 trailers suggested.
I'll give it a chance, of course, but not at full price. Probably the inevitable 'GOTY' version with all DLC for 30 euros at most, if it truly turns out well.
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A version of ME with all the DLC included? Now that would be something...
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can't really argue with you Battuta. hopefully they will be able to amp up the hype in November 7. Because Hype is good. Hype is great.
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As for humanoids... I get your point clearly. Besides "dating and drinking" there are also gameplay mechanics. Admit, it would rather look awkward to have a Hanar or Elcor squad mate :P. Putting some humanism into aliens also makes the interaction between characters easier (Sheploo- Garrus bros). But hey, we're going to another galaxy.
The problem is not just the interaction, it is also the design of envoirments and props which is holding back more exotic alien designs. How would a tool look like made for a manipulator which can grip without an opposible thumb? Would you recongnize it as such in an interaction?
While in a more committed setting than Mass Effect has been previously, you can technically do that by teaching the audience a new visual language, but it is questionable if you have the scope and mechanics to foster such long term engagement. (Especially since there are currently no plans to make a follow-up to Andromeda because of good reasonstm)
can't really argue with you Battuta. hopefully they will be able to amp up the hype in November 7. Because Hype is good. Hype is great.
They will but I am not sure if it will be all golden, we will have to see... EA EU-devision also has quite a PR-stun planned (if the whole thing works out)
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I'm betting they are really planning a sequel to Andromeda, but its development ultimately depends on Andromeda's success.
It may also depend on the quality of that other secretive ip they were developing and for which no word as yet come out.
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I'm betting they are really planning a sequel to Andromeda, but its development ultimately depends on Andromeda's success.
It may also depend on the quality of that other secretive ip they were developing and for which no word as yet come out.
Andromeda at this state is mostly about roping in new customers (there is market research floating around that ME is most prominent for the ME3 ending-fallout, and that the brand has enough room to grow in the market) ... as such their definition of "success" might have a high celling
... and yes they are saddled with at least one (I keep hearing of two, though) project that they contractly obligated to follow-up on because they needed to recruit some recurring talent - those project but don't require to become anything ultimately but another hyped-mystery-box-protfolio depending on how things go...
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Dad, brother, and sister.... and presumably the brother/sister are the playable options.
What are the chances they go with something interesting instead of:
1. What Luis said, or
2. Happy happy family explores the galaxy and then Dad gets killed off. Or sibling.
You know its coming. One of the three Ryders is going to get killed off because some writer at BioWare will think that makes it compelling, even though they did exactly that at the beginning of DA2 and everyone can see it coming miles away.
What we need here is a godamned space western where the family rides off into the sunset at the end.
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Plot twist: halfway through the game the player characters is killed and the rest of the game is played as the other sibling.
Wouldn't be better, but it'd probably be a bit more interesting.
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It would be really cool but people would be really pissed off. "DO YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT AFTER *I* PICKED THE SUPERIOR MALE GENDER I'M FORCED TO FINISH THIS GAME LIKE A GIRL? A GIIIRL???"
Then again, I'm warming even to that idea.
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Bonus points if the class/specialization you picked at the beginning of the game, your sibling picked the exact opposite and there was no re-spec option. This is veering into "objectively terrible idea" territory real quick, but it's at least entertaining.
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And then the player's helmet comes off and it's a troll face underneath.
I think we're onto something here.
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Why did they chose such polygonal environment to showcase the tech? Looks kinda meh..
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Why did they chose such polygonal environment to showcase the tech? Looks kinda meh..
The Bioware's thought process: "No, of course no one remember the Collectors, just add some green glow on those old textures and we are done."
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I'm just glad we will experience one Mass Effect again, with a lot of graphical upgrades.
I wished they really went forward with the remastering of Mass Effect.
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It's funny when EA jiggles bioware's corpse around and people still stop to watch.
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I don't know about that.
While part of me is pretty sure that we may have trouble recognizing alien life when we eventually do find it, another part of me wouldn't be at all surprised to run into something vaguely human in appearance, thanks to developmental biology.
Yes. Convergent evolution, basically.
A limb is a limb and there will most likely be some kind of symmetry at play. At some point in the evolution of life on a planet, natural selection will favour a certain kind of symmetry for the dominant clade (radial or bilateral symmetry being the most obvious options). On Earth, it ended up being radial symmetry for almost all, with exception of things like sea stars or jellyfish, and very simple animals like polyps or single cell organisms.
I guess it would be possible for an intelligent species to evolve from a sea star -like ancestor with radial symmetry, eyes everywhere on its skin, and some number of radially symmetrical limbs - but just as likely (and possibly more so) would be a bilaterally symmetrical species with mirror-symmetric limbs.
And a bilaterally symmetric species almost certainly has a head of some kind - whether the bulk of the central nervous system (brain) is stored in the "head" or not, that's a different question. For all we know, brain could be in the place of the liver or somewhere else in the abdomen in some species (although most likely visual, auditory and olfactory sensors would be in close proximity of the brain to minimize signal latency)
The number of limbs would depend on, again, how the evolution happened to go on that whatever planet, and on bilateral animals the number of limbs would be even. And the thing is, any number higher than four is probably superfluous. Sure, on arthropods we see a lot more limbs, but more complex animals would have to spend a lot of resources to grow limbs that they don't, strictly speaking, need - four limbs should be enough for any aquatic or terrestrial species! Maybe six limbs could be a possibility, if the presence of a surplus limb pair was somehow beneficial to the early common ancestor of that clade, but I would rather put my money on four being the most common number of limbs in complex animals, in most planets of the universe. Though I have to admit, six-limbed animals would be particularly interesting because you could then have a quadruped animal with an extra pair of limbs for other task - either for manipulation, like the shifty looking cow or centaurs from our mythology - or maybe he extra limb pair would be evolved to provide flight, like the Pegasus or griffins or dragons even.
In terrestrial sentient animals, one limb pair would almost certainly adapt to being used for manipulation, and on four-limbed species, that would almost certainly mean partial or fully bipedal locomotion, in which case you already have a basic humanoid body type (joint number and directions and body proportions notwithstanding). Six- or more-limbed species could either retain quadruped locomotion and have one pair of manipulator limbs, or they might also develop bipedal locomotion but have two pairs of manipulator limbs.
To summarize - bilateral symmetry, a head storing brain and visual, aural, and olfactory sensors, four limbs, two for manipulation and two for bipedal locomotion - a humanoid form - might actually be a fairly common basic "blueprint" in sentient terrestrial species.
On the other hand, aquatic sentient life wouldn't necessarily follow these rules (see: cetaceans and cephalopods). Bipedal locomotion certainly wouldn't be particularly useful for them...
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On the other hand, aquatic life is governed by certain laws of physics for its rough shape; there's just not that many efficient body types for moving through liquid.
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Obligatory posting of Andromeda's new teaser
According to the teaser, we can surmise a few things.
First, the Andromeda initiative is clearly something happening before ME3's events. It might even be correct in positing the notion that the whole campaign happens without people knowing what the Reapers are doing (that would be uninteresting).
Second... well, apparently, the Ryder father is the lead figure of the whole "Andromeda Initiative" enterprise.
Third... I have no idea.
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It refers to N7 day 2015 or is that a dodgy font?
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It refers to N7 day 2015 or is that a dodgy font?
It's a mistake
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So, the whole point of the expedition drifts away from a "Reaper war- defeat contingency" to stuff like "pure curiosity of space exploring". And I'm okay with that. To be honest I'm tired of apocalyptic conflicts shown in video games. At least for now ;)
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Well it could be both actually, everyone except for the expedition lead thinking it's pure exploration but it is a Plan B after Sovereign.
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Yeah I think Ace's idea is both what BioWare is after and the more interesting angle.
And I've been hearing rumours there are two expeditions, the Pathfinder and the Andromeda Initiative, one goes a few months in front of the other, like scouts getting themselves into "first contacting" species so as to give the larger second expedition data where to go.
Contrary to Shepards' backstory, Ryder brothers are normal non-hero people who are thrown into an adventure and slowly build up their hero status.
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So it's #N7 Day. Hopefully we will finally get a decent overview of what the game will be about and how it will play.
Meanwhile, the box art has already leaked:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwqodR1UsAAFyoj.jpg)
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Much better helmet design than Star Citizen, there.
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https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/795661158833192960
And here's the collector edition.
Some new races, new toys and weapons..... but still no solid gameplay :/ We'll have to wait for it till 1'st December
Andromeda Initiative briefing:
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=Qyo26rqVYfQ
And after some more digging:
Around 2185, at the height of galactic progress, unaware of the impending Reaper invasion, several species band together for the "Andromeda Initiative"
-4 Arks, each carrying a different race, are built, housing thousands of individuals to chart a course to Andromeda
-The Heleus Cluster is noted as having a significant amount of "Golden Worlds", or planets ripe for life
-Each ark is led by a "Pathfinder"
-The Pathfinder, recon teams and others onboard are in cryosleep, unaware of what transpires in the Milky Way after they depart
-You play as either Scott or Sara Ryder, the children of Alec Ryder (pathfinder of the human ark)
-Alec Ryder is voiced by Clancy Brown
-Events at the start of the game occur that pass this role down to you, you are untested and unproven, unlike Commander Shepard of the previous trilogy
-This doesn't mean Mass Effect is Ryder's story from now on, they want the game to feel like a complete story (while teasing other stories that could happen)
-More customization options than previous games
-You can customize your father and your sibling, though not as extensively
-The "Nexus" is basically a forward command center staffed by multiple species that arrives in Andromeda early to pave the way for the Arks
-The Hyperion (humanity's ark) arrives at an incorrect location that's volatile and loses contact with the other arks and Nexus
Inspiration
-The (much improved) Mako of ME1, the loyalty missions of ME2, the multiplayer of ME3
Combat
-Global cooldowns are now replaced by individual timers
-Powers are instead hotkeyed for quick use, no longer pausing to bring up a wheel and aim
-Dynamic cover system (ala TLOU)
-Still a cover based shooter with a goal to get the player moving around the battlefield more
-Jetpack allows for more movement variety; you can quick dash instead of rolling
-Jetpack has a hover function that allows you to hit enemies seeking cover or survey your surroundings
-Less emphasis on linear, clearly telegraphed environments that tell you a combat encounter is coming (though linear areas are still in the game)
-Game Informer's hands on was positive, feel the game has a clearer identity in combat than previous games
-You still queue up attacks, combos, order your squad, etc
-All key elements are still intact but the studio wanted to encourage more experimentation and wider variety of abilities
-Class system is gone; instead you have full access to abilities from all classes, you can mix and match skills from tech, soldier or biotics
-Goal is to allow players to try different approaches to combat without being locked in at the start
-However, you can still specialize once you invest enough points into a category of skills, you unlock a profile that can get you bonuses for your particular play style
-This is where class names like "Vanguard" (invest in combat and biotics) and "Adept" (invest in biotics) resurface
-Invest in multiple categories and you unlock the "Explorer" profile
-There is a narrative reason that allows you to reconfigure your points throughout the game so that you can try out multiple gameplay approaches without making multiple characters
-You can customize your helmet, chest, shoulders, arms and legs, more extensive than previous trilogy
-Many familiar weapons return, as well as new melee options like swords and hammers
-The 'Kett' are the main enemy
-The team wanted players to experience the first time encountering a new alien species vs already having it established in prior games
-Rather than painting them as mortal enemies, BioWare wanted to make them feel foreboding but not ugly as they want you to also empathize with them
-Instead of having "linear slices" of planets that you land on, you explore these planets from the surface to their underbelly
-Critical paths, optional planets, major hubs, loyalty missions return
-Your land vehicle is designated the "Nomad", and the team got special guidance from NFS developers on its handling.
-The Nomad isn't sluggish and cumbersome like the Mako, it's very fast, still boosts and maneuvers much better
-The Nomad doesn't have weapons, you can customize things like its speed and appearance
-BioWare did not want to repeat having things like mineral nodes and multiple identical outposts scattered across planets
-Points of interest include combat encounters, puzzles, narrative beats etc on planets
-One planet, called 'Elaaden', is flagged as a possible habitat zone, however the surface is hazardous (no water, extremely hot); you can be pointed in this direction in multiple ways, for example, a Krogan can request the Pathfinder to find a missing colony ship or you can just choose to land on the planet yourself and see what you find
-On planets, one of your priorities is to scout for drop zones for your crew that drop "forward stations" that establishes a foothold for you
-These stations allow for changing up your loadout, fast travel point, etc
-Planets can have multiple dangers like acid pools, burning wreckage, weather etc that can all kill you
-Most planets have at least one major enemy base
-Planets can have areas, encounters and "super bosses" that are too tough for you to handle at first, encouraging players to come back later
-Since Andromeda is a new galaxy, Ryder can actively scan and discover things in the environments; that gets sent back for analysis and unlocks new technologies for the player
-Scanning and discovering these things also allows you to obtain blueprints to craft weapons and armor for yourself
-You can create a wide array of items, not just ammo types and weapon mods, items that haven't been seen before in the Milky Way (thanks to new alien tech)
-Some plot threads and missions lead you across multiple planets
Squadmates
-Peebee: Asari squadmate shown in previous footage. Went off on her own after arriving on the Nexus and described as having a "bubbly personality". She's smart and not concerned with social norms and "niceties".
-Liam: Arrived with the Pathfinder, former police officer and described as having a "light attitude", bringing levity to situations
The Tempest (Your Ship)
-Important to harken back to the Normandy as it was a fan favorite
-There are no loading screens as you move through the ship
-Galaxy map returns but rather than piloting a mini ship on a map, it is more immersive, you select a planet, the game gives you sense of traveling towards that planet, and when you back out, you're immediately at your destination
-You don't pilot the ship manually, but it feels seamless as you go from planet to planet and see them from your bridge getting closer in the window
-They wanted a seamless experience from picking a planet to walking down to your cargo hold, hopping into the Nomad and landing on a planet. There is a landing sequence and you get off the ship. No more loading screens and instantly popping up on the surface of a planet.
Relationships/Characters
-There are more relationships in the game than any other Bioware game (as they noted fans make a big emphasis on romance in the games)
-The squadmate with the least amount of lines in Andromeda has more lines than the squadmate with the most amount of lines in ME3
-Due to complications in the awakening process, your sibling won't join you in combat but you can interact with them and build a relationship
-Many of these dealings are optional, and discovering more about the Ryder family is a plot thread
-BioWare is confident the details of this story are what differentiates it from a traditional "hero's journey"
-Loyalty missions return but they are not critical to the ending of the game; you can complete them after you complete the main story path for example
-Emphasis that relationships don't just culminate in a sex scene, but rather characters can just want to get in the sack, while others are interested in long term relationships and others still aren't interested at all. Bioware wanted to capture more "shooting bottles with Garrus" moments in the game, of which there are plenty
Multiplayer
-More evolved and refined form of ME3
-Card based economy where you earn XP and credits
-There are microtransactions but no real world money is required, you can unlock normally
-You still set the map, enemy, as before but you can also activate modifiers that can give you decreased health (for greater reward) or more damage (less reward)
-Bioware also plans to release custom crafted missions with unique modifiers that players can't change themselves
-These custom missions give you a 3rd currency, "mission funds" which allow you directly purchase items and weapons vs the mercy of random card packs; however these items are only available for a limited time in the store and can change often
-In MP, you play as the "Apex Force", a militia strike team from the Nexus
-Different enemies require you to use different tactics (some are shield heavy, some use heavy biotics etc)
-Playing MP will have advantages for the single player but it absolutely does not affect the ending of the game
-New "Prestige" mechanic added: With several types of characters, you earn regular XP and prestige XP. The prestige XP goes into every character of that 'type', for example 'tanky' characters. Earning enough prestige can grant you added health for all tank characters, etc.
Choices
-No more Paragon/Renegade system
-They want more nuance and subtlety and giving the player more opportunity to express themselves
-You can agree or disagree with someone without being punished or cornered into a paragon or renegade choice
-Dialogue option tones: heart, head, professional and casual.
-These don't affect you or sway a meter one way or another, rather they allow you freedom without worrying about unintended consequences
-"Narrative actions" (previously "interrupts) return but rather than giving a "red"=bad or "blue"=good choice, it can say "shoot", leaving more ambiguity to your choice
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A lot of that intrigues me.
I'm afraid I can't help but draw parallels to freelancer and the associated tropes. Also the nexus is the citadel in my head.
But still.... intrigued! !
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It remind me more of Dragon Age Origins in a lot of ways, like the fact that all player characters exist in-universe, you are the one that got lucky, only here the other one is still alive instead of being horribly killed like in DA: O.
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-Powers are instead hotkeyed for quick use, no longer pausing to bring up a wheel and aim
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
how the **** am I gonna play now? I'm terrible at real time decision making!! I loved ME precisely because I could "cheat" and give my neutered brain cells some time to devise a strategy! Jesus guys, that's terrible news for me...
bwaaaaa
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-They wanted a seamless experience from picking a planet to walking down to your cargo hold, hopping into the Nomad and landing on a planet. There is a landing sequence and you get off the ship. No more loading screens and instantly popping up on the surface of a planet.
Quoting this for absolutely no reason at all, honest.
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Yeah I like that part, especially how the mini-toy-normandy is gone, that was so ****ing silly.
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The trailer itself is pretty ****ty (I hated it), but there is good info on it.
IGN has a good nitpicking investigating video on it here:
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I am intrigued and excited enough from that excellent list that I actually signed up to participate in the early web-based promotions.
Also, BioWare seems to be incorporating a whole bunch of lessons, including from DA:I and ME3, and those are very positive developments.
-Powers are instead hotkeyed for quick use, no longer pausing to bring up a wheel and aim
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
how the **** am I gonna play now? I'm terrible at real time decision making!! I loved ME precisely because I could "cheat" and give my neutered brain cells some time to devise a strategy! Jesus guys, that's terrible news for me...
bwaaaaa
Did you play ME multiplayer? Because I have to say, when it came to ME3, I played about 2/3 of the singleplayer, got into multi, and then didn't get around to completing singleplayer for MONTHS. Multiplayer in ME3, despite being something of an afterthought, was an absolutel gem (though somewhat unpolished), and it is the biggest argument for hotkeying powers. When you played ME3 multi for any length of time, you learned the hotkeys for the classes you player and you used them; no pausing, no pondering..... and it made the game immensely more fun when I returned to singleplayer and just did what came naturally. Developing the SP campaign in Andromeda to bring that intuitive play out from the beginning is a phenomenal idea because it was far more immersive (and made you a lot better at the game). ME3 on Insanity was a joke after you played multi.
Also, this is one game I am saving my pennies for and will probably buy on or near release because of the thought of more ME multiplayer gameplay makes me giddy with excitement. Fury, E, Matth, what say you all?
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Ah wait, yes I did. I did enjoy it for a few months actually.
You may well be right.
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Also, this is one game I am saving my pennies for and will probably buy on or near release because of the thought of more ME multiplayer gameplay makes me giddy with excitement. Fury, E, Matth, what say you all?
I am so very hype for this.
And yeah, ME3 multi was an absolute blast. Salarian Infiltrator FTW.
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Salarian Infiltrator FTW.
Novaguard > all. If you were hosting. Hopefully they fix the lag-related problems with Charge this time around.
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I prefer Paladin, even though a good match sounds like an extended earthquake in a crockery warehouse. By the way, there are still people playing ME3 multiplayer.
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I'm mostly excited because of lack of character class to be tied to. If possible, I plan to make an offensive tech powers/firearms hybrid build. Something like Sentinel, minus the biotics maybe. The whole scanning and collecting new technologies to make upgrades and new weapons also seems to be very tasty as I tend to explore every square inch in such games.
But what made me a little worried though...
-Due to complications in the awakening process, your sibling won't join you in combat but you can interact with them and build a relationship
The last word to be precise. When translated to Polish, it's meaning in that context can vary from simple interaction to even incest O___o. While I've got absolutely nothing against the variety of romance options and orientations in BioWare games, that would be too much... So I hope that I may have only misunderstood that part or it's just my inner paranoia xD.
Anyway, I'm very excited to see the whole family in action :D
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@Col.Hornet
I wouldn't worry about Bioware and those sorts of relationships. While they are a company that will shoehorn things in for better or worse, I'd chalk it up to translation over anything else.
This game is going to make or break Bioware for me as a developer. I loved ME1 and have been lukewarm to disappointed with their offerings as of late. Some of it could be I'm getting sick of their plotlines. I don't know if it's too much to hope for the quality of open world that CDPR accomplished with the Witcher 3, but if Bioware can come closer to that quality of content, I might not ditch the train yet.
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Time for some action!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOIzH6UcoW4&t
Combat looks pretty awesome (ME3 on steroids). I guess they used a combination of Sentinel/Vanguard hybrid skills for the presentation. These jetpacks though.... :nono: I hope they will make a serious limitations for them so we won't be able to overuse them. I seriously hate "Quake rocket-jump-like" stuff.
What kinda spooked me are the facial animations (Sara's wooden face xD). They need to be fixed ASAP.
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What kinda spooked me are the facial animations (Sara's wooden face xD). They need to be fixed ASAP.
Remember that we're talking about Bioware here. While they're not as bad in the animation department as Telltale, they're still really really bad.
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What kinda spooked me are the facial animations (Sara's wooden face xD). They need to be fixed ASAP.
Remember that we're talking about Bioware here. While they're not as bad in the animation department as Telltale, they're still really really bad.
Guess that some things will never change :lol:
(https://scontent-waw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15253642_701680229987557_5792706723602632780_n.jpg?oh=5933030bd59ccb5dd2c4e8c0f8bb672c&oe=58B5FB42)
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I've never played any of the Mass Effect games, but I wouldn't play this out of principle just because of the generic clipart trailer sound effects. There's hardly anything more off-putting than that stupid BOUMMMMMM and DRRRRRRRR crap.
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Yeah that's exactly why you won't play it, I totally buy that.
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Sometimes things annoy you so much that you need to get to say that you wouldn't X on principle because of it, even if you wouldn't anyway.
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I should know better, it was obvious in hindsight. Excuse me, I am a stupid idiot and I'm going to flagellate myself now.
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2nd briefing is up. Oh, I've been hankering for another game to get sucked into multiplayer.
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New gameplay. Nothing special in my opinion. Just some chaotic grasshopper jumping. However, what got my attention is the skill system and interface.
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New release date: 3/21. As in, countdown to Andromeda launch. Cheesy, fun.
(Also, I hate those Star Warsy asteroids. Hate them. Hate. Hate. HATE.
I hated when Star Trek started having them because "Empire" and ****.
I loved it when Mass Effect *didn't have* anything like this.
I hate it now that Andromeda has them.
- and yes, this goes for FreeSpace too, but at least that comes with some fun gameplay.)
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The only way to make asteroid fields notable in settings where combat takes place on a visual scale is to have them be unrealistic. The fact that Mass Effect combat takes place on a visual scale is probably the thing to be annoyed at here, given the codex entries in the first game.
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Just don't have them. And regarding visual scale in space combat, well that is as stupid as velocities in FreeSpace, but at least in Mass Effect one could look at the sky or the map and slightly imagine that all those vistas would at least be consistent with some scientific truth. Even the Suicide Mission black hole vista was quite realistic in portraying hundreds of ships scattered in there - a bit similar to asteroid fields - because we could really imagine how that happened.
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B-but muh immersion and muh realism in muh space games
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B-but muh immersion and muh realism in muh space games
:lol:
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Meh, probably just a sign of general badness. Every single movie I've seen with these kinds of silly asteroids have been terribad, except for Empire of course, which started off the fad. Even FreeSpace 2 knows how to avoid those missions (such missions are generally entirely forgettable).
Didn't help that the whole space field that exists in every single star system in No Man's Sky is filled with SpaceRocks. Because "fun"? It just seems lazy.
"Hey, we got a space game! You don't believe it how fun it can be? See, we have SpaceRocks! And our ship has to surf between them! Seee? Funnn!! Like a Ski game!! And remember Empire? We're just like Empire!!"
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Guess I need to get around to upgrading my video card before the end of March.
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I won't pre order this. Sorry. Too many bad vibes.
I'm sure it will be somewhat "alright" and I'm sure I'll play it. I'm 100% sure, actually. But I don't know, I'm getting really bad vibes from all the interviews and written pieces... and all the videos about it. I just don't feel the game.
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There is a way to have dense asteroid fields and realism - planetary rings. As a bonus you get beautiful background for free.
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Not even planetary rings are that dense.
Trailer looks nice though. Might buy it on a sale with all DLCs/expansions. But I really should work on my ~150 games backlog...
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Not even planetary rings are that dense.
Interesting, do you have a source?
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Yeah, every high resolution NASA photo of Saturn's rings ever. Try doing a little of your own homework, lazyass.
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Andromeda is on track to looking like Bioware's worst release at best and an absolute trainwreck at worst. It looks like the most cynical of cynical cashgrabs ever since Hudson and Walters blew up the ME money train with the ending of ME3. There's just nothing here that looks interesting, particularly when compared to all the RPGs that've come out since ME3 was released. Andromeda looks like a rehash of everything that got burnt down by the end of ME3, set in a 'new galaxy' (that's already populated with all your favorite species!) so that developer and publisher can ignore one of the biggest debacles in gaming history.
It's a Bioware game, so, it's going to get glowing reviews and heaps of fan praise but, honestly, nothing released about this game so far has been exciting and their marketing strategy (two minutes at this Nvidia show, wow, let's talk that up for over a week, now, look at our voice actors being QUIRKY) is bizarre to say the least.
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That's harsh. Mass Effect 3 was an astounding game, with problems. The biggest wasn't even the ending, but the overall grimdark tone. I have a few more complaints, but overall? If that's a failure, I want more failures.
I do have a bad feeling about Andromeda.
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That's harsh. Mass Effect 3 was an astounding game, with problems. The biggest wasn't even the ending, but the overall grimdark tone. I have a few more complaints, but overall? If that's a failure, I want more failures.
I do have a bad feeling about Andromeda.
You are correct. The ending is just the biggest, most obvious problem (when I called ME3 a debacle, I meant specifically the ending and the response to it - the rest of ME3 is just kind of middling). A much more pervasive problem is the tone which snaps between anime ninjas and apocalyptic space battleships at a pretty frantic pace.
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Well. Again, I disagree. I have no qualms with anime ninjas and space battleships. If anything, anime has proven these things are awesome, and Kai Leng was ok-ish. At worst, he was forgettable.
The real problem in ME3 is a constant, dim, unwavering sense of grimness and darkness and emo self-pity and self-congratulatory bull**** that pervades the entire story. "Oh I can't even imagine how you must feel" was probably said a 100 times. "Only you can do it Shepard, I know it" probably a 50. And I'm not even exaggerating here. Monotonic.
ME1 had mechanical issues, but it was a good ride in terms of surfing through different tones and emotions. You'd go from "Ok, this is weird what is happening here" to "We're being framed!!" to "I'm a Spectre! I'm badass!!" to "We've got to find this guy now, detective hat" to "I'm bummed out we're gagged in the citadel" to "We're coming for you Saren!" etc., etc.
ME3 was just "We are guaranteed to be dead but we have to fight no matter what... this is so sad" for 30 goddamned hours. It's tiresome. And it creeps on you till the end. And then the end is an anti-climax, and people just went bat**** insane.
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The Real Problem With ME3 was that after me2's completely insane, cackhanded mishandling of the macroplot the series was effectively a dead man walking, particularly as the idiots responsible were still in charge of the plot
tune in next week for the next completely different edition of The Real Problem With ME3
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Mass Effect 2 saved the series from ME1's **** gameplay and dull characters while absolutely damning the series through the annihilation of ME1's strong macroplot and fantastic ending.
I think ME3 had the best gameplay and two solid to great arc payoffs.
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ME1 squadmates:
Racism
Headache Carth
Protheans!!!
Chicken Foot Nerd
Garrus Minus Garrus
Wrex was ok
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I think ME3 had the best gameplay and two solid to great arc payoffs.
Which ones in particular? I am partial to Tuchanka, but I can't immediately think of another arc in ME3 that comes close to that (that's not a slight, I just really, really love Tuchanka).
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Tuchanka is miles away the best. I was gonna call the Geth/Quarian one solid, but I remember being annoyed at how it walked back the Geth development in ME2.
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Tuchanka was apparently written by people unaware of how Mordin's ME2 loyalty quest ended so there's clearly a trend there.
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In what way exactly? Yeah, Mordin is rather adamant in how he has assessed Krogan culture as intrinsically violent by using a calculator in ME2, but there's plenty of things that could have changed his mind.
Like surviving a suicide mission.
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Mordin does seem to make a wild 180 turn there. Never really that bothered by it, because once he concludes something, he's 200% on board with it, which is what is core to his character. Also, you can actually prevent his death by killing Wrex and Eve first, and convince him the Dalatrass' sabotage is the right idea, which he will actually agree with. So, there.
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So if you go back and see the original Mass Effect trailer, it's hilarious. So over the top. Check it out:
But you know what? It tells you what you're in for. It tells you what you should expect. What kind of story it is, what kind of side stories it will tell. It slides information on how the game behaves very efficiently and tries to drown you with the kind of emotions that you should expect by playing the game. By december 2011, Bioware had released its ME3 trailer, and it was awesome. I was sold. Couldn't wait to play it. e: it was actually on 2010.
Now, what does Andromeda want to say? What is it all about? What story is it? I'm begging to be sold here, but so far, nothing. Zilch. And that's a bit worrying.
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I enjoyed ME1 when I first played it (and only when I first played it, god those mechanics).
I enjoyed ME2 a whole lot except for what shape the final boss had.
I enjoyed ME3 a whole lot.
I am probably going to enjoy ME:A a whole lot unless it is abominably bad. Bioware is generally pretty good at making games that are not abominably bad.
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So if you go back and see the original Mass Effect trailer, it's hilarious. So over the top. Check it out:worrying.
Thanks trailer, way to spoil the actual ending of the game.
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Tuchanka was apparently written by people unaware of how Mordin's ME2 loyalty quest ended so there's clearly a trend there.
Nope.
Mordin mentioned it at least a couple of times why did he decide to cure the Krogan despite his previous goals. Add to it a salarian ability to process the ideas and making decisions at ultra speed and there is nothing strange about it.
What was a failure in ME3's plot was completely broken "hero's journey" scheme in the last 30 minutes of the game. Introducing a sh**tones of new unknowns in the moment of climax and forcing us to make decisions based on said unknowns. Leviathan DLC doesn't help much here. This devastated the perception of the whole game even more then shifting the original idea towards organics vs. synthetics bull****. If not for the Extended Cut we would have been left without any conclusions at all.
However, I completely don't get the people who are whine "uwww, this will be the worst thing in BW's history, hurrrr durrr". Going to Andromeda is a totally fresh start for a new story (and, let's be honest, the only way to avoid the mess they made with post ME3 timeline). I will judge it when I get the final product.
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Mass Effect 2 saved the series from ME1's **** gameplay and dull characters while absolutely damning the series through the annihilation of ME1's strong macroplot and fantastic ending.
I think ME3 had the best gameplay and two solid to great arc payoffs.
This is probably the best summation of ME's failings in my eyes. One of the biggest issues I had with the series was how it was planned as a "trilogy" yet the entire middle third of the story is about dicking around with pawns. Had ME2 been some side game like "ME TV version" or something it would have been great but it instead ejected all the tension out the airlock by pushing the main antagonists so far into the background they might as well not be in the game.
I'll agree that ME1 had middling characters but some of that can be chalked up to having them all basically be spokesmen for their species (and thank god Garrus and Tali were in ME2 to move away from that). The fact that ME1 was still enjoyable despite the **** gameplay and middling characters overall is a credit to its world and plot. ME2 might have had the best characters but the collectors weren't interesting antagonists and the twist could be completely ruined by doing a particular side mission or watching the prothean vision on repeat for an hour.
I'd characterize ME3 as a game of extremes. Tuchanka is some of the best payoff to a 3 game arch in existence and it really gives Wrex's issues in the first game weight. The Geth/Quarian stuff is good but does have a few cracks in how the Geth all just side with the reapers and how the ideal resolution of peace contradicts what ME makes its central theme of synthetics and organics always being at war. Well I brokered peace between the creators and the creations without having to dissolve myself.
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Yeah, every high resolution NASA photo of Saturn's rings ever. Try doing a little of your own homework, lazyass.
I did not find any such photos. Post a link, pls.
All ring photos are from quite far away and they look really dense.
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.... The Geth/Quarian stuff is good but does have a few cracks in how the Geth all just side with the reapers and how the ideal resolution of peace contradicts what ME makes its central theme of synthetics and organics always being at war. Well I brokered peace between the creators and the creations without having to dissolve myself.
Yeah, but The Catalyst would most likely counter the argument, that the peace you achieved that way would be only temporary (let's say a thousand years or two. It's nothing when we look at the bigger picture). Conflict may appear as well later or in another place with another synthetic race. The Construct was seeking a way to eradicate this problem permanently and he found that solution through Synthesis (which that little bastard suggest you to choose). Which, anyway, in my eyes is a complete bulls*** because it solves nothing. Synthetics upgraded with understanding of feelings an emotions become like us. And then the conflict can arise just like between any organics.
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.... The Geth/Quarian stuff is good but does have a few cracks in how the Geth all just side with the reapers and how the ideal resolution of peace contradicts what ME makes its central theme of synthetics and organics always being at war. Well I brokered peace between the creators and the creations without having to dissolve myself.
Yeah, but The Catalyst would most likely counter the argument, that the peace you achieved that way would be only temporary (let's say a thousand years or two. It's nothing when we look at the bigger picture). Conflict may appear as well later or in another place with another synthetic race. The Construct was seeking a way to eradicate this problem permanently and he found that solution through Synthesis (which that little bastard suggest you to choose). Which, anyway, in my eyes is a complete bulls*** because it solves nothing. Synthetics upgraded with understanding of feelings an emotions become like us. And then the conflict can arise just like between any organics.
That's the problem isn't it? The reapers ultimate goal (thanks ME3) is to eliminate conflict as a whole. Wrapping it around the "synthetic vs. organics" argument makes it worse. It isn't that conflict is inherent between organics and synthetics, it's inherent to everything in the natural world. Even the Geth/Quarian conflict boils down to the basic idea of not liking things that are different. That ultimately stems from the fear of becoming obsolete and nothing, not even giving everything glowing green bits, will stop that.
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That's why the only ending that makes any sense and it's satisfying is the Destruction. It maintains freedom for everyone without altering every being (against their will maybe?) or turning the whole galaxy into one big "1984" with an abomination made of Shepard's consciousness acting as Big Brother. Loosing the Geth and EDI is sad and I was soooo pissed when I had to pull the trigger, but still' it's the best solution IMO. Maintaining peace is a constant struggle not something you can make with a magic green boom.
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Yeah, every high resolution NASA photo of Saturn's rings ever. Try doing a little of your own homework, lazyass.
I did not find any such photos. Post a link, pls.
All ring photos are from quite far away and they look really dense.
To be more precise: Saturn's rings may be dense, but they are incredibly thin (in average 10 meters), so you won't finde huge ESB-like asteroids there. Mostly fine dust.
Here's a good video, explaining the basics of saturn's rings (you should watch the whole series, it's great):
Now that's enough off-topic ...
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Nope.
Mordin mentioned it at least a couple of times why did he decide to cure the Krogan despite his previous goals. Add to it a salarian ability to process the ideas and making decisions at ultra speed and there is nothing strange about it.
Except in ME3 he eventually drops that cover story and admits "I made a mistake!": he undermines all the work done in ME2 establishing that he was confident that he did the right thing at the time.
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Also who can forget carving off one of the most important characters as day one DLC? That price though...
(http://imgur.com/NjfKEAT.png)
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ME3 completely missed the point on synthetics v organics. Basically, people don't fear the geth (or AI in general) because they're AI and AIs are bad. They fear them for the exact same reason they fear the Rachni: they're different. It has nothing to do with them being synthetics. That's superficial, and the series went to great lengths to point out that AIs aren't always so different from organics. Just look at EDI.
The Geth and the Rachni are feared because they represent an unknown that can't easily be predicted or controlled. It leads to one of the central questions of the entire series: If you can't predict their actions or their capabilities, should you live and let live in the hope that they'll do the same, or should you eliminate them to guarantee your own security? During ME1 and ME2, the paragon/renegade dichotomy was (almost always) about that question, and neither game presented either answer as wrong. Morally dubious, sure, but not wrong in that it makes everything worse.
Then ME3 happened. The Rachni? Nice all along, you're dumb for killing the queen. The optimal solution to the Geth? Do this technobabble and make them just like us. The Krogan? Again, if you were nice to them, they'll turn out fine. The game stopped asking the question and just flat out told us paragon was the right choice all along. Treat people nicely and they'll treat you nicely back. It's so different from the moral ambiguity the other 2 games presented.
ME3 had the best gameplay, but I can't help but feel it completely failed to live up to the other two thematically.
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I'd definitely agree with that, though it's exceedingly rare for games now to actually go with the risk in a risk/reward scenario. ME3 is a prime candidate for this as you've said. Put your faith in something or someone and it'll always work out. Udina is the only character who betrays you and even then he's written to be such an ass that it doesn't really have an effect.
I'll point to Bioshock as another example of this. You get more rewards if you are "good" and even if the resource reward is slightly smaller and delayed, the other free crap more than makes up for it. Long gone are the days where taking a risk is actually a risk.
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Tuchanka isn't that smoothly written. You are indeed presented with the choice of either going for the Krogan or the Salarians. Yes, the Krogan will be "alright", although tones are somewhat changed if you have Wrex and Eve alive or not. Nevertheless, you do lose Dalatrass' support.
The Geth / Quarian struggle is also similar, people seem to forget that the friendship solution to that struggle is not that easy to achieve, and if you just start ME3 without any save file or any editor of some sort, that solution is simply unavailable. You either let the Geth or the Quarians die in a stupid struggle.
I disagree with the notion that the problem is "specieism" or just "struggle" in general. That is a trivial matter that the catalyst wasn't bothered by. The Catalyst makes it very clear. The problem is that the "creations" surpass the "Creators", and eventually, all creations will wipe the creators out. That's the point of Synthesis: by turning organics into a mix, they are guaranteed to not be "surpassed". They are part of the, so-called, "Singularity", and thus won't be wiped away. I'm not enfatuated by the idea whatsoever, but at least I think I understand it.
I also disagree with the notion written in another comment that states that the only viable end solution is the Red one, therefore the endings are stoopid. Well, if that's the reasoning, then I guess the endings are actually not that badly written, since I've always come to the conclusion that the best solution by far (let's forget synthesis for a second here) is the Blue one. So, you see, there *is* indeed an element of "Role Playing" here and of personal taste. In my reckoning, with the red option, you're not solving the problem at all. If the problem is that AIs will eventually surpass creators and wipe them out in a stupid struggle, what matters if you wipe all present AIs? In your lifetime, some outlier faction (like, say, Cerberus) will eventually create an AI, and someone else (like, say, Joker) will unshackle it. It might be the case that such an unshackled AI will be a fine person (EDI), but it might be the case that it ain't. The odds will go to zero in the long run that *every* AI will be fine. Then we're back at the very problem that was stated by Leviathan. Thus, we haven't solved anything by going Red (nevermind that you're killing EDI, you ****ing monster ;)).
By going Blue, you at least are creating a firewall that prevents some rogue AIs to become too powerful for organics to manage and contain. If they can't do it, your controlled Reapers are there to guarantee it. It's a fragile state of affairs, but it's a thousand times better than the Red one. And also, you got these incredible beasts helping you rebuild all the infrastructure that they destroyed. It's the least they could do.
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I'll always be waiting for someone to explain to me how the whole Geth thing works in ME3, how the upgrade makes them all 'people'.
We'll ignore ME2 pointing out that the Geth didn't want to be people.
See, the Geth are said to work as a gestalt consciousness. More Geth in a platform, the more intelligent the platform is. If you put all Geth together, they'd reach their most optimal processing ability, which is their end goal with their little dyson sphere. All Geth are basically the same and reach the same conclusions, which is why the Reaper Geth in ME2 exist - they're a set of Geth programmed to think differently by Sovereign.
Was every Geth program made into a sapient being, equivalent to a person? So, would you have these Geth platforms composed of literally hundreds of separate minds? What about the less intelligent Geth made up of less programs? Or did it basically crush those programs into a concrete thing, creating individuals out of things that only understood the concept academically? Both of those things feel kind of weird to me and it's probably why the game just handwaves it as making them people without mentioning what it entails.
Now, as for the Catalyst's logic. It is braindead and stupid. 'The creation will always surpass the creator'. Yeah, sure, okay, it's something that is echoing a line from Battlestar where children must kill their parents to come into their own, but it is fine enough. I can't hate the idea. I can hate that the Catalyst comes off as a malfunctioning AI and Shepard has no choice but to go along with it.
But I find it absurd that the Catalyst thinks the problem is entirely coming from synthetic life, not any kind of life. Ignoring that the Geth never took the opportunity to wipe out their creators (and the quarians always instigated), it was the Krogan and Rachni - organics - which came closest to doing irrevocable damage to the galactic community. If you dive into the Codex and talk to Javik, you can see that basically every incident of synthetic threat was instigated by the Reapers. The Catalyst talks up the Reapers as a fire, a force of nature, without mentioning that they are also the arsonists.
The overarching theme of ME has always been inter-generational conflict, parents against children and the failure of responsibility. Look at ME2, it's every loyalty mission. The final five minutes of ME3 whittle that down into being some banal robots vs people plot dictated by a glowing child and it's just trite, ridiculous and laughable.
But I mean, as a whole, ME3's writing was just all over the place.
CAPTAIN ANDERSON: Be careful Shepard, that Kai Leng is worse than the Reapers! I'm really mad that he ate my cereal, and I don't know why I'm so intimidated by him because when we met in the Mass Effect Novels I shot him in the legs and basically crippled him and he just got punked by a dying Drell with no lung capacity... Yes, worse than the apocalyptic battleship squids.
It's kind of like how the Catalyst is doing this all for our own good, and then it has the Reapers graft a human to a batarian so the husk can have a sweet gun arm.
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I'll always be waiting for someone to explain to me how the whole Geth thing works in ME3, how the upgrade makes them all 'people'.
We'll ignore ME2 pointing out that the Geth didn't want to be people.
No qualms with me here, I am with Battuta's point 100%.
Now, as for the Catalyst's logic. It is braindead and stupid. 'The creation will always surpass the creator'. Yeah, sure, okay, it's something that is echoing a line from Battlestar where children must kill their parents to come into their own, but it is fine enough. I can't hate the idea. I can hate that the Catalyst comes off as a malfunctioning AI and Shepard has no choice but to go along with it.
But I find it absurd that the Catalyst thinks the problem is entirely coming from synthetic life, not any kind of life. Ignoring that the Geth never took the opportunity to wipe out their creators (and the quarians always instigated), it was the Krogan and Rachni - organics - which came closest to doing irrevocable damage to the galactic community. If you dive into the Codex and talk to Javik, you can see that basically every incident of synthetic threat was instigated by the Reapers. The Catalyst talks up the Reapers as a fire, a force of nature, without mentioning that they are also the arsonists.
You're analysing this from the point of view of one single cycle, one that hasn't been lost yet to synthetics. AFAIK, Reapers dive into the galaxy before that happens, not afterwards. There are plenty of episodes wherein AI gets almost loose and starts to go wild. Luna base, Overlord, the Geth themselves (as they fought back the Quarians all those years ago). There is a strict rule within the citadel races to prevent any AI to be created (and this is why Quarians are so badly esteemed on the galactic scene), and still we see them popping here and there, even despite the Reaper's interference.
The problem with synthetics is not the short run, is not the "synthetics are inherently bad towards organics", it's merely the slow but assured development of a kind of life that is going to become too superior to organics. As much as species like the Krogan and the Rachni can deal some damage, these events never seem to be utterly final.
The overarching theme of ME has always been inter-generational conflict, parents against children and the failure of responsibility. Look at ME2, it's every loyalty mission. The final five minutes of ME3 whittle that down into being some banal robots vs people plot dictated by a glowing child and it's just trite, ridiculous and laughable.
It's simplified and yeah, not that great. Still I will defend it as passable. Not everything can be great, especially in a project like Mass Effect 3, with so many variables to untangle. I think they got themselves into a mess of a problem regarding game development, and they were simply overwhelmed by the project. Given what the variables were, I'm kinda still amazed they pulled it off as good as they have.
It's kind of like how the Catalyst is doing this all for our own good, and then it has the Reapers graft a human to a batarian so the husk can have a sweet gun arm.
Hmm? What is this that you are talking about? Regarding the Catalyst, it's not doing anything for "our own good", it's doing what it is doing because it was programmed to do it. It's trying to solve a problem that it was told to solve. Once Shepard goes to the Citadel with the Crucible, the Catalyst realises that it failed. Its solution can no longer work, so it asks for a new input, a new solution. It's badly written, but if you strongman it, it can make some sense (for instance, the tone and macroplot is contradictory, when we are told at the middle of the game, I think in Leviathan DLC, that the Catalyst is "trying to find out a solution". In Thessia, the same intuition gets stated. At the end, it says that what is really going on is that its solution "no longer works" and there's no mention of any "sped up" evolutionary experience or whatever. I attribute this to just too many lines of dialogue to cross-check and QA).
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.....
I disagree with the notion that the problem is "specieism" or just "struggle" in general. That is a trivial matter that the catalyst wasn't bothered by. The Catalyst makes it very clear. The problem is that the "creations" surpass the "Creators", and eventually, all creations will wipe the creators out. That's the point of Synthesis: by turning organics into a mix, they are guaranteed to not be "surpassed". They are part of the, so-called, "Singularity", and thus won't be wiped away. I'm not enfatuated by the idea whatsoever, but at least I think I understand it.
I also disagree with the notion written in another comment that states that the only viable end solution is the Red one, therefore the endings are stoopid. Well, if that's the reasoning, then I guess the endings are actually not that badly written, since I've always come to the conclusion that the best solution by far (let's forget synthesis for a second here) is the Blue one. So, you see, there *is* indeed an element of "Role Playing" here and of personal taste. In my reckoning, with the red option, you're not solving the problem at all. If the problem is that AIs will eventually surpass creators and wipe them out in a stupid struggle, what matters if you wipe all present AIs? In your lifetime, some outlier faction (like, say, Cerberus) will eventually create an AI, and someone else (like, say, Joker) will unshackle it. It might be the case that such an unshackled AI will be a fine person (EDI), but it might be the case that it ain't. The odds will go to zero in the long run that *every* AI will be fine. Then we're back at the very problem that was stated by Leviathan. Thus, we haven't solved anything by going Red (nevermind that you're killing EDI, you ****ing monster ;)).
By going Blue, you at least are creating a firewall that prevents some rogue AIs to become too powerful for organics to manage and contain. If they can't do it, your controlled Reapers are there to guarantee it. It's a fragile state of affairs, but it's a thousand times better than the Red one. And also, you got these incredible beasts helping you rebuild all the infrastructure that they destroyed. It's the least they could do.
Synthesis is only an answer to the "surpassing the parents" problem, nothing more. Keep in mind that the Catalyst was designed "to preserve life at any cost". Any kind of apocalyptic conflict may appear later as well, for any other reason. I could say that a risk of conflict between different parties would still be the same (since the organics would be improved by technology and synthetics being able to understand and be influenced by feelings and emotions). Just look at humans alone. We are "the same" but that doesn't mean we don't kill or hate each other. That's why I don't buy Synthesis at all. And also... Altering absolutely EVERY living being in the whole galaxy, which gets caught by the blast, maybe against their will (especially the primitive species, unaware of what was even going on)...no. This is too much, even for my Commander.
I found Control even more creepy when I looked at it in that way:
The new Catalyst is built by using Shepard's memories and thoughts. It's ultimate goal is basically the same. Preserve the life, put out the conflicts. And here comes a nice question. What kind of conflict would be necessary to trigger the Reaper intervention and how would it look like? By watching the ending with "Sheplyst" we can hear that a priority will be to not to do any harm if possible. Seems like a nice idea but there is a hook. Catalyst is a construct who's actions are driven by variables and data, not by emotions, to obtain a certain goal. And those variables can be altered. Shepard's thoughts are a guidance but it may get twisted over the time. There is a slim possibility that even the new Catalyst will come to the similar conclusions as the previous one after let's say, several million years.
Destruction, indeed doesn't solve the problem of the conflict, but there was something beautiful about it. The future of every organic was left in their own hands, without any goddamn deus ex machina which knows what's better for them, trying to "preserve" them by slaughtering trillions and treating the whole galaxy as a giant laboratory. We are the ones who shall take responsibility for ourselves and face the eventual consequences. Loss of all friendly AI's felt really bad but it was the Catalyst who put me in position with my back against the wall.
Finally, I came to conclusion that ME3 endings discussions can tell us a lot about what kinds of people the players are, what are their priorities etc. Which is as much interesting as the game itself :D
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As I said, it's a fragile solution, one that could provide a new installment of a new trilogy down the line (eh), on how a society that is being overwatched by a Reaper species corraled by a long gone organic is starting to **** the organics up, instead of helping them. Then again, every solution is a fragile one, because that's how History really is. It's always in the cusp of something. The Red solution, as "pretty" it might be, basically resets History to zero again, and nothing has been developed. It's akin to Snake Plissken's solution. Ok, that's great, but the morning after ain' that pretty. And it's not as if we have solved anything with this. In fact, we didn't, we just kicked the ball down the line. At least, we are presented with a new status quo in the Blue choice, one that could at least be really interesting as a setup for follow up sci fi stories.
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As I said, it's a fragile solution, one that could provide a new installment of a new trilogy down the line (eh), on how a society that is being overwatched by a Reaper species corraled by a long gone organic is starting to **** the organics up, instead of helping them. Then again, every solution is a fragile one, because that's how History really is. It's always in the cusp of something. The Red solution, as "pretty" it might be, basically resets History to zero again, and nothing has been developed. It's akin to Snake Plissken's solution. Ok, that's great, but the morning after ain' that pretty. And it's not as if we have solved anything with this. In fact, we didn't, we just kicked the ball down the line. At least, we are presented with a new status quo in the Blue choice, one that could at least be really interesting as a setup for follow up sci fi stories.
It isn't that bad actually. In Extended Cut we've seen that everything was rebuilt by ourselves in relatively short time, mass relays included (Krogan returned to Tuchanka) and hey, even Shepard made it.
Instead of reset, I would call it a fresh start. What will happen in the future is in 100% up to next generations without any Reaper meddling.
Also. Somebody would like to introduce you to our new ship:
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Because this is HLP and therefore I disagree with almost everyone about almost everything, ME1 = best ME. Obviously not as polished as its successors, but it had amazing and unique ideas that were abandoned and retconned to be replaced with bland generic crap. ME3 tried to recover but didn't make it all the way.
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the HLP consensus basically agrees with most of what you just said
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except that obviously ME2 = best ME because Legion
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the 'mostly' part is that ME2 does have much stronger character writing, as battuta noted earlier
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Because this is HLP and therefore I disagree with almost everyone about almost everything, ME1 = best ME. Obviously not as polished as its successors, but it had amazing and unique ideas that were abandoned and retconned to be replaced with bland generic crap. ME3 tried to recover but didn't make it all the way.
ME: Great storyline, quite good characters, awful gameplay (my worst shooting experience in video games I swear)
ME2: mediocre/weak storyline (slowing the macroplot down),brilliant characters (I was so pissed that none of them were our squadmates in 3, except Garrus and Tali), good gameplay.
ME3: average storyline with tons of bad writing as mentioned above, good characters (Citadel DLC brings back ex-squadmates so it's a lot of fun) and the best gameplay and combat system of all trilogy (something the Andromeda bases on, so this aspect of the game shall be taken care of properly).
To my personal taste, I had the best fun with ME2, despite it's lack or macroplot development. Best squadmates with their unique stories. And hey, we are Cerberus, doing the things Cerberus was meant to be doing, not being a damn indoctrinated cannon fodder, because the devs needed some non- Reaper humanoid enemies for the player to shoot at! Such a waste here... I would be so awesome if we had a choice after ME2 to stay on TIM's side (and later help him fight- off the indoctrination or just take him out and take his place) or rejoin the Alliance. Something like in The Witcher 2 where at some point we ha to pick a party we wanted to help.
One more thing I like in Andromeda is that there is 99% certainty we will not see any "Alliance". I don't know why but I was always annoyed when their brass was around, maybe except Hackett and Anderson.
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ME2: mediocre/weak storyline (slowing the macroplot down),brilliant characters (I was so pissed that none of them were our squadmates in 3, except Garrus and Tali), good gameplay.
"Your choices matter! Your decisions will have consequences in the next game!"
"This game ends with a suicide mission in which every squadmate can die."
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ME2's ending was probably in part why ME3 had so many issues. In an attempt to make choices have some kind of consequence in the game they wound up with far too many world states to be able to develop content for with equal care. I'd say ME2's ending was Bioware blowing their load early as far as having a consequence-palooza.
@Klaustrophobia I agree with you on ME1 being the best. Looking back, I realize that the vast majority of the player base had completely different interests than me, but as a cosmic horror fan, the Sovereign conversation was the highlight of the franchise. I was looking forward to another twist on ancient god-beings with motives we can't comprehend. I was in it for the plot and pretty much everything else was just a bonus. Yes ME2 had some of the best character writing of the time, but it also had far more pandering than I cared for (and I was ostensibly the exact demographic they were pandering to), and I feel, destroyed all momentum the plot had. I'll admit what I wanted was probably not what ME was ever going to deliver at my expectations, but jettisoning the tight and interesting plot in the middle of your planned trilogy never did sit well with me.
Add to that ME3 having to kick the plot into gear from a standstill and the final game has an uphill climb on practically everything.
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I liked ME3 the best overall, but they all had their flaws. ME1 had a great main quest and the Reapers were awesome and fear-inducing (like that Sovereign conversation), but it's ultimately quite short and the side quests are just generic and tedious. I recently replayed it (even got 100% on both paragon and renegade) and the gameplay and combat feel very repetitive compared to the later games. ME2 had the worst main quest but was all about the companions, and you spend 80% of the game with their side quests. The combat is definitely better although the grinding for resources was annoying (I just used console cheats for this). It did get old to hear "hur hur suicide mission, we're all going to die" throughout the game and then seeing everyone survive at the end. :p The Illusive Man is an excellent character but the portrayal of Cerberus is pretty inconsistent with both ME1 and ME3. ME3 had a fantastic main quest right up until the ending, and was much longer and more substantial than the previous games. I liked how you went to the homeworlds of all the major species and had a feeling of desperation as the quest went on, even though the Reapers had just become generic evil aliens by this point. The ending was ridiculous but I can overlook that given how good the rest of it was, and I didn't mind the fewer number of companions since I never used half the ones in ME2, although the lack of dialogue from many of them was disappointing. ME3 also had the best DLCs, particularly Leviathan and Citadel.
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my favourite part of the me2 ending was perfectly threading the needle of outcomes in the earlier game so that miranda and only miranda died
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To my personal taste, I had the best fun with ME2, despite it's lack or macroplot development. Best squadmates with their unique stories. And hey, we are Cerberus, doing the things Cerberus was meant to be doing, not being a damn indoctrinated cannon fodder, because the devs needed some non- Reaper humanoid enemies for the player to shoot at! Such a waste here... I would be so awesome if we had a choice after ME2 to stay on TIM's side (and later help him fight- off the indoctrination or just take him out and take his place) or rejoin the Alliance. Something like in The Witcher 2 where at some point we ha to pick a party we wanted to help.
One of my favorite pet theories about Cerberus before ME3 came out is that they were still run by the Alliance and the terrorist thing was just a public front so the Alliance had a real black ops group that wasn't in any way tied down by diplomatic or PR consequences. **** goes south and people find out about the terrible **** happening? Condemn their actions but reap the benefits.
That would have been interesting. Such a shame.
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From what I remember Miranda's the hardest character to kill. I'm impressed.
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From what I remember Miranda's the hardest character to kill. I'm impressed.
In 2 she can die only in one moment. When she's facing the human reaper and wasn't loyal. In 3 however she can get killed very easily in several ways. If you don't talk to her, warn her about Leng, screw up the dialog while confronting Henry Lawson or finally if you break up with her.
Never happened in my playthrough though, as she was always my Shep's LI xD
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I think it's interesting how difficult they made her to kill in 2 (wonder woman I guess?) and then made her one of the easiest characters to kill in 3 (raise tension by killing people?).
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I think it's mainly because in the suicide mission she is the one that talks you trough everything. she always adresses you on "Which squadmate should we take?", because she's your second-in-command and because she's in your party for sure. Combine that with time and budget constraints, and there you go.
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I was being a little facetious with that last point and ME2 shows its technical (hello 2 DVDs for the 360) and time constraints pretty quickly with how the main missions are laid out and how most of Legion's story were locked behind the time he joins the crew. I also have a feeling Miranda's character design had a fair amount of money put into it and that dovetailing with her being in the game from the beginning probably led to that decision.
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I was being a little facetious with that last point and ME2 shows its technical (hello 2 DVDs for the 360) and time constraints pretty quickly with how the main missions are laid out and how most of Legion's story were locked behind the time he joins the crew. I also have a feeling Miranda's character design had a fair amount of money put into it and that dovetailing with her being in the game from the beginning probably led to that decision.
Well... that would make sense, considering that hiring miss Strahovski as a voice actor and model wasn't cheap for sure. I guess that she would probably had more screentime in ME3 (come on, ex Cerberus second in charge on our side would be a huuuuge ASSet xD) but if I remember correctly the production of ME3 was more or less the same time the last season of "Chuck" was in the making(please correct me if I'm wrong) so these two things most likely collided.
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I'm sure other contracts factored into ME3's production with her. It's a similar reason (though not all of it) for swapping Dinklebot in Destiny for Northbot. I have nothing against actors doing voice work but contracts and schedules are something that should be thought about when signing them over dedicated voice actors. From my understanding, dedicated voice actors have far more schedule flexibility than other actors as recording sessions take less time than shooting a movie or TV show (forget about getting stage actors for anything if they have a show coming up).
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I think it's interesting how difficult they made her to kill in 2 (wonder woman I guess?) and then made her one of the easiest characters to kill in 3 (raise tension by killing people?).
I think it's mainly because in the suicide mission she is the one that talks you trough everything. she always adresses you on "Which squadmate should we take?", because she's your second-in-command and because she's in your party for sure. Combine that with time and budget constraints, and there you go.
Yeah she was very much being kept alive to talk in cutscenes. I'm not totally sure but I think she might even come back to life for one cutscene even if she died? (e: no she doesn't but she can't die before the last cutscene/decision point)
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Fresh new trailer
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"I don't need an army, I've got a Krogan"
That was an ok line.
The trailer is scattershot though, it's not clear they themselves even know what the game is about.
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"I don't need an army, I've got a Krogan"
That was an ok line.
The trailer is scattershot though, it's not clear they themselves even know what the game is about.
Check out the next briefing then :D
https://www.masseffect.com/andromeda-initiative/training-hub/pathfinder-and-team
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I like that B Hole.
Is Cora Harper.... the illusive man's daughter or something? His last name was Harper too IIRC. And she's nuMiranda, apparently. I liked that briefing ;).
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I like that B Hole.
Is Cora Harper.... the illusive man's daughter or something? His last name was Harper too IIRC. And she's nuMiranda, apparently. I liked that briefing ;).
My first thought when she introduced herself xD But... doubtful (but that could be awesome in a way. The whole show ran by a former N7 and Cerberus boss's daughter :P But I guess it's just a name coincidence)
And gosh... she looks nice with that hairstyle.
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will the illusive man's daughter have learned how to spell 'elusive' properly?
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A few interesting things.
From the briefing video, we have Alec Ryder, former N7, pathfinder. And next to him we have a description. Here:
(http://i.imgur.com/sWRjUEG.jpg)
I took notice on that last sentence (he did design SAM). Alec became interested in artificial intelligence as a means of human advancement. 2 things right off the bat:
1, Bioware would have never written that if it were just meaningless fluff. It totally is a foreshadowing of something.
2. I don't think I need to tell you that the whole brouhaha over the entire last trilogy was about AI in the first place.
So this is major, and it will definitely play a big role in the story.
His daughter has some affinities with Prothean artifacts and tech. Play with that how you will, I'm not terribly interested in that, but I can see how it could play a major role (imagine if some protheans managed to escape to Andromeda 50k years before them....).
Take Cora Harper now:
(http://imgur.com/a12jJN3.jpg)
Interesting tidbit: She is the second in command (next to Alec) and "if warranted his successor as Pathfinder". So how the heck do we become the next pathfinder? Interesting threads.
SAM is the AI desinged by Alec himself. Now, will SAM become a full fledged AI? The video describes how SAM is inherently linked with Alec himself. So an interesting possibility here is how Alec and SAM are probably going to try the full ME3 synthesis solution in one individual.
I'm probably overreaching here.
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Something funny I found on twitter
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3LKe1yWMAA9C9g.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3LKf7RWEAAdG2e.jpg)
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She has a REALLY square face.
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@Luis
Reddit says that her face could be based on Miss Switzerland's one :P Dominique Rinderknecht.
https://imgur.com/gallery/G9sXy#HyX5dHb
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That AI line has me a little worried. If the setup for Andromeda is pre-ME3 then how the hell did the Alliance get away with AI research especially with other species as members of the Andromeda initiative. I know marketing is marketing but given ME's history of leaks and marketing ****ups I'm more worried now than I have been. Wasn't gonna preorder anyways but that was a big turnoff. Hope I'm wrong.
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Pretty sure they mean "AI" as just some sort of advanced VI, to skip the Council's strict laws about it.
I'm also pretty sure this "AI" will become a lot more than just a VI, in order to keep Mass Effect's overal theme about AI in the first place. Also keep in mind that by ME3 everyone was just okay-ish with AIs running ships around (SR2 ?).
While I'm always weary of ****ups, this is the kind of mistake I don't see Bioware running into. They are filled with experienced writers. Anyone there would be shouting alarms if this ended up being the case.
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I'm also pretty sure this "AI" will become a lot more than just a VI, in order to keep Mass Effect's overal theme about AI in the first place. Also keep in mind that by ME3 everyone was just okay-ish with AIs running ships around (SR2 ?).
Except that Trainor didn't know EDI was an AI until Sheppard told her; by the time it becomes public knowledge (if it ever does), everyone's too busy not getting killed by Reapers to care much.
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Yeah, I agree. But OTOH, she's never really shocked about it. The briefing is too.... honest within ME2verse. I mean... not only a real AI, but one that has instant access to the pathfinders and their squads? That's kinda messed up... from an in-universe marketing standpoint.
Love the thundercats though.
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e: new small thought: it could be that this AI program inside the Andromeda Initiative is direct evidence that this is a program that doesn't really have the Council approval; but also that it was partially funded by Cerberus itself (at least the human one). Cerberus could well end up like a major McGuffin at the beggining, and a development arc for miss Parker there.
Unless the whole game is about a giant Cerberus arc, I'm fine with it.
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@Luis
Reddit says that her face could be based on Miss Switzerland's one :P Dominique Rinderknecht.
https://imgur.com/gallery/G9sXy#HyX5dHb
Cora's got Jimmy hills chin.
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her class is vanguard except instead of charging with biotics she sticks her chin out and books it
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Mass Effect official twitter on Cora Harper:
(http://i.imgur.com/L9kJeY9.jpg)
"Bending the rules" uh? That seems rather Harper-ish to me.
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No need to keep harping on about it.
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Oh my godddddd enough ****ing Cerberus please
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Oh my godddddd enough ****ing Cerberus please
No. ;____; In my eyes they were at least 2x more interesting organization then blue, boring Systems Alliance. What the devs did to them in 3'rd game was a damn shame.
I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was at least co- funded by Cerberus (dunno. let's say they knew about Reapers coming. So they helped the initiative which could be used as a safeguard for humanity's survival in case Shepard's failure). Still, I think that Cora's last name is most likely a coincidence.
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We need more black lancerberus.
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Oh my godddddd enough ****ing Cerberus please
No. ;____; In my eyes they were at least 2x more interesting organization then blue, boring Systems Alliance. What the devs did to them in 3'rd game was a damn shame.
I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was at least co- funded by Cerberus (dunno. let's say they knew about Reapers coming. So they helped the initiative which could be used as a safeguard for humanity's survival in case Shepard's failure). Still, I think that Cora's last name is most likely a coincidence.
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792
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I would just like to point out that that is a really good read, Battuta.
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Oh my godddddd enough ****ing Cerberus please
Can't wait till SAM shows his true face and it's the Illusive Man's AI virtual copy, managing a strategy to try to control the NEXUS And the Keth and **** over those Thundercats in the path towards Andromeda domination.
It will be burrillliant.
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http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792
Just to say that I'm really enjoying this read, currently at the middle of ME2 analysis and I'm yet to find any word that I disagree one inch of. Many times I just find myself skipping entire paragraphs because I know (and agree with) exactly what he is saying.
I was merely surprised by the idea that many people actually thought of Ashley as a "racist" douchebag. I thought of that as some kind of cute nickname, like "the racist team mate (that totally isn't, I'm just teasing her)", but apparently a lot of people really make that judgement. That to me was surprising in a negative way.
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http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792
Just to say that I'm really enjoying this read, currently at the middle of ME2 analysis and I'm yet to find any word that I disagree one inch of. Many times I just find myself skipping entire paragraphs because I know (and agree with) exactly what he is saying.
I was merely surprised by the idea that many people actually thought of Ashley as a "racist" douchebag. I thought of that as some kind of cute nickname, like "the racist team mate (that totally isn't, I'm just teasing her)", but apparently a lot of people really make that judgement. That to me was surprising in a negative way.
I'm sad we didn't get Plan B From Outer Space. Not that I disliked ME2, it had a lot of good character moments, spectacle and the game play was less of a grind but the loss of scope was pretty sad.
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http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792
Just to say that I'm really enjoying this read, currently at the middle of ME2 analysis and I'm yet to find any word that I disagree one inch of. Many times I just find myself skipping entire paragraphs because I know (and agree with) exactly what he is saying.
I was merely surprised by the idea that many people actually thought of Ashley as a "racist" douchebag. I thought of that as some kind of cute nickname, like "the racist team mate (that totally isn't, I'm just teasing her)", but apparently a lot of people really make that judgement. That to me was surprising in a negative way.
Yeah I am also not quite sure why people pick up on her character like that. If anyone's the space racist in ME it's Mordin, condemning an entire civilization to sterility simply because he did not agree with their culture and yet everybody loved him.
I mean I love him but he still openly defends pre-emptive biological warfare based on a projection.
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Yeah, Mordin decided that an alien culture was passé and single-handedly decided to inflict untold horrors to them. Yeah, that's how it went.
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Yeah, Mordin decided that an alien culture was passé and single-handedly decided to inflict untold horrors to them. Yeah, that's how it went.
No, what actually happened was that a small cabal of scientist decided the fate of an entire species. Again. Based on maths and on an event that happened 2000 years ago, not accounting for the changes that the genophage might have brought. It's rather prejudicial.
I mean, sure there's a lot of nuance there, I am merely pointing out that a large portion of the fanbase considers Ashley to be "space racist" (specieist?) straight after ME1 whilst not acknowledging the awful moral flaws in Mordin's character at the time of ME2.
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The difference is that Ashley is outright prejudiced against several alien species.
Mordin evaluated the ends to justify the means, and made a judgment call. The fact that it involved the fate of an entire species is ultimately secondary.
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The difference is that Ashley is outright prejudiced against several alien species.
I think the articles Battuta linked already made a very strong case that no: Not really. Ashley is arguing from the point of realpolitik: That other species do not consider humanity to be as important as their own and that you can't trust them not to screw you over to meet their own ends. And in-universe, she's right! The Council factions uplifted the Krogan and then smacked them down, and then kept kicking them whilst they were down. Mordin makes a compelling the end justify the means case, but the truth is he doesn't really know what the ends are: He only projected them based on their models. If Ashley is prejudicial, they both are. If Mordin is not prejudicial, then neither is Ashley.
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So I never actually played ME3...
and Boy Howdy does that article reinforce it being a good decision. I mean, I knew it was bad so I skipped but Wow :blah:
Also the article lays out a solid case for why Ash isn't a racist. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=28116)
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The way Shamus describes ME3 is pretty apt if you're one of those people who really enjoyed the first game (like me). Basically ME2 isn't a sequel and ME3 has to play catch up in addition to having to acknowledge the insane bull**** of ME2. ME3 was a game doomed the minute ME2 decided to kill Shepard and railroad you into working with Cerberus.
I've maintained for a while now that even though Mass Effect was supposedly conceived of as a trilogy nothing about it feels that way outside of it being three numbered titles. Dead Space is a far more coherent trilogy and one of the leads admitted that they didn't plan anything past the first game (which is obvious with the way the markers' purpose is changed over the course of all 3 titles). And yes, I am completely aware of how bad Dead Space 3 is, it's just less apocalyptically bad at destroying all narrative plot threads than ME3 is.
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We could try to guesstimate the story with the little snippets of lore and narrative that we got so far. It's fun. I enjoyed trying to do the same with ME3 (I got some things right) and BP, and it's a good exercise in itself to bring those thoughts into words so we can see how wrong I (we?) were led astray after the fact.
There are some difficulties. Before ME3, I couldn't wrap my head around why were we fighting so many cerberus troops, but I guesstimated that it would have do be about a race between Shepard and TIM towards the Big Solution Button that would solve everything. The problem though, is that it's quite difficult to piece the things together in order for them to make sense, when it's quite likely those same pieces don't make any sense in the final product to begin with, thus distorting any guessing we could make.
Anyways, I like this kind of ****, so indulge me! I might spend several posts to do a sufficiently thorough analysis, and you can always add to it (or subtract).
1. Worldbuilding. I've recently read that this is kinda important for Mass Effect ;). What the **** is happening in Andromeda? Many things are possible. Here are some questions that have always itched me ever since the first reveal.
a) What is the Fermi Paradox answer to Andromeda? The game should not avoid this question. In Mass Effect 1, the game totally ignored it and pretended that all species were relatively the same with somewhat the same kind of technological evolution, somewhat ignoring the deep time questions (yes, Protheans, etc.), and we went along for the ride (because Star Trek!) until lo and behold, there was actually a damned good reason why no one around was incredibly more advanced than the others. It just so happened that the Milky Way was rebooted every 50.000 years.
Now what the **** is going on in Andromeda? If there are no Reapers, shouldn't there be a species or two in there that would just dwarf anything you could comprehend? Wouldn't the "Problem" that the Catalyst tried to solve in the Milky Way exist in the same way in here?
I'm going to assume that the writers didn't merely handwave the problem away, which is probably the wrong assumption (90% chance, I'd say) and still try to match with what we see in the trailers and all the rest of the information we got.
What do we see?
We see some relatively advanced Andromedean species (Khet, Angara), we know there are some pre-spacefaring species out there. We also see the Remnant, ruins of an otherwise dead really advanced species (which apparently has a lot of Observers and Destroyers and whatevers still quite active). We also see a lot of really big thresher maw like metallic monsters and various other weird creatures.
One possibility is that the events that the Catalyst was built to prevent already happened in Andromeda, perhaps multiple times. It's clear that the whole Galaxy hasn't yet been turned into Computronium, but a lot of "wiping outs" could have happened. In this scenario, the "Remnant" could be the last generation of such a civilization ran amok which self-destructed with a bad singularity, and the local cluster is basically recovering from this holocaust, slowly, having to deal with the "remnants" of this civilization, AIs that have some programming left. These AIs programmings couldn't be so aggressive to wipe out everything new that would show up, but they could be sufficient aggressive or dangerous in some environmental level to pose a threat to organics.
In this scenario, the organics we encounter have to deal with the Remnants as environmental hazards pretty much like we do, and they are all natural to Andromeda.
In the same scenario, it's also possible that some of the organics we find are not from Andromeda at all, and rather, much like we are, come from another galaxy (!). The eons do not match though. Neither the Keth nor the Angara strike me as a civilization that is at least 50k years old (in which case they could simply be races that were under the Prothean Empire that somehow managed to escape the culling of their cycle), their technology doesn't strike me as that good.
Another possiblity is that, much like the Reapers, the Remnants' own technology that is open to salvage is a sort of meta-strategy by superior intelligences in order to sway any new organics into their own technological path. Too many "rhymes" here? Sure. We can twist this. Imagine that instead of all this pointing towards a culling, the strategy is a Contact scenario, wherein all organics that can figure out how to fight self-defense remnant mechanisms and master the technology hidden in the vaults can be "lifted" towards some transcendental existence, or say, merely join the galactic super party of the up and ups. This also solves the Fermi Paradox in Andromeda (instead of being culled, they simply disappear from the map and join some kind of Matrioshka Brain hidden in the center of the galaxy, etc.).
b) Milky Way species are the ****ing initial mystery here. Supposedly, they are already here for quite some time now before you actually wake up from your slumber. This means that a lot of colonies have been already established, but we don't exactly know in what conditions, if under some sort of emergency conditions (where everything was failing, and some kind of ThunderDome politics rose from harsh situations), or if under some relative good enough conditions. What are the current politics? Where is the NEXUS stationed? Is it under control or is it abandoned? Is it under construction or is it finished? What are the territories of the several council species? Do they already have several planets colonized?
Some things can be inferred, from gameplay or story telling necessities. First the NEXUS is going to be visitable, probably between the first and the second chapter. After hyping this megastructure for so long, it would be weird for them to simply put it like the ending purpose of the game. It will be much like the Citadel in ME1, therefore it does exist and it does have political power over the council species' several inhabited "golden" worlds.
The human colonies are a mystery so far. Most probably, the PEGASUS was ****ed up and managed to skip several years (while other council species colonized several golden worlds), so the humans are running with a time deficit against other species in colonizing worlds. But some branches start here. It could be that a few humans escaped the accident (I'm thinking Alec Ryder) who tried to bridge the gap between the PEGASUS and the NEXUS' diverging paths, or other pathfinder activities that were important, before the rest of the PEGASUS crew could wake up.
I have thought little about this chapter at all, so I will defer to the discussion.
c) The Khet are really ****ing assholes, but why? Clearly, they want the same thing that we are after, regarding Remnant technology. We are in a race with them (it's the obvious story arc, we'll get there when I develop this further), but I am interested here in asking how are they seeing Humans, Salarians, Turians and Asaris. An aggressive race, faced with a sudden invasion by 4 major species plus some Krogan, would not be in a good mood towards these. How many more are coming? What are these races' purposes? Are they an infection from the Milky Way? Are they here to gather the same thing from the Remnants that we are?
IF the writing is good, there is ample room for nuance in writing these antagonists, since it's quite obvious that all of the council races *could* be regarded as an invasion force, and trying to compete aggressively for the same things they want. OR, they could just go full JJ Abrams and design Archon like a stupid crazy nuStar Trekkian Nero (I have to admit, that trailer where Ryder faces Archon in their Trekkian screen gave me all the wrong vibes).
d) Territory. This is also interesting. We are focused on a single cluster, given we lack Mass Relays to make us jump through diverse points in the galaxy, but there are a lot of stars in a small cluster. However, we see a black hole in the briefings, several times. I'm all for Interstellar-like Black Holes, but does it exist solely for us to marvel at its graphics, or is its existence an important strategic point, like a wormhole or some other interesting territorial aspect of it? No answers.
Given that the whole game takes place in a single small cluster within Andromeda, I have an intuition that at a certain later point in the game, we will be thrown off at some thousands of light years away from it, to retrieve or learn something important, relative to the Remnants. The last reveal, the Remnant final key could be related with some technology that would enable you to travel that far away, analogous to build a Mass Relay of your own, or to find a kind of a Mass Relay, connected with the remainder of the Galaxy, opening up new possibilities in the end, with the protags filled with wonder, imagining the marvels ahead of them to explore (fade to black, credits).
e) Genophage. So apparently, there's a side mission that refers to "a future for the Krogan", captured in gameplay footage. Do the Krogans get the cure in here as well? Everybody hates repetitions, but it's an important question here.
f) Cerberus. Everybody hates them, and probably everybody within Bioware as well, except perhaps Mac ****ing Walters. We've already wondered about Cory Harper and some weird issues with the AI named SAM. The very existence of an AI points to a less legal framework within the Initiative, possibly because they're going for the "New World" anyway, so why bother with stupid Milky Way laws that just impede "human development"?
It's quite easy to see how the human side of the Initiative could have been partially funded or helped by Cerberus, and that SAM could be a spinoff of EVE, from the Luna Base itself. It's also straightforward to see Cora Harper being a TIM relative. IF we are to have this thread in the game, I'd like it not to shadow anything in the main plotline, pretty please, ****ing please? So, a good compromise would be for it to be a Cora Harper Loyalty Mission. She has "issues" to deal with, and we slowly learn it has to do with his crazy uncle, mr TIM and the overall Cerberus intentions, which have some consequences here in Andromeda, but are nothing but a sideshow (given that TIM is way more concerned with the Reapers anwyay).
Ok, that's it for today. Your thoughts?
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I'm really hoping they manage to portray the Milky Way species as an invading force. Not only would this be a different experience it would be a nice little mirror to hold up to the Reaper conflict. I don't have a good feeling they'll do this because Mass Effect is too much like Star Wars now and has too much money involved to do something so risky (though I seriously hope I'm wrong). If they even did something as simple as aping the general feeling of the Europeans coming the the Americas that could prove interesting. If the Khet are designed to be more alien than anything else we've seen that would make their (perceived) hostility really easy to swallow since communication would be difficult.
As far as the black holes go, I know they wouldn't use the premise of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman since they aren't going for anything that realistic, but something involving time dilation could open the door for some great stories surrounding the risk and human cost of exploring more than a tiny local cluster. If your end game prediction is right, then the collapsar jump style travel could lead to some wonderful "future shock" or otherwise great drama associated with being "out of time."
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I'm really hoping they manage to portray the Milky Way species as an invading force. Not only would this be a different experience it would be a nice little mirror to hold up to the Reaper conflict. I don't have a good feeling they'll do this because Mass Effect is too much like Star Wars now and has too much money involved to do something so risky (though I seriously hope I'm wrong). If they even did something as simple as aping the general feeling of the Europeans coming the the Americas that could prove interesting. If the Khet are designed to be more alien than anything else we've seen that would make their (perceived) hostility really easy to swallow since communication would be difficult.
As far as the black holes go, I know they wouldn't use the premise of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman since they aren't going for anything that realistic, but something involving time dilation could open the door for some great stories surrounding the risk and human cost of exploring more than a tiny local cluster. If your end game prediction is right, then the collapsar jump style travel could lead to some wonderful "future shock" or otherwise great drama associated with being "out of time."
A Renegade option/path along the lines of "Nice planet you have there, now beat it so we can move in!"? Ah one can dream! ;-)
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I might even go so far as to make it the Paragon option since the way they wrote the two was wildly inconsistent and the Paragon option was self righteous a lot of the time. "You're misusing the planet, we'll share it with you if you're nice to us."
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There won't be paragon/renegade options anymore ;)
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Will there still be options for being persuasive in the character build? I like that system in general I just disliked it when it was tied behind acting a certain way.
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So, part two of my attempt at giving some structure at my own brainstormings trying to guess this game. I will dwell on some "details" that are seen in the trailers but never directly mentioned or commented at, merely shown. By piercing them together, it's obvious to me they are far more than just eye candy or random sci fi plot elements in an otherwise "personal" game or whatever.
GRAVITY, SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND MASS EFFECT
From the very beggining the games have been about a particular technology that changes how physics-as-we-know-it works, giving typical mass bodies the ability to go faster than light (and other marvels). Now, things like mass and FTL are deeply embedded with how gravity works. If FTL is possible, then all crazy **** should be possible regarding really massive bodies in the universe, like, say, black holes. It should be possible, for instance, to escape a black hole, among other weird things (go back in time, killing your grandparents, destroy the universe with time-loop paradoxes, etc.).
Now, I initially thought the really big massive black hole in the trailers was just eye candy for some random mission, until someone called the zone around it the "Helios Cluster". And then I thought, "what?", there's a big giant spot in the middle of the entire explorable map in our game and it's a ****ing huge black hole? What are the odds of that, and how the **** is that not a giant piece of the world building and plot itself?
I don't know if this is the entirety of the Helios Cluster, but imagine it to be:
(http://i.imgur.com/KSu26Qx.jpg)
"Yeah Luis, but what the hell does that have to do with 'Mass Effect' in the first place?"
Remember all those shots where weird gravity phenomena was happening? The shot where two humans are seeing rocks flow upwards, the shot where the Tempest crew is investigating a vault (or something) wherein strange gravitational anomalies are occurring?
(http://i.imgur.com/H9LSrij.jpg)
So, yeah, I do think all of these things to be thematically related and intertwined plot-wise regarding the "Really Big Reveal" or the "Big Key to the End Castle" within this game. It is sufficiently connected with the themes of Mass Effect itself, it is sufficiently unconnected with Mass Effect to be something new and explorable that could only be found on Andromeda, and, to go slightly ahead of myself and a future post, it might actually (and finally) give a damned good reason why the Andromeda Initiative exists in the first place, and why it picked such an interesting spot.
I'll come back for part 3 later.
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Here's the new combat system presentation.
I see that adept and Vanguard fans will love the jetpack because it gives us nice possibilities for biotic attacks. I only hope that game won't force me to use this in combat (as I mentioned before. I hate constant jumping like a damn grasshopper. Especially when i have to aim with a heavy semi- auto weapon :P. Speaking of which. Remnant tech- based weapons look very interesting.
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Holy crap I've wanted Vanguard mit Gravity Hammer since ME2. (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/3/31/Ball_peen_buster.gif/revision/latest?cb=20090923164239)
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Looks like destiny happened.
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Has anyone heard anything about system requirements yet? Been googling like crazy.
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Has anyone heard anything about system requirements yet? Been googling like crazy.
I would imagine that they're going to be about the same as DAI or Battlefield One.
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Reapers are a logical and responsible (but incredibly violent) solution to the problem of hegemonic civilizations taking over the galaxy and erasing all the possible things that might yet be. They're the Krogan to our Rachni, the genophage to our Krogan. They preserve what they reap as new Reapers. We would never have existed without them. They're an alternate end stage to the life cycle of civilizations.
Crucible is a mass effect weapon that will peel apart every star in the galaxy using the dark energy foreshadowing from ME2. It's a gun to our own foreheads: leave us be or we'll force your ultimate fail state.
Considering ME1's early early previews hinting about "something has to make way for new species" it was likely that was the original plan. The Crucible being a weapon like that and TIM working out a control signal to broadcast (with the risk being who was actually in control and can you trust it?) would have worked well for the two endings.
But then they decided to go with "you dawg, I heard you don't like getting killed by robots so let me kill you with robots to keep you from being killed by robots."
Anyway I'm cautiously optimistic about Andromeda.
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I'm really hoping they manage to portray the Milky Way species as an invading force. Not only would this be a different experience it would be a nice little mirror to hold up to the Reaper conflict. I don't have a good feeling they'll do this because Mass Effect is too much like Star Wars now and has too much money involved to do something so risky (though I seriously hope I'm wrong). If they even did something as simple as aping the general feeling of the Europeans coming the the Americas that could prove interesting. If the Khet are designed to be more alien than anything else we've seen that would make their (perceived) hostility really easy to swallow since communication would be difficult.
As far as the black holes go, I know they wouldn't use the premise of The Forever War by Joe Haldeman since they aren't going for anything that realistic, but something involving time dilation could open the door for some great stories surrounding the risk and human cost of exploring more than a tiny local cluster. If your end game prediction is right, then the collapsar jump style travel could lead to some wonderful "future shock" or otherwise great drama associated with being "out of time."
Bioware seems hesitant to explore morally ambiguous options. Take for instance, the concept of Spectres. It is explicit in the lore that Spectres can legally execute most civilians. We know Spectres have done morally questionable things in the past from the codex, from sabotage to possibly warcrimes, breaking all kinds of treaties and rules. Obviously they don't do it willy nilly because the Council can revoke their status if it isn't justified, but you as the player get into so many situations where you can and should be able to use that clause to good effect.
Or take the idea of Cerberus in ME2. It turns out the Cerberus cell you work with are just filled with well intended people while all the other cells are populated by the racist, xenophobic members. You don't feel any sympathy for Cerberus because all the good people in Cerberus just wake up and join Shepard's clarion call of moral righteousness. I had really hoped (although I wasn't surprised when it didn't happen) that Mass Effect 3 would let you choose between doing it the orderly way with the establishment, i.e. the Alliance, the Council races, or doing it in a more chaotic, ends justifies the means method with Cerberus or Spectres.
The Mass Effect universe has a lot of room for interesting themes, but the main narrative never gives them more than a footnote's worth of attention. It's like they lay out this really fascinating universe, much of it through the codex, but then revert to some rather standard and safe treatment of morality in the game. Be nice to people. Find the solution that makes everyone happy. Never mind the crisis situations. There's always a "good" way apparently.
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Bioware seems hesitant to explore morally ambiguous options. Take for instance, the concept of Spectres. It is explicit in the lore that Spectres can legally execute most civilians. We know Spectres have done morally questionable things in the past from the codex, from sabotage to possibly warcrimes, breaking all kinds of treaties and rules. Obviously they don't do it willy nilly because the Council can revoke their status if it isn't justified, but you as the player get into so many situations where you can and should be able to use that clause to good effect.
The Mass Effect games were almost entirely written by people who never read the ME1 codex, and were worse writers than the people who wrote the codex.
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As Shamus Young's treatise points out, ME2 was written by people who didn't care about ME1 and ME3 was written by people who actively disliked ME1. The Mass Effect world is a mess thanks to basically nuking ME1 immediately and discarding everything related to it that wasn't super fan servicey (Wrex, Tali, Garrus).
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Has anyone heard anything about system requirements yet? Been googling like crazy.
Still not released.
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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/02/23/mass-effect-andromeda-is-looking-good/
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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/02/23/mass-effect-andromeda-is-looking-good/
Twin's, Cora's and Liam's faces are looking faaaar better now, that's for sure. Combat looks even better:
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Has anyone heard anything about system requirements yet? Been googling like crazy.
Still not released.
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Refreshingly my laptop is over spec for most of that. Graphics is breaking even with a GTX 680m.
I'll upgrade it once I figure out how.
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For a laptop? Buy a new laptop, basically. They're not built to be upgraded.
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It's alienware. ;7 I'll wait for the gtx 970m to drop to less than 900 quid.
Esit- the included docs tell me how to do it, I could go the inevitable psi route though.
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Finally a proper piece of gameplay. Our Asari's loyalty mission. Or... a part of it.
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peebee
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I wonder what percentage of players will name their characters "Jay" just for the puns
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That dialogue is too on the nose, and potentially quite cringeworthy. It depends very much on the actual context.
"Sweet! Let's do that!" .... sigh.
"Nice to have you on the team!"
Something tells me I'm not gonna like this game.
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I think it was meant to be a derivation of Phoebe.
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Nah it's her initials.
That dialogue, christ
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Her real name is Pelessaria B'Sayle.
The whole game is starting to feel like a soft reboot Star Trek style to me. Fast, stoopid, on the nose, action-y, toddler-ish, catered to "Whom am I banging this playthrough with" crowd - which is pathetically bigger than zero - and, worst of all, I'm betting there are no consistent meta-narratives or world building material within this story at all (which is a thought that has provoked me into not writing that much about what I'm guessing).
Because the Fermi Paradox question within Andromeda was possibly the one thing in it that fascinated me from the get go. And the Remnant's existence hints at good odds of there *being* a competent answer to these questions. But I don't know. I'm losing my hype here. Fast.
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I'm metering my expectations and hype by just knowing that I'm going to get the game pretty much regardless, because I like the game mechanics a lot. As long as it is fun to play, I'll enjoy it.
I'll enjoy it more if the story is worth looking twice at, but I don't think I ever expected this to break new ground in storytelling. :P
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peebee
The Space Shrek:
(https://i.redditmedia.com/2m6SXPubxx6vH3_nFfczH2su-KnvL8x7rLMTtNGyrWw.jpg?w=500&s=338ca8efc6ee35e24f11653767d91f29)
Her real name is Pelessaria B'Sayle.
The whole game is starting to feel like a soft reboot Star Trek style to me. Fast, stoopid, on the nose, action-y, toddler-ish, catered to "Whom am I banging this playthrough with" crowd - which is pathetically bigger than zero - and, worst of all, I'm betting there are no consistent meta-narratives or world building material within this story at all (which is a thought that has provoked me into not writing that much about what I'm guessing).
Because the Fermi Paradox question within Andromeda was possibly the one thing in it that fascinated me from the get go. And the Remnant's existence hints at good odds of there *being* a competent answer to these questions. But I don't know. I'm losing my hype here. Fast.
Truth is, these dialogues we've heard were really, really awful. Especially when they've been cut to avoid spoilers and we lack the context. But so far I'm not buying PeeBee at all.
As for the rest... It makes me a little sad but I start to understand why the developers took such course for Andromeda in terms of character development and world building. When I look at the Polish fandom facebook groups and forums, most of the discussions are more or less like this:
"-Owwww look at him/her. That's my space boyfriend/girlfriend. We'll bang, ok? Hihihihi"
Especially the female audience. Throw a pic of Miranda's butt or Alenko's chest, you'll get a spam cyclone. Try to initiate discussion about world building, technology... it's a brick wall or a few posts and usually 2 or 3 people worthy of conversation. I bet that foreign and international forums are no different. Show people some alien boobs and they will turn a blind eye on other imperfections.
From the materials I've seen so far it seems that they are simply trying to please this part of audience first. I would like to be wrong here (these gravitational anomalies we saw are my best hope here). Time will tell, shortly.
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So all you actually do is shoot and find the right console to solve your problems? How convenient that there is always a console nearby, which controls some device that can solve your specific problem...
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So all you actually do is shoot and find the right console to solve your problems? How convenient that there is always a console nearby, which controls some device that can solve your specific problem...
More! You can even use them and know HOW to use them to do specific things. Just with your omni- tool. Interacting with alien devices basing on some unknown technology. They'd better come with a good explanation on this one. Like Shepard's Prothen Cypher or something.
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The OmniApp store?
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I just realised how spoilt I am by Witcher 3 regarding writing and world-building...
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I dunno doesn't look all doom and gloom.
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But will the player be able to choose its own custom RGB ending?
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Do I have to have a RGB PC to play ME:A? Is my non-RGB PC compatible with the RGB Andromeda? :nervous:
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Does my HDR display increase the number of endings?
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New training hub video is up.
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You may also try the first 13 minutes of the game. No worries for spoilers, the video covers only the stuff that has already been released for the public knowledge. What caught the most of my attention was the music.
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That dialogue.
Those facial animations. Ryder's eyes look like Smeagol's.
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That dialogue.
Those facial animations. Ryder's eyes look like Smeagol's.
Oh my god ... I fully expected him to blurt out "MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSS!" any second LOL.
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That's gonna be fun:
(http://x3.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comment_AmCjSSahlfYbpcMnYWOCeFrbDeLw4cof.gif)
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Well at least the player walking animation looks a little more natural. I remember always staggering through the original Mass Effects half expecting to look down and see Conrad Verner hanging on my leg.
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At least we're not immediately killing the player. I can't say I'm thrilled about a space cloud but here's hoping the writers had a little fun and had some freedom. I've started working on my own series retrospective and looking at ME1's first 5-10 minutes it's a shame none of the other games started off as elegantly. Andromeda seems to be a step in the right direction but I miss the slow burn of the first game.
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I'll never be not weirded out by that No Man's Sky distance meter ripoff icon.
Meanwhile, Hello Games is about to Release the "Path Finder" upgrade of NMS. Right.
At least we're not immediately killing the player. I can't say I'm thrilled about a space cloud but here's hoping the writers had a little fun and had some freedom. I've started working on my own series retrospective and looking at ME1's first 5-10 minutes it's a shame none of the other games started off as elegantly. Andromeda seems to be a step in the right direction but I miss the slow burn of the first game.
Yes. It seems that Mac Walters cannot start a game without going Michael Bay on us. Sigh.
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I just realised how spoilt I am by Witcher 3 regarding writing and world-building...
F*** yeah, Summon the b*tches!!!! :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckWQEt0cxEI
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Honestly the Witcher series is proof Bioware is no longer sitting on the throne when it comes to big budget action RPGs. Here's hoping they were serious about taking cues from the Witcher 3's side quests (which were some of the best stories I've played in a fantasy game).
I'm not above Michael Baying the **** out of an opening (hello Freespace 1 and 2) but I like it but up against something else. ME1's opening was great; fishy circumstances surrounding your assignment then everything goes FUBAR after seeing a mysterious cuttlefish shaped space ship. Games and explosions work well but unless there's some buildup or real panic they're worthless. ME2 has one of my least favorite openings in a game while Freespace 1 has one of my favorites (and yes, I'm incredibly biased but it's my opinion).
I think the concept in Andromeda works but having it be a space cloud is doing no favors. I get that the galaxy is supposed to feel dangerous and alien but space cloud is about the least interesting ways of doing that and has been done to death thanks to both good and terrible episodes of Star Trek. Maybe they're going back to Star Trek inspiration though. Who knows? The sibling cryo-pod thing felt way too predictable but I'm sure it's a cost saving measure which I get.
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I just realised how spoilt I am by Witcher 3 regarding writing and world-building...
TW3's worldbuilding is nothing special (it's basically 'Tolkien ripoff that thinks it's clever'), it just has really really good character writing (even when its characters are died-in-the-wool Mary Sue bull****).
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Witcher III's world building is special in the sense that it is internally consistent, extensive, and written at higher than a sixth grade level. This makes it superior to 95% of fiction settings on those criteria alone.
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I've tried to get into w3. Was bored in the very first hour of the game.
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Witcher 3 certainly has problems, it's first act being a big one, but it's well written enough and its side content is strong enough to make it over the initial problems. That being said, if you don't like the gameplay or Geralt, I totally get it. I'd say Witcher 3 is the real evolution of Mass Effect 1, not the rest of the series or the Dragon Age sequels. Mass Effect 1 still has some of the better side quests in the series and they're made out of about 3 rooms. Strong writing can carry you pretty far.
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I've tried to get into w3. Was bored in the very first hour of the game.
Were you familiar with the lore before trying TW3? I mean, have you played the previous games or read the books? I'm kinda curious why you got bored because I found the introduction to the game very entertaining, even the fighting tutorial. But that was because of my love for the whole book saga and every encounter of a character or mentioning an event from the original stories was something amazing. CDPR did an amazing job in transferring an entire book lore to the video game. To be brief. To fully enjoy the Witcher games, especially the third one you need to know whole story of Geralt and Cirilla. Though I'm aware that getting your hands on the books in the past could have been problematic in some countries, because Sapkowski's work wasn't very popular worldwide before the games kicked in (maybe except for central and eastern Europe. There was a Spanish translation for sure, not sure about Portuguese one though).
I also find it quite hard to compare ME and The Witcher franchises and not because of that, they are equally my two favorite ones. Key difference in writing is the fact that BioWare was writing ME's world from scratch, while CDPR already had a vast, complex lore before they even started making the first game which gave them far more time to concentrate on other equally important aspects of the game. However, it doesn't mean they had it easier! When it comes to the Witcher, Polish fans had very high expectations regarding proper depiction of the lore. And here the guys from Cracow succeeded fully :D. But the real test for CDPR as developers is about to come as Cyberpunk 2077 will be the world they will create on their own from scratch.
But back to Andromeda:
http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromedas-recommended-system-predicted-to-run-30-fps-at-1080p/?utm_content=buffer8e5d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_pcgamerfb
Meh...... For me the graphics may look like sh** but 30fps and lower is what makes my eyes bleed. Handling the character ingame is even worse. But maybe It's just me xD
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But the real test for CDPR as developers is about to come as Cyberpunk 2077 will be the world they will create on their own from scratch.
Apart from the background they're importing from Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.
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But the real test for CDPR as developers is about to come as Cyberpunk 2077 will be the world they will create on their own from scratch.
Apart from the background they're importing from Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.
My bad then. Will have to try that game out with my friends over beer someday :yes:
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I've tried to get into w3. Was bored in the very first hour of the game.
Were you familiar with the lore before trying TW3? I mean, have you played the previous games or read the books? I'm kinda curious why you got bored because I found the introduction to the game very entertaining, even the fighting tutorial. But that was because of my love for the whole book saga and every encounter of a character or mentioning an event from the original stories was something amazing. CDPR did an amazing job in transferring an entire book lore to the video game. To be brief. To fully enjoy the Witcher games, especially the third one you need to know whole story of Geralt and Cirilla. Though I'm aware that getting your hands on the books in the past could have been problematic in some countries, because Sapkowski's work wasn't very popular worldwide before the games kicked in (maybe except for central and eastern Europe. There was a Spanish translation for sure, not sure about Portuguese one though).
No I wasn't nor do I think I need to do so. If a game's good, then it doesn't require any previous reading of anything. If the material is good, ditto. Why should I read a whole book of whatever to enjoy a different medium? Next thing you're telling me that in order to "fully enjoy" the Star Wars prequels I should "read" the whole plethora of books and ****. No. Nein. Não. Niet. If the game's good, then it's good.
Why was I bored? I dunno. Probably my own lack of interest in the things that appeared on my screen. I understood right away the love story between Geralt and Cirilla. It's not that complicated to pick that thing up, you know? I started off trying to find her and then I got sidetracked into finding a flying thing that was molesting the folks around. Then I guess I have to do a trap and when I got to the point I had to pick something up from the lake I got bored. "Why am I doing this", and fell back to not play anything. Or chess. Chess is fun.
I also find it quite hard to compare ME and The Witcher franchises and not because of that, they are equally my two favorite ones. Key difference in writing is the fact that BioWare was writing ME's world from scratch, while CDPR already had a vast, complex lore before they even started making the first game which gave them far more time to concentrate on other equally important aspects of the game. However, it doesn't mean they had it easier! When it comes to the Witcher, Polish fans had very high expectations regarding proper depiction of the lore. And here the guys from Cracow succeeded fully :D. But the real test for CDPR as developers is about to come as Cyberpunk 2077 will be the world they will create on their own from scratch.
I have nothing against it. I was just bored. The lore may well be represented brilliantly by CDPR. I loved the production quality.
I'm also curious about Cyberpunk 2077. If they pull off the kind of production quality of w3 they might well be the "next" BioWare.
But back to Andromeda:
http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromedas-recommended-system-predicted-to-run-30-fps-at-1080p/?utm_content=buffer8e5d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_pcgamerfb
Meh...... For me the graphics may look like sh** but 30fps and lower is what makes my eyes bleed. Handling the character ingame is even worse. But maybe It's just me xD
Insane. This may well be the end of Mass Effect for me. Not only would I have to spend money for it, I'd have to upgrade my pc? Yeahno.
PS: New Trailer. Gone full hollywood.
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No I wasn't nor do I think I need to do so. If a game's good, then it doesn't require any previous reading of anything. If the material is good, ditto. Why should I read a whole book of whatever to enjoy a different medium? Next thing you're telling me that in order to "fully enjoy" the Star Wars prequels I should "read" the whole plethora of books and ****. No. Nein. Não. Niet. If the game's good, then it's good.
Why was I bored? I dunno. Probably my own lack of interest in the things that appeared on my screen. I understood right away the love story between Geralt and Cirilla. It's not that complicated to pick that thing up, you know? I started off trying to find her and then I got sidetracked into finding a flying thing that was molesting the folks around. Then I guess I have to do a trap and when I got to the point I had to pick something up from the lake I got bored. "Why am I doing this", and fell back to not play anything. Or chess. Chess is fun.
Yeah definitely, TW3 is terrible at ~ludonarrative consonance~. Mass Effect 2 and 3 had the sense to strip down the gameplay to what it was, a shooty break in pace between dialogue cutscenes. TW3 still thinks it's a hardcore stats-based RPG and has a ****load of completely useless mechanics and a ****load of running around Slavic back-country (which is far less engaging than it was in Skyrim, even).
I realise you're probably not looking to make another crack at playing it, but it's definitely a matter of "set it to lowest difficulty and only do the main quests plus sidequests that actually interest you", if you want to just see the interesting parts of the game. As an exercise in the same craft as ME the main story is very good, IMO. (It has consistently the best facial animations I've ever seen in a game, for a start.)
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Were you familiar with the lore before trying TW3? I mean, have you played the previous games or read the books? I'm kinda curious why you got bored because I found the introduction to the game very entertaining, even the fighting tutorial. But that was because of my love for the whole book saga and every encounter of a character or mentioning an event from the original stories was something amazing. CDPR did an amazing job in transferring an entire book lore to the video game. To be brief. To fully enjoy the Witcher games, especially the third one you need to know whole story of Geralt and Cirilla.
Man I disagree almost entirely, in fact it seems to me like a lot of the work the game does is elevating Sapkowski's ****ty fanfic-tier character concepts into rounded, warm human beings. I mean look at Ciri's initial journal entry:
Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon - what can I possibly say about her? That we call her Ciri for short, that she was born in 1251, that she has ashen hair and a scar on her cheek?
All true, and that's the Cirilla I know best, one I first laid eyes on those many years ago, the one who seemed thoroughly, well, not ordinary, but certainly not as extraordinary as she in fact is.
For Cirilla is also a highly-skilled witcher, heiress to several thrones, the last bearer of the Elder Blood, a powerful Source endowed with exceptional magic talent and the Lady of Time and Space. Her hair colour and date of birth seem... rather incidental now, don't they?
It's ****ing terrible. I went into the game fully expecting to spend every cutscene wanting to give her a smack in her finely-sculpted Chosen One face, and it was only through the skill of the game's writers that I found myself actually caring.
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"Sh**** Fanfic-tier characters...." like Yennefer (her severe personality and twisted, complex relations with Geralt) or Regis (who has the best dialogue lines in the saga IMO. Blood and Wine made them equally good). You made me smile here, really.
#JustBioWareThings
(https://scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17190945_389844298047022_5053838385982364401_n.jpg?oh=1374214cf79e12b97852afc3a8fa0c82&oe=596A46EF)
This comes from the launch trailer xD Looks like Cora will have to visit the doc to fix her arm.....
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Man I disagree almost entirely, in fact it seems to me like a lot of the work the game does is elevating Sapkowski's ****ty fanfic-tier character concepts into rounded, warm human beings. I mean look at Ciri's initial journal entry:
Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon - what can I possibly say about her? That we call her Ciri for short, that she was born in 1251, that she has ashen hair and a scar on her cheek?
All true, and that's the Cirilla I know best, one I first laid eyes on those many years ago, the one who seemed thoroughly, well, not ordinary, but certainly not as extraordinary as she in fact is.
For Cirilla is also a highly-skilled witcher, heiress to several thrones, the last bearer of the Elder Blood, a powerful Source endowed with exceptional magic talent and the Lady of Time and Space. Her hair colour and date of birth seem... rather incidental now, don't they?
It's ****ing terrible. I went into the game fully expecting to spend every cutscene wanting to give her a smack in her finely-sculpted Chosen One face, and it was only through the skill of the game's writers that I found myself actually caring.
Ciri's arc in the books is entirely about her refusing her destiny and the ironic twist that she has accept it in order to escape whatever plans the antagonist have for her... The whole pilling up of brithrights is more of a looming threat to her and her loved ones, than the traditional key to make the world a better place. (Also most the characters she has real interactions with in the books, besides from Geralt and Yennifer are dead by the time of games, as a result of the two antagonists of the novels seeking to turn Ciri into the Chosen One - which only accomplishes that she takes her escape to whole new level)
It may be lost on you if only played the games or read the "proper" novels but the foundation of The Witcher-franchise was build on taking the traditional, romanticised medival "folklore"/fairytale-structres and subverting them. Which is most exemplified the concepts of the Witchers being based of "what if good guy in fairytale was a job" mixed with "what if someone was manufacturing heroes" and then running the hypothetical what it would mean for the concepts of heroism, villany and the public perspection of either of these things remain the same.
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"Sh**** Fanfic-tier characters...." like Yennefer (her severe personality and twisted, complex relations with Geralt) or Regis (who has the best dialogue lines in the saga IMO. Blood and Wine made them equally good). You made me smile here, really.
Good lord, what I was trying to say is that the concepts for the characters seem crap ('misunderstood cynical superdude who ****s all the women!' '*****y sorceress!' 'chosen one struggling with her birthright of saving the world!') but their actual execution in the game is fantastic.
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I'm giving this game an initial pass because the line by line dialog and facial animation is so mediocre.
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so much for 'we learned from the witcher 3' amirite
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That was a dubious statement back when it was made. Had they not had other projects between ME3 and Andromeda I might believe it but Inquisition left a really bad taste in my mouth and I don't think they had all hands on deck for long enough with Andromeda to make that statement have any weight. Plus it's EA Bioware not independent Bioware.
I've been playing Tyranny lately and my god does Obsidian flex their know how in that game. They also have the advantage of being hugely text based but with the smaller budget (both production and marketing to boot). Hopefully more Obsidians and inExiles (whether or not you like their specific releases) will pop up as more focused alternative to the grey sludge that's becoming the AAA space with its few gasps of brilliance like Titanfall 2, Doom, and arguably Dishonored.
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I'm giving this game an initial pass because the line by line dialog and facial animation is so mediocre.
Nothing we can do about writing but I'm going to hold off for a few weeks with my purchase. After a few big patches kick in because from what I've seen so far there are going to be tonnes of glitches in the initial release :rolleyes:. I also gave up my hopes for good optimization.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6pVwnoXUAEt3PV.jpg)
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Wheel of laughter spins faster and faster xD
(http://x3.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comment_orZAaZByRcb9sQMoSxSHqYpYS58syNyl.gif)
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6pVwnoXUAEt3PV.jpg)
l m a o
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Man I disagree almost entirely, in fact it seems to me like a lot of the work the game does is elevating Sapkowski's ****ty fanfic-tier character concepts into rounded, warm human beings. I mean look at Ciri's initial journal entry:
It's ****ing terrible. I went into the game fully expecting to spend every cutscene wanting to give her a smack in her finely-sculpted Chosen One face, and it was only through the skill of the game's writers that I found myself actually caring.
It should be noted that all the journal entries are "written" by an unreliable narrator, Dandelion. And it is within character for Dandelion to sometimes write trashy stuff.
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"Sh**** Fanfic-tier characters...." like Yennefer (her severe personality and twisted, complex relations with Geralt) or Regis (who has the best dialogue lines in the saga IMO. Blood and Wine made them equally good). You made me smile here, really.
Good lord, what I was trying to say is that the concepts for the characters seem crap ('misunderstood cynical superdude who ****s all the women!' '*****y sorceress!' 'chosen one struggling with her birthright of saving the world!') but their actual execution in the game is fantastic.
Ah yeah ...
Well, you are wrong :) The concepts in the games basically start where the books end. That's the only "flaw" that you can really find here, that the games build on the books, instead of retelling everything that was said in the books. If you go out on a limb then you could call the games fan fiction of the books, but that would be pushing it considering how good they are as well. However you can actually tell with the first game that they probably didn't expect to make a trilogy. And the first game is definitely also the weakest as far as the "gaming" elements go and does have some dubious mechanics and content. The transition between the games felt a bit forced there to me.
Still that is all nitpicking. If you take the work as a whole it is nothing short of brilliant. (arguably with some flab here and there, but if that is reason to declare ****tyness nowadays then we're all adrift in a sea of ****tyness with no land in sight.)
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With regard to the Witcher series... I am just now playing through it, having finished the original a few months ago and now nearing completion of the Roche playthrough in W2. While W1, even after EE, felt very unpolished and not altogether coherent, it had little sparks of brilliance in the storytelling and characters. Having moved onto the second game, it's like a completely different studio took it an ran with it. While the combat is still clunky, it's a refreshing take on RPGs, where the core cast of characters are people you actually care about, the quests all feel like they drive narrative or character development (the lack of fetch quests is particularly wonderful), and the story doesn't feel like it gets derailed for sidequesting (something BioWare games are particularly prone to). There is the odd difficulty with dialogue, but the characters/dialogue/plot is mature and doesn't shy away from that. More importantly, while W1 had some "save the world" elements common to BioWare games, in W2 Geralt is a much more believable character; he is a Witcher who happens to be trapped in events of a much larger scale and provides some small measure of influence on them, rather than a Hero who is going to Save The World. In particular, the regular occurrence of choices for which there is no good outcome, and frequently not even a "lesser of the evils" outcome, is incredibly refreshing. Instead of morality being a simple black/white system, its a function of "pick in which direction you'd rather see the world go to ****." While that can be a bit irritating in the short term, when you think about it its quite brilliant compared to some of the competitors. Geralt is a fish caught in a raging flood; while he can swim generally to one side or another, he's not escaping the general torrential movement downstream.
I'm really looking forward to W3 when I finish the Iorveth playthrough.
Where I think BioWare has managed to continue to eclipse CDPR is in blending RPG storytelling and combat. ME1 had a painful uncompelling combat system; the evolution in ME2 and 3 made the game a joy to play in actual combat as well, and while W2 is more intense and immersive in combat than W1, it's still pretty clunky. Andromeda looks like its going to improve on ME3 again.
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Where I think BioWare has managed to continue to eclipse CDPR is in blending RPG storytelling and combat. ME1 had a painful uncompelling combat system; the evolution in ME2 and 3 made the game a joy to play in actual combat as well, and while W2 is more intense and immersive in combat than W1, it's still pretty clunky. Andromeda looks like its going to improve on ME3 again.
You will be happy to know that combat also evolved quite a lot when going from W2 to W3. Arguably still with some rougher edges than other games, but all in all it finally has a quite polished and refined feel to it. Compared to W2 and W1 for sure.
The huge open world in W3 is what I found a double edged sword however. Main and Side quest are without question the best in the genre. But if you actually want to complete "everything" then you will/would spend a huge amount of time running around the map checking of mundane "points of interests". In that case W3 felt a bit more like a recent Bioware game actually - that is, if you didn't decide to just skip that stuff, which you can.
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The open world in TW3 was frankly vestigial, it added nothing to the game except some nice scenery. In Skyrim the presentation of the story and gameplay made it a fairly interesting experience to move around the landscape on foot on your way to things; TW3 essentially had a Mass Effect-type scope where the interesting part of the story was presented through cutscenes and the gameplay and world were a pacing mechanism between them. It would have been better served overall with a more linear presentation; it felt like utterly gamey bull**** using the fast-travel system to teleport and sprint between packets of cutscenes.
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The open world in TW3 was frankly vestigial, it added nothing to the game except some nice scenery. In Skyrim the presentation of the story and gameplay made it a fairly interesting experience to move around the landscape on foot on your way to things; TW3 essentially had a Mass Effect-type scope where the interesting part of the story was presented through cutscenes and the gameplay and world were a pacing mechanism between them. It would have been better served overall with a more linear presentation; it felt like utterly gamey bull**** using the fast-travel system to teleport and sprint between packets of cutscenes.
Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game. My take anyways. What W3s open world did manage, at least to me, is to bring a sense of scale and presence to locations that was in some cases just breathtaking. Coming up through the countryside and seeing Novigrad for example. Just loved seeing how different places known from the books were recreated in the game. As far as fast travel options in a single player game? To me that's convenience, but hardly breaks immersion. If you don't like it, don't use it? /shrugs
I would agree however that a large part of the open world could be seen as "flab" in W3 ... the more important point however is the quality of the meat that W3 brings to the table and that is where most other modern games can't even beging to compare. Except some of those old school style story focused RPGs, at least as far as "story" is concerned. (Thinking of PoE, Shadowrun Dragonfall, Tyranny possibly, although I haven't finished that last one yet, etc.) But open world mainstream games like Skyrim? If anything Skyrim serves as an example of how shallow and meaningless a very well crafted game can feel if all it does is focusing on an open world with simplistic short stories and cardboard characters.
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Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game.
They're different games. They focus on different things. My number 1 complaint about TW3 is its worthless fanboys who feel the need to validate their enjoyment of it by ****ting on every other game ever made.
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Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game.
They're different games. They focus on different things. My number 1 complaint about TW3 is its worthless fanboys who feel the need to validate their enjoyment of it by ****ting on every other game ever made.
Going for a new record for the number of common flaws in arguments in a single sentence, eh? ;-)
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The huge open world in W3 is what I found a double edged sword however. Main and Side quest are without question the best in the genre. But if you actually want to complete "everything" then you will/would spend a huge amount of time running around the map checking of mundane "points of interests". In that case W3 felt a bit more like a recent Bioware game actually - that is, if you didn't decide to just skip that stuff, which you can.
The game should be played with "Undiscovered Points of Interest displayed on main map" switched off, otherwise the map will be cluttered with question marks of the Assassin's Creed type. Horrible. Unfortunately, they are on by default.
Turning off the mini map can also help to encourage exploration and prevent you simply running from quest mark to quest mark.
Finally, I found the game to be more enjoyable by not using fast travel (unless it is needed to go from one large area to another).
An open world will always provide pacing problems for a story driven game. Especially if the main story is about finding someone ASAP who are in grave danger and in need of help. It kind of breaks the immersion when you are spending dozens of hours playing Gwent and hunting Nekkers, while Ciri is pursued by the Wild Hunt. However, the side content of W3 is mostly pure fun and top notch.
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it's kind of funny because witcher 3's 'quest journal with a world map' gameplay design is much much much more like an MMO than Skyrim's ultra-freeform ~simulationist design
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Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game.
They're different games. They focus on different things. My number 1 complaint about TW3 is its worthless fanboys who feel the need to validate their enjoyment of it by ****ting on every other game ever made.
Going for a new record for the number of common flaws in arguments in a single sentence, eh? ;-)
Even if he is, you could stand to stop being such an ass about it.
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I had the feeling CDPR wanted to make the game as accessible to newcomers (to the series and to the genre) as possible. But with all icons turned on, the map feels like the brochure of a theme park, and you figure out which way to take in order to visit as many attractions in as little time as possible.
Thankfully, the UI is pretty customizable by default and even more so by mods.
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Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game.
They're different games. They focus on different things. My number 1 complaint about TW3 is its worthless fanboys who feel the need to validate their enjoyment of it by ****ting on every other game ever made.
Going for a new record for the number of common flaws in arguments in a single sentence, eh? ;-)
Even if he is, you could stand to stop being such an ass about it.
Well for what it's worth, my intention was to point out how much the discussion's tone had degraded, not to degrade it even further.
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The open world in TW3 was frankly vestigial, it added nothing to the game except some nice scenery. In Skyrim the presentation of the story and gameplay made it a fairly interesting experience to move around the landscape on foot on your way to things; TW3 essentially had a Mass Effect-type scope where the interesting part of the story was presented through cutscenes and the gameplay and world were a pacing mechanism between them. It would have been better served overall with a more linear presentation; it felt like utterly gamey bull**** using the fast-travel system to teleport and sprint between packets of cutscenes.
Then you have not been doing enough "sequence breaking" (meaning, running aroung and questing where the story didn't lead you) - Witcher 3 lets you do that in its open world to large extend and than manages to catch it so that it doesn't feel like you are doing it at all (granted that's not true for all quests) - the here interconnectivity between side and main quest is pretty cool to witness
Other games either forbid you from doing that (e.g Dragon Age or sidestep it by disconnectioncontent (e.g. Skyrim) ... neither appraoch is better than the others but interconnectivity meant much work went into it that didn't had to
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...
Ah yeah ...
Well, you are wrong :) The concepts in the games basically start where the books end. That's the only "flaw" that you can really find here, that the games build on the books, instead of retelling everything that was said in the books. If you go out on a limb then you could call the games fan fiction of the books, but that would be pushing it considering how good they are as well. However you can actually tell with the first game that they probably didn't expect to make a trilogy. And the first game is definitely also the weakest as far as the "gaming" elements go and does have some dubious mechanics and content. The transition between the games felt a bit forced there to me.
Still that is all nitpicking. If you take the work as a whole it is nothing short of brilliant. (arguably with some flab here and there, but if that is reason to declare ****tyness nowadays then we're all adrift in a sea of ****tyness with no land in sight.)
Fun fact. In theory games are indeed a "fanfic" continuation of the books as the author stated clearly that they are something completely different, out of his vision. In fact, Sapkowski is a relic of the past generation who doesn't care about video games. When CDPR made contact with him and told him that they want to make a Witcher game, he agreed and coordinated some writing and collected a fee. However, this was only a single payment not a permanent contract, as the old man absolutely did not believe that a video game will succeed and preferred one solid amount of money instead of risky shares. First Witcher wasn't a worldwide success so the decision seemed a good one at the start. But after the third game kicked in...man must have got mad.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.393325-Witcher-Writer-Doesnt-Feel-Like-a-Co-Author-of-the-Game
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Umm, I just wanted to apologize for causing this thread to get so terribly derailed :nervous:
To get (somehow) back on topic, I didn't get what Luis Dias meant with this picture:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6pVwnoXUAEt3PV.jpg)
Maybe someone might be so kind as to explain it to me :confused:
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Note which end of the gun she is pointing at the enemy.
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Even if I'm giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt and it's supposed to be one of those "I trust you here's my weapon" moments, that grip and hand position look ridiculous.
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"If you don't show your trust by taking my weapon I swear to god I will shoot myself in the face!"
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She's shooting a remnant drone behind Ryder, so yeah. Oh, it's in the cinematic trailer too, it's not some hidden bug.
Meanwhile, manlet Ryder is having tons of fun being compared to Shepard in the internets.
(https://i.redditmedia.com/EPD7rsHKMngOHLeco9dV7dCw_IBrmvqSEabNlpz3sQo.jpg?w=802&s=5812e3c2c0963677ec21cfc679772190)
"Daddy I wanna be the next Shepard!"
"Ok son look we've talked about this..."
"BUT I WANNA"
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The amount of salt over Bioware's character models is astonishing.
(On the other hand, if "Man!Ryder is too small" is the worst offence ME:A commits, well, I'd say it's fine)
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"I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm the tallest man in the citadel!"
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The amount of salt over Bioware's character models is astonishing.
We can start salting about the dialogue if you prefer.
(On the other hand, if "Man!Ryder is too small" is the worst offence ME:A commits, well, I'd say it's fine)
Don't mind me, I'm just compiling great content from an upcoming game ;)
(https://68.media.tumblr.com/db1e3345989e873e297af39fc963cb30/tumblr_ohl5rqfodC1qj73soo1_250.gif)
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The amount of salt over Bioware's character models is astonishing.
We can start salting about the dialogue if you prefer.
Sorry, I just find it hilarious that apart from genuine issues (like dialogue writing, general animation quality) "Man!Ryder is too small!" and "Woman!Ryder is too ugly!" are also on the list of gripes about this game.
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When you can start to make a list of the problems of a game like this months before its release, you know the meme generators will be in full swing when it actually ships.
Regarding dialogue, I've cut it a bit of slack since I've learned that the particular peeebeeeeee's loyalty mission was immensely edited to take out relevant dialogue, like Ryder letting his anger at peebee for doing this **** go. My guess? It will be a horrible mess anyway, but I prefer to have that kind of mockery and criticism done when we can't be told that we're not getting the "whole context" or whatever else excuse here.
So I'm left at mocking these things.
And these things are following a pattern. A pattern of a direction in game and character design that is both lazy and seemingly targeted at a younger, naive, childish audience. In this context, maleRyder being a manlet for his proportions fits the pattern, femRyder being a lazy attempt at taking a model's face and Dysneyfying it also fits the pattern. The campy dialogue. The character designs.
And I still find the amount of stealing from NoManSky hilarious. I actually think they managed to escape a lot of bad blood there by NMS failing so hard.
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Yet the Witcher series always managed to bring the whole world alive through it's story and characters, while Skyrim mostly comes across as a Themepark with little depth to it's stories, more like an MMO without multiplayer, than an engaging singleplayer game.
They're different games. They focus on different things. My number 1 complaint about TW3 is its worthless fanboys who feel the need to validate their enjoyment of it by ****ting on every other game ever made.
Going for a new record for the number of common flaws in arguments in a single sentence, eh? ;-)
It's really true though. Skyrim and TW3 try to achieve different things. TW3 is about telling you a story, Skyrim is about making your own story. The games present their worlds in ways that facilitate what they're trying to accomplish.
I don't understand why TW3 and Skyrim are so often compared. You want to compare TW3 to another AAA game? Compare it to DAI. You still get to praise TW3 and **** on another game, but this time the comparison (and the ****) makes sense. DAI has all of TW3's problems (and then some) and none of its strengths.
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That entry..... I already LOVE this guy :lol:
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John Walker over at RPS is not impressed (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/14/mass-effect-andromeda-review-opening-hours)
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I just came here to post that. I generally trust John's opinions, so hmm.
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I miss good bioware games.
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I miss good bioware games.
Obsidian games are the new good bioware games these days :nod:
Never mind me and my opinion, but a i had such a blast with PoE and Tyranny that I can t help but mention it. Those games however don't even have facial animations that one could critizise :lol:
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Oh, look. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
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Oh, look. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/ePL05nRDzwCXe/giphy.gif)
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I'm looking more and more justified in my total apathy for this thing up until release. There's only so many times I'll put out hope for a company with the EA facehugger on it.
Also Mikes:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6ireeUUwAEmRWC.jpg)
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There's only so many times I'll put out hope for a company with the EA facehugger on it.
0 is the correct amount of times, but it's acceptable that it has to happen to something you love first before you realize it.
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Idly wondering if we can buy a multiplayer-only edition.
Seriously, multi was the single best thing about ME3. It was an absolute (if not entirely polished) gem and that's the only reason I've been excited for Andromeda. That said, not paying $80 for half a multiplayer experience. That review is very uninspiring.
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0 is the correct amount of times, but it's acceptable that it has to happen to something you love first before you realize it.
At this point I'd agree with you, but back before EA ****ed up Dead Space and allowed ME1 to exist, things were different. I might have disliked ME2 but it wasn't awful. Then ME3 happened and Bioware died in my eyes. Then people said DA:I was good and I decided to believe people against my better judgement. It's going to take the entire game community with no dissent saying that Andromeda is perfect for me to consider believing it.
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hooooly **** the dialogue + voice acting + facial animations are so bad that they're basically parody (https://webmshare.com/Dm0Nz)
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I am not entirely certain that human beings were involved in the production of that scene at all. It could be all procgen.
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this is looking like such a total trainwreck that it is going to be very funny watching the people who got too invested in the hype train defensively say "oh well I enjoyed it"
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jesus christ it's astonishing
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"I am heir to the Krugan, his lands and titles became mine during the Quickening."
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jesus christ it's astonishing
lmao. But please mark the spoiler.
GOTY 2017 incoming
https://my.mixtape.moe/meplxn.mp4
(https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17264686_392541217777330_4194976030696780156_n.jpg?oh=63516630ab904ad02211e22290896e3c&oe=596DBA95)
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I'm looking more and more justified in my total apathy for this thing up until release. There's only so many times I'll put out hope for a company with the EA facehugger on it.
Considering how much freedom Bioware say they get from EA, I'm perfectly willing to say Bioware's recent failures are entirely their own. A lot of their good writers left around the time ME2 released, Drew Karpyshyn (ME1's lead writer) included. They did break up the company to work on three different projects at once, after all.
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Look at all of this 150 million mo-cap
(https://i.imgur.com/lGrQTdF.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/zGINNKD.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/AqJIuSq.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/33ZVPlH.gif)
wait... wrong thread...
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i think it's so brave of bioware to put a woman with severe brain damage in their leading role
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and they have broken new ground in inclusivity by having a cast entirely made up of people with moderate nystagmus
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They could always hand wave the whole thing by saying everyone suffered some neurological deterioration during the trip out. :drevil:
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And here's RPS' Alec Meer with a bit more positive take on the game (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/16/mass-effect-andromeda-problems/).
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Still not inspiring. Reconsidered my buy-on-release. Think I'll wait a few days at minimum.
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Still not inspiring. Reconsidered my buy-on-release. Think I'll wait a few days at minimum.
I know this is some radical socialism or something, but how about not ever giving money to the people who have taken something amazing and turned it into a corporate game-every-year ****fest?
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Except BioWare's products have not, generally speaking, been turned into a game-every-year ****fest.
Say what you will about ME3's ending, the rest of the game was enjoyable, the writing was well-above average (if not excellent in some places), and the characters remained interesting; to top it off, the combat was vastly improved over earlier editions. DAI wasn't Origins again, but it wasn't much behind Origins when it came to its plot, characters, and gameplay. Arguably, the gameplay was better than Origins in some ways.
Mass Effect in particular has always had its ups and downs, and BioWare's plots are commonly the "save the world" variety. It's not like ME3 drove the series into the ground, as some would argue - look at the plot and mechanics of the first game sometime. I wouldn't call any iteration of Mass Effect "something amazing." They're above-average games with generally above-average writing. BioWare's products have never really been about the compelling nature of the main plot, but rather the story of the characters within it. If Andromeda's overall experience is on par with the previous ME games, I'll likely pick it up. If it turns out BioWare completely dropped the ball, then I won't. Just because some people have a hate on for EA does not make the products its studios produce bad; they succeed or fail on their own merits.
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Say what you will about ME3's ending, the rest of the game was enjoyable, the writing was well-above average (if not excellent in some places), and the characters remained interesting; to top it off, the combat was vastly improved over earlier editions.
Man this is just not true at all, the main plot was completely fumbled from start to finish, most of the best characters were sidelined because they might have died in ME2, the new characters were pretty boring and the only really great storytelling was the resolution of the Krogan/genophage and Quarian/Geth conflicts inherited from the previous games.
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It basically feels like Inquisition, and it's not too bad. Inquisition I came into with the lowest expectations possible though. But the real issue is things feel uneven quality wise. Like there's side characters with meh VA that are put front and center by virtue of how the quests appear to be structured. Some of the various cutscenes also seem overexposed or just not quite as composited as well as say Mass Effect 2. Part of the problem I think is just how they decided to handle the post-processing with Frostbite, there's a lot of kitchen sink thrown at things (chromatic abberation when not needed, etc.).
Overall I think it's fair to be more critical because of the general quality of what CD Projekt did with the Witcher. It's not quite at Bethesda level of uneven but more on that range of the sliding scale.
To go into spoiler territory:
Honestly there's not a great plot hook. I do like the whole focus on exploration and trying to figure out what is going on and the enemy seeming to be environmental but they needed something like dad-Ryder being abducted by the Archon to give a sense of urgency other than "oh these planets suck and people lost hope! Let's turn on the terraformers!"
Some of the things like "oh yeah exiles" seems a bit ham fisted. Especially when you have the best and brightest selected for a mission and within 14 months society collapses? Seems more like it'd be fitting if say the main station was stranded for 14 years instead of 14 months. I know that they want an excuse to have some humans to shoot at, but it could even be a splinter of militants thinking they're doing the right thing. Anything but space pirate exiles...
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Say what you will about ME3's ending, the rest of the game was enjoyable, the writing was well-above average (if not excellent in some places), and the characters remained interesting; to top it off, the combat was vastly improved over earlier editions.
Man this is just not true at all, the main plot was completely fumbled from start to finish, most of the best characters were sidelined because they might have died in ME2, the new characters were pretty boring and the only really great storytelling was the resolution of the Krogan/genophage and Quarian/Geth conflicts inherited from the previous games.
You're welcome to your opinion. I disagree. By no means do I consider ME3 perfect or the best game of the series, but the main plot was no more terrible than that of ME1 or 2. I still got plenty of discussion out of Liara, Tali, Garrus, not to mention both Joker and EDI, and there were plenty of moments that they shone. It's a bit of a shame that the best of those characters didn't come out until The Citadel DLC, but ME3 was no worse a Mass Effect game than its predecessors, just different. The main plots of all three games remain resolutely within the confines of "save the world" RPG quests, and the only real drop in quality in main plot quality in ME3 comes in the last 30 minutes of the game. There are plenty of other criticisms than can be leveled at all three entries in the trilogy, and yet some people seem to insist that it all fell apart in the third.
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I really don't see how you can say the main plot of ME3 only fell apart in the last 30 minutes, given that it starts with a Reaper attack on Earth which makes no goddamn sense either as an in-story event or as an impetus to drive the plot, and it then proceeds to rub Kai Leng in your face until you're sweaty and hoarse with rage.
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You're probably right that it's not worse than ME2's, but ME2 a) had on average better sidequest/character writing, and b) had the luxury of being a middle act so its main plot didn't actually matter that much. ME3's ****ty main plot definitely spoils the experience throughout.
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I agree that ME3 had the best main quest of the series, if you leave aside the last 15 minutes. It was the only one that felt substantial and I like how you went to the homeworlds of all the major species and resolved some long standing issue with each species. ME1's quest was too short and ME2's quest felt inconsequential. The Reapers were only good in ME1 and had already become stupid in ME2, so that wasn't much of a change in ME3.
I'll get Andromeda at some point but definitely not on release, maybe after a few DLCs come out. One issue I was wondering about is the change in the engine. In all of the previous games, the Unreal engine's time compression commands (slomo) were essential in reducing the tedium in running around between places and making the games fun and not boring to play. I hope something like that is possible in Frostbite.
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I really don't see how you can say the main plot of ME3 only fell apart in the last 30 minutes, given that it starts with a Reaper attack on Earth which makes no goddamn sense either as an in-story event or as an impetus to drive the plot, and it then proceeds to rub Kai Leng in your face until you're sweaty and hoarse with rage.
Listen Kai Leng is an effective villain because he broke into a guy's apartment and ate his cheerios once.
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more effective villain writing from the bioware team
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Me3's bigger plot line is a steaming pile. Let's list the pile.
It starts with the reapers invading Earth. Apparently, they have been pwning the Batarians for months now and no one was wise enough to have some eyes on the situation. Ridiculous.
It has Shepard tell the council they should forgo their own home planets and take everything they have to Earth. We are led to believe the council is inane for being concerned with their own planets first. Ridiculous.
Cerberus is now a military front that has the capability to be everywhere, always with overwhelming numbers. Ridiculous.
It is even able to conquer the Citadel, a feat that required Sovereign a full Geth army. Ridiculous.
Kai Leng. Nuffsaid.
We're building this massive hyper-weapon but we have no idea what it does or how it works until very late in the game. Ridiculous.
There's never a sense of real war: we are never given a sense we can defeat them conventionally, at least in some particular cases (except for Shepard of course, and only the lowly destroyers). So why do all council races still try to defeat them conventionally at every turn? It makes no sense. Only Hackett seems to have some brains here.
Rachni queen. The less said, the better.
Legion. poor legion, burdened with Data's syndrome, shunning ME2's impecable characterization of the Geth.
The Dalatrass refuses to help because she disagrees with your genophage decision. With the whole galaxy's odds at stake, the calculating scientific race decides to bail because the decision may be dangerous after the Reapers. What "after the Reapers"? Ridiculous.
The catalyst.
I'm forgetting a lot.
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Cerberus is now a military front that has the capability to be everywhere, always with overwhelming numbers. Ridiculous.
It is even able to conquer the Citadel, a feat that required Sovereign a full Geth army. Ridiculous.
It is truly remarkable how Bioware managed with every installment to find a new characterisation of Cerberus that totally contradicted everything from the previous game.
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Cerberus is now a military front that has the capability to be everywhere, always with overwhelming numbers. Ridiculous.
It is even able to conquer the Citadel, a feat that required Sovereign a full Geth army. Ridiculous.
It is truly remarkable how Bioware managed with every installment to find a new characterisation of Cerberus that totally contradicted everything from the previous game.
ME: A random terrorists group, cannon fodder for side quests. More an annoyance then a real threat.
ME2: Large, complex organization with very interesting background capable of doing some good work (well... at least some cells)
ME3: Evil, indoctrinated cannon fodder. TIM immediately shifted from being a smart and calculated bastard to plain evil and stupid. We faced them so many times in such plot-critical situations that I sometimes had a feeling that they pose at least as much threat as the Reapers themselves. Sure, it was all a part of divide and conquer MO practiced by the robo squids but it felt over exaggerated. With Omega DLC and final assault on the Chronos Station (defended by an entire fleet of warships, dreadnought- sized included) as finest examples.
I wonder if or how the writers may bend some aspects of the lore to fit their new story. With the whole trilogy behind us, there is a lot to consider and I have a weird feeling that we won't avoid some strange explanations or plot "bypasses". Like genophage question.
Or presence of the quarians (confirmed in the last briefing) in the initiative. Which, for now at least, makes no sense to me because of the fact that by the time the AI set course for Andromeda the quarians were preparing to take Rannoch back, so they would need every amount of people and resources (not to mention what kind of a quarian would leave his own behind during such critical time?). So for now I will treat this as a gesture to please Tali fans and fanboys.
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I've banged on about ME2 nuking everything on and off for 7 years. ME3's problems are really just growths of ME2's decisions to make Shepard into space Jesus and putting off how to handle the Reapers being Robot-Space-Cthulu until ME3. Much of ME3's narrative can be seen as kowtowing narrative to gameplay. The ME1 Reapers would never lower themselves to blowing up buildings on planets but in ME3 we need mooks to shoot so enter "indoctrinated" Cerberus the Saturday morning cartoon villains and Reapers attacking Earth instead of the original plan of cutting off the galaxy from its government. Even if ME2 hadn't been an intermission and reversion in plot ME3 still might have been saddled with Cerberus or dumbass Reapers to make the third person shooting be able to hold up the gameplay by itself.
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ArsTechnica has a very long review of ME:A up now that provides a lot more detail and is a little more positive than what we've read so far. It concludes that ME:A is basically DA:I in space. Given how much I enjoyed DA:I, I don't see that as a particularly bad thing.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/early-review-mass-effect-andromeda-is-dragon-age-inquisition-in-space/
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I've been playing the first few hours via the Origin Access trial period. It's been, well, okay so far.
The game certainly has problems ranging from the conceptual to the technical, of course. There's no denying that. For example, there is no compelling reason for why this game is set in a different galaxy offered by the game. After the opening, you spend less than an hour on a planet before you move on to a Citadel-analogue, filled with characters from all the races you presumably care about. Similarly, the second planet you move to after getting access to the Tempest presents a scenario that would not be out of place in ME1 (Hey SheppardRyder, there's this settlement we have lost contact with near a ProtheanRemnant digsite, could you go check that, kthx); there is just little in the game (beyond the obvious avoidance of the Reaper question) that justifies the change of scenery.
In terms of game flow, one thing I can already see being a tremendous timewasting mechanic is moving between planets in a solar system. In ME1-3, this was a nicely paced process that either didn't take very long (ME1) or had you engaged for short periods (ME2-3); in this game, you're sitting around watching an unskippable animation that takes up to 20 seconds to complete (or at least feels that way).
Once you get down to a planet, the game starts to be fun. The combat gameplay is awesome, taking ME3's foundation and adding in free movement across large spaces, the environments are beautiful, and unlike DA:I, looking at the map doesn't feel like being handed a miles-long To-Do-List.
In technical terms, this is probably the most demanding game I've ever had on this machine (Intel i5-6600k @ 4.2 GHz, an RX480, 16 GB RAM). Using the high preset, framerates were never quite stable until I moved a few settings (Ambient Occlusion and AA, to be precise) down a couple notches, disabled VSync and closed Chrome.
The big points of criticism, however, are writing and animation quality, if the internet is to be believed. Both of these are, for most of the game I've seen so far, okay. However, there are a couple points (which have been pointed out upthread) where there are unforced errors, bad dialogue and cutscenes that feel like they're first pass material that really should have gone back for a few rounds of polish before signoff. These issues are, of course, exacerbated by the general quality level Bioware was shooting for; when your art department spends ages on making skin look good, having people look like weird aliens wearing human skins just doesn't work.
So, overall: Unless the multi is the big draw (and it might be, haven't played it yet), give this one a pass until it's on sale and patches have been made that address these things.
Parenthetically: I would really like to know what this game looked like when they extended the development time. There's bound to be a juicy post-mortem in there.
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Hey E, do you actually have an origin access account, or did you find a free trial of OA that also happens to give a shot at MEA? I saw a promotion for a 7-day trial of OA a while ago, but I deferred it thinking I'd use it now, but I don't see it available any more.
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Hey E, do you actually have an origin access account, or did you find a free trial of OA that also happens to give a shot at MEA? I saw a promotion for a 7-day trial of OA a while ago, but I deferred it thinking I'd use it now, but I don't see it available any more.
That was still on offer here.
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In order to criticise ME3 even more, I want to remind you people, that there is a secondary codex entry, The Reaper War -> Desperate Measures.
This thing makes me wonder if any mass effect based drive system is even made by anyone BUT the Reapers. I get the feeling that, according to the entry, FTL drives are just black-box modules that nobody even examined closer with ships built around them.
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The only reason it is not a story set in the Milky Way is that any milky way story is closed down in any larger-than-life meaningful way by the original trilogy.
Not to say you couldn't do it. Of course you could, I can scrap some sketches on the top of my head right now. The problem is that you would be in a straight jacket, and constantly worried by the existence of a previous canon material that is the size of a bible, and worse than that, very different in many places depending of what you have been doing in the trilogy, if the game was to be set up in the timeframe of the original trilogy at all. To place it before the trilogy would create another set of problems, not only storywise (there we go again with the many thread issues we've already solved in the original trilogy, the quarians, the krogan, etc.), but even more importantly for the game itself, game mechanics: how would you justify having a jetpack in this when in ME3 you didn't have one, nor saw anyone having it? If the game was set before ME1, how could you even begin to justify the existence of "bullets" (or whatever it's their name)?
If you just say "forget it, let's not deal with this whole hassle, let's just go to Andromeda", you can do two very important things:
One. Worry more about the story you can tell than the infinite threads you have to coordinate with the original trilogy;
Two. You can create a whole new interesting world around you with new mysteries, new sci fi concepts, new stories, unbounded by the necessity of having them appear or at least be mentioned in ME3 - I mean, how could you build a new race like the Angara in the milky way, set that story between ME2 and ME3 and then just claim that in ME3 they didn't show up because something something? Makes no sense.
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Regarding a post ME3 mass effect game, I'd actually love to see a mass effect game called "Mass Effect Control", in which the events of the game would take place in a milky way wherein Shepard took control of the Reapers.
The title would suggest that this is not necessarily canon, that it's just a story placed in that possible future timeline. And the story could be awesome. I see something like Leto II God Emperor kind of stuff. An above-and-beyond ultra being who once was a human and now is a god, and how the next generation of whomever deals with it. A new crisis, and this shepardgod as the background. How much is he involved in this crisis, what is he doing about it, what can we do about it. Intrigue, going against a real true god - or not, I mean, so many good stuff could be written in this world.
But huh, I guess we just have millenial brats going on in a JJ Abrams' adventure-like with humanoid shaped beings with incredibly clichéd storylines.
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So, my burning question is:
Has anyone tried multi yet and is it worth picking up now for that alone? I mean, I have more than enough SP games at the moment, but multi is what I was most looking forward to.
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So, my burning question is:
Has anyone tried multi yet and is it worth picking up now for that alone? I mean, I have more than enough SP games at the moment, but multi is what I was most looking forward to.
Apparently it looks fantastic on paper but has crippling connection and rubberbanding issues that kill 4 out of 5 rounds.
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EDIT: I found a 20% off sale on GreenManGaming and apparently I'm a sucker. *hangs head* I see all my ME3 multiplayer buddies bought it first, though :P
If anyone else is interested, here's the link via the coupon: https://www.dealzon.com/buy/mass-effect-andromeda?drc=siliconera2
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AAA Animators, including Volition's Tim Borelli, discuss the Mass Effect: Andromeda animation problem (http://www.animstate.com/round-table-mass-effect-andromeda/)
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Finished the main campaign.
Overall, I think this is a good game (with caveats), just like DA:I was a good game with caveats. One thing that stood out to me was how, in many ways, this game is essentially a remake of Mass Effect 1: The overarching plotline, with its emphasis on finding new locations and trying to uncover the mysteries of the world (and stopping a bad guy on the way) feels very familiar here. Just like ME1, this game does a lot of buildup of greater scope arcs that will be resolved in future installments of the series.
What faults this game has lie mostly on the technical execution side of things (Another ME1 parallel!). Animations, as discussed. The engine stalling during loading screens, scripted events not firing correctly, NPCs being spawned very visibly in thin air, these are all things that can and will happen here. Oh, and this game also is wildly inconsistent in its performance, so much so that VSync is basically unusable on my machine (Framerates will flutter between anything from 20-something to 60 without apparent cause; this causes noticeable hitching and stuttering all over the place). Disabling it means I am in for the worst tearing imaginable in places, the transitional animation for going between star systems is a particularly egregious offender that is basically unwatchable without inviting severe eye strain.
Design-wise, this game feels old-fashioned in ways that it really didn't need to be. The game has an inventory and crafting system, for no particular reason other than to have one, it has a credits-based economy because apparently a colony in its founding stages really does need free-market capitalism in order to allocate its resources, there are transitional animations between places that take around 20 seconds to run each time, the worlds are filled with quests that consistently fail to provide a good reason why the player character has to do them and noone else.... These are all things that, when comparing this game with more recent titles (like Horizon Zero Dawn or Witcher 3), stand out as Bioware Montreal just being sort of careless. Where HZD, for example, is a culmination of best practices in open world game design, MEA feels as if someone just took the design docs for ME1, made a few random alterations, and called it good without understanding why ME1 hasn't aged all that well.
As to the writing: On a macro level, the writing is fine. The overall plot is decent enough, the progression of how you uncover mysteries is nicely paced out, and the companion quests are the usual Bioware fare (However, it should be obvious that, when comparing the MEA crew to Shep's Dirty Dozen, the MEA crew comes up feeling a bit flat, but I am going to call this a result of Shep's guys and gals getting three games to develop and these being new characters). It's on a sentence-by-sentence level that things occasionally break down and where a bit more editing is needed; That arguably the worst line in the game is uttered in a conversation you can't not have that happens very early into the game's run is probably doing a lot to sour impressions here. Overall, it's quite decent.
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You've finished the campaign already? How many hours did it take?
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I am about 40 hours in.
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AAA Animators, including Volition's Tim Borelli, discuss the Mass Effect: Andromeda animation problem (http://www.animstate.com/round-table-mass-effect-andromeda/)
Interesting read.
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AAA Animators, including Volition's Tim Borelli, discuss the Mass Effect: Andromeda animation problem (http://www.animstate.com/round-table-mass-effect-andromeda/)
Interesting read.
Indeed so
Educational
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It really reads like they're dancing around the obvious white elephant of "the animation team was incredibly overworked and rushed and, inevitably, churned out ****", though.
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I'd agree that it's highly likely the animation team was overworked but most of the animations I've seen probably worked fine when they were originally authored but algorithmic interpolation between animation playbacks are likely the culprit of most of the walking and movement glitches. Some of the weird face expressions like Sara's grimace/yawn thing are squarely on the animators. It also wouldn't surprise me to hear that Andromeda was not actually in development for the five years between ME3 and its release.
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Well, aside from having to re-learn how to dodge because space no longer does it all, the multiplayer is just as fun as ME3 and it feels weird to be so underpowered again. Also, vanguard is playable off-host. Very playable.
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So here's a thing that I completely like about MEA's writing. In previous Mass Effects, going into a relationship with one of your companions always had a tinge of abusing power dynamics, with Shepard explicitly being the commanding officer of the group. By making the Pathfinder team an explicitly civilian thing, they've removed a lot of friction from this dynamic. Ryder and her crew are a lot more like equals, a lot more believable as a group of friends than Shep's group was, and I for one really appreciate it.
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Wow ... some people really don't like those facial animations: https://www.themarysue.com/trolls-mass-effect-andromeda/ :nervous:
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Mary Sue is full of ****. Why does anyone still read that rag is beyond my comprehension. Bioware's note was about Manveer Heir, not the animator.
But yeah, there was a small contingent of trolls and morons overall that did go way over board against the animator in question. People do care about Mass Effect and a small percentage of people take that caring into a preposterous clinically diagnosable level of hatred whenever they feel things don't sway as they expect.
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Not how I'd have put it, but yes, sites that wear their politics on a sleeve like The Mary Sue does prioritize agenda over facts every time, and are intrinsically prone to falsehood and hyperbole. It would not be an exaggeration to assume political writers are liars until proven otherwise.
Regardless on who gets the blame in the end, the facts remain the same. The animations are objectively garbage when compared with contemporary competitors, and a lot of reviewers are pussyfooting around the elephant in the room.
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Mary Sue is full of ****. Why does anyone still read that rag is beyond my comprehension. Bioware's note was about Manveer Heir, not the animator.
Regardless of what you may think of the Mary Sue, several outlets (including Kotaku, Polygon, Game Informer and PC Gamer) have indeed stated that Bioware's statement was about the animator and not about Manveer. I'd be surprised if this somehow doesn't turn out to be true considering that Bioware has not issued either a correction or addendum or have informed atleast one of these outlets. Or that, from a cursory glance at his twitter account, Manveer Heir doesn't appear to be even near the world-of-hurt that aforementioned animator is.
Yeah no the statement is defintely about the animator.
The animations are objectively garbage when compared with contemporary competitors, and a lot of reviewers are pussyfooting around the elephant in the room.
Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, Polygon, and PC Gamer all mentioned the issues with the animations. I am not sure what you mean with "Pussyfooting around the elephant in the room" in that sense, unless Mass Effect Andromeda has a stealth mission in which you have to avoid an elcor.
Regardless, yeah, the usual pattern of "Single out some woman and then blame her for everything wrong with a less popular Bioware game" has been around for Dragon Age 2 at the latest. Apperently, harassing random people over the internet is the only way some people can contribute to society :doubt:
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Mary Sue is full of ****. Why does anyone still read that rag is beyond my comprehension. Bioware's note was about Manveer Heir, not the animator.
But yeah, there was a small contingent of trolls and morons overall that did go way over board against the animator in question. People do care about Mass Effect and a small percentage of people take that caring into a preposterous clinically diagnosable level of hatred whenever they feel things don't sway as they expect.
Look ... the story is on several outlets. Mary Sue was just one of the first ones that popped up on a google search over the issue.
So by all means, go vent about Mary Sue all you want, but the mere fact that Mary Sue *also* reported about this, has no relevance to the actual topic.
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Now there's an ugly conundrum. I don't really like this whole sexist angle one way or the other. On the one hand, it just seems like one big distraction from the real quality issues, something that is meant to bog down discussion with an endless recurrence of feminist/counterfeminist talking points that won't go anywhere. On the other hand, the data says the blame game is a real thing, and everyone involved seems to prefer pinning all that went wrong on a single scapegoat rather than admit collective failure.
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Mary Sue is full of ****. Why does anyone still read that rag is beyond my comprehension. Bioware's note was about Manveer Heir, not the animator.
Regardless of what you may think of the Mary Sue, several outlets (including Kotaku, Polygon, Game Informer and PC Gamer) have indeed stated that Bioware's statement was about the animator and not about Manveer. I'd be surprised if this somehow doesn't turn out to be true considering that Bioware has not issued either a correction or addendum or have informed atleast one of these outlets. Or that, from a cursory glance at his twitter account, Manveer Heir doesn't appear to be even near the world-of-hurt that aforementioned animator is.
The statement is about Manveer, unless you want to imply the animator was lying through her teeth when she said she was a lead team member.
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Now there's an ugly conundrum. I don't really like this whole sexist angle one way or the other. On the one hand, it just seems like one big distraction from the real quality issues, something that is meant to bog down discussion with an endless recurrence of feminist/counterfeminist talking points that won't go anywhere. On the other hand, the data says the blame game is a real thing, and everyone involved seems to prefer pinning all that went wrong on a single scapegoat rather than admit collective failure.
I am not sure how this is a "on one hand, on the other hand" thing, or even a conondrum. Both of the things you mentioned are negatives. They are not mutually exclusive either.
The statement is about Manveer, unless you want to imply the animator was lying through her teeth when she said she was a lead team member.
It really doesn't appear to be that way! (https://twitter.com/AarynFlynn/status/843199849273135109) I am not sure what Manveer has to do with any of this anyway...
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The statement is about Manveer, unless you want to imply the animator was lying through her teeth when she said she was a lead team member.
It really doesn't appear to be that way! (https://twitter.com/AarynFlynn/status/843199849273135109) I am not sure what Manveer has to do with any of this anyway...
I know this doesn't align with your worldview, but devs that aren't women are also cause of controversy. Maddening, I know.
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The statement is about Manveer, unless you want to imply the animator was lying through her teeth when she said she was a lead team member.
It really doesn't appear to be that way! (https://twitter.com/AarynFlynn/status/843199849273135109) I am not sure what Manveer has to do with any of this anyway...
I know this doesn't align with your worldview, but devs that aren't women are also cause of controversy. Maddening, I know.
I am not sure how you came to that conclusion about my worldview, but if someone who made a statement specifically makes a statement that states that he is not going to make a statement about a controversial person, I take it that the statement at the start fo this sentence is in fact not about that controversial person.
This is all getting a bit too much work for a simple correction though.
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Regardless, yeah, the usual pattern of "Single out some woman and then blame her for everything wrong with a less popular Bioware game" has been around for Dragon Age 2 at the latest. Apperently, harassing random people over the internet is the only way some people can contribute to society :doubt:
Also, I wasn't aware that their GM saying he's not going to address comments by Manveer is related at all with the Bioware account saying a dev was misidentified as a lead dev.
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Also, I wasn't aware that their GM saying he's not going to address comments by Manveer is related at all with the Bioware account saying a dev was misidentified as a lead dev.
Then read the statement again! (https://twitter.com/bioware/status/843190432033005568)
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Also, I wasn't aware that their GM saying he's not going to address comments by Manveer is related at all with the Bioware account saying a dev was misidentified as a lead dev.
Then read the statement again! (https://twitter.com/bioware/status/843190432033005568)
Fine, let's parse through their statements:
Question: Are you going to address comments by @manveerheir??
Answer: No, but Manveer is no longer with BioWare (see his Twitter bio)
Statement: Recently, a former EA employee was misidentified as a lead member of the Mass Effect: Andromeda development team. These reports are false.
Yep, totally oposite staments. Like, him saying Manveer no longer works at bioware is totally at odds with him saying the dev no longer works at EA.
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Okayyy. This isn't going anywhere.
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I have no idea what the **** any of you are even arguing about, but cut it out.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KWkao73HuU
astounding
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bwahahaha
move over, axem/ironbeer/goober, BIOWARE is here
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femryder looks stoned in every damn scene
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femryder looks stoned in every damn scene
Perhaps that's part of appealing to the "younger audience"? :shaking:
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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:
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 :P
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.
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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 :P
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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 .
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In my mind there's currently a circle with a few post options. On the left it says "Investigate".
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Eurogamer is talking about facial animations (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-28-mass-effect-andromeda-and-why-facial-animation-is-really-hard).
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Patch 1.06 dropped today.
By most accounts, a major and overdue fix for multiplayer in particular.
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http://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-montreal-downsized-mass-effect-put-on-1795100285
BW Montreal is dead. Mass Effect is in the freezer.
Thanks, EA.
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I really, really want to read the post mortem for this game.
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They thought they could break in a new studio with a franchise title which was guaranteed to sell well, I suppose.
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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.
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So the verdict is EA killed Bioware finally?
Well surprise ... took a bit longer than all the other studies they killed before Bioware though. :nervous: :doubt:
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This is just Bioware Montreal, the Bioware studio we know as "Bioware" is Bioware-Edmonton.
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So the verdict is EA killed Bioware finally?
Well surprise ... took a bit longer than all the other studies they killed before Bioware though. :nervous: :doubt:
why, why is it so hard to just click the link and read it
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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.
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Is this game worth it to buy on the Origin sale? Or did they botch it up?
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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.
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You cannot be serious here. I've never seen so much bad dialogue from Bioware before. I've never had to shut my ears and overall brain so much in all conversations as I do with this game. I have to suffer the conversations because I fear I might lose some important information, but the price is to actually be there and listen to pure painful written **** that some human actually thought passed as "actual conversations".
Mass Effect 1 had very bland characters, but they never felt wrong. Their tone was right, their dialogue was adult. I remember being very curious about all the characters despite their somewhat blandness. I would look forward to know them and what made them tick, what world was this that was being shown to me. In ME:A I just look forward to any random convo to end and lemme tell you how I long for the "kill banter talk" button to arrive to the game in some patch. ****ing hell.
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:shrug:
I am actually serious. I like the new crew, and I think Bioware was successful in what they were going for with them.
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The only guy who I thought was taking his role seriously was Ryderfather. Almost everyone else, especially your crew, sound exactly like the Teen Titans that my kids sometimes force me to listen in the background while I play the game. The only tell they are from different shows is the language bit.
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I've only played SP a far as the Nexus and found some of the dialogue good, most medicore, and some truly awful.
That said, after the patches the MP is now a [balanced!] absolute blast, and the game is worth it (on sale) for that alone if you like CoOp. HLP_MP-Ryan on Origin.
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:bump:
I've been playing this game for the last few weeks and am about halfway through the SP. Some thoughts:
The open world gameplay works well and is reminiscent of the Bethesda games, and the combat is more fun and less cover-oriented than the old ME games. The game becomes tedious outside combat though, especially with the lack of a speedup command that the Unreal engine had. The large number of "find 20 of this" side quests also contribute to this, although I have been ignoring many of them. You can't control the squadmate powers anymore, so they fade into the background during fights and I stopped caring much about up-skilling them. All the good equipment can only be obtained by crafting with augmentations, but it's difficult to figure out where to get certain materials and enough of all three types of research points. The game gives you a lot of room to experiment with crafting and it's easy to build overpowered items.
There are some mods people have made that are almost essential (Shut Up Sam, Shorter Landing Animations and a few others). Unfortunately there is no way to improve the horrible save system. Quicksave has been removed and Bioware arbitrarily decides you are not allowed to save in certain missions or areas, which is atrocious in an open world game like this. I like keeping savegames at key moments over the course of a game, and am copying the autosave files manually to do it. I didn't notice any obvious problems with the faces or animations, but I heard that was fixed in a patch.
I like the whole "exploring the unknown" instead of "saving the galaxy" vibe of the story, but the main quest moves slowly and has never really picked up my interest. The dialogue is just...boring. It's not exactly bad but very generic, and it's rare to hear anyone say something that you would remember a minute later, particularly from Ryder. Nobody seems to have a personality except for a few of your squadmates. This is a big step down from the old games, when I would often reload savegames to see what the other conversation choices were. I prefer the new logical/emotional/etc. options though instead of paragon/renegade, which often became binary and artificial. The Milky Way races seem watered down and are basically just humans, more so than in the old games. The krogans, salarians, etc. don't really behave in character, and I think they could have replaced them all with humans and the story would be identical. The new angara feel more like the old races did in the previous games, and have a well developed backstory. The kett are less interesting and have weak motivations, and their leader is like a comic book villain.
On the whole I still like it so far, despite all the issues. I'm finding that just exploring the environments and universe (like datapads and emails) is more interesting than the dialogue and many of the actual quests.
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and their leader is like a comic book villain.
That's because he is Julius Caesar ;)
Seriously some of the Kett codex entries read like they are barely re-tooled accounts of roman historians, esspecially those close to the Principate ... There is even one which is basically the official Julian-Claudian narrative for the why Caesar started the his civil war against Rome...
... and of course depending on your choices there is a "Et tu, Brute?"-moment - because they weren't using Shakespare enought already