[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Edge-]

Oh my, I smell more forced online integration that no one needs..

As long as it doesn't require multiplayer like ME3 did, I'm alright with that. Only managed to ever get into one partial round in ME3, so I never had the synthesis option (hahaha, as if it's any different) for the ending despite having cleared out all the side missions I could find.

If you can do it solo or ignore it entirely and not miss out on anything, that's fine by me.

[Cosmic Janitor]

As long as it doesn't require multiplayer like ME3 did, I'm alright with that. Only managed to ever get into one partial round in ME3, so I never had the synthesis option (hahaha, as if it's any different) for the ending despite having cleared out all the side missions I could find.

If you can do it solo or ignore it entirely and not miss out on anything, that's fine by me.

I just cheated the shit out of the game to ignore the mulitplayer garbage. As long as that is possible and they don't fuck up the gameplay with it I don't mind.

Not that it was worth the "effort" for another color option though .

[Mellomania]

As long as it doesn't require multiplayer like ME3 did, I'm alright with that. Only managed to ever get into one partial round in ME3, so I never had the synthesis option (hahaha, as if it's any different) for the ending despite having cleared out all the side missions I could find.

If you can do it solo or ignore it entirely and not miss out on anything, that's fine by me.

You fucked up somewhere then, or just took the wrong choices as you could get synthesis without doing MP.

[Deleted]

That's true, Synthesis is not the perfect ending though and he could still get it even without MP.

[Cattleya]

Yeah, only the secret ending after destruction was locked behind MP at the start, synthesis you could get with only single player all along.

[Nazrark]

Synthesis required a different set of circumstances to happen. With the EC. Everything was attainable.

[Nerraw]

As long as it doesn't require multiplayer like ME3 did, I'm alright with that. Only managed to ever get into one partial round in ME3, so I never had the synthesis option (hahaha, as if it's any different) for the ending despite having cleared out all the side missions I could find.

If you can do it solo or ignore it entirely and not miss out on anything, that's fine by me.

They lowered the requirements in a later patch so you didn't need MP anymore.

[rhorle]

An in-game glitch? Oh noes!Compared to BioWare literally releasing a marketing video with a "bug" in it that should have been caught upon the first review of the recorded footage before they even had a rough cut of the trailer in place. Are we going to compare more completely unrelated things?

So no one is asking for perfection, yet you are here. Its okay for a released game to have a glitch with animations/stuff but an in-development game can't have one and must be perfect even though you earlier said no one is asking for perfection. If it is unrelated then why do you keep praising BF1 as having the kind of stuff Andromeda should be while dismissing any problems with your pedestal.

The problem is you are biased. You are blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. They have admitted there was a problem. They have said that specific problem from the marketing video will be fixed, and have even acknowledged that it has become a lightning rod for negativity. What more can you ask from a game studio? It sure seems like you are asking for perfection.

Every game has some sort of animation issue or other glitch. It really isn't that big of a deal. A game doesn't have to be perfect in order for it to be a good game, or even a great one. There have been plenty of games with wonderful animations that were terrible games. Because in the end game play doesn't come down to animations and Bioware does far from a "dog shit" job on them as a whole. Could they be better? Sure. Is it really as big of a deal as you seem to taking it? No.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh my, I smell more forced online integration that no one needs..

That isn't what I got from the article. It sounds more like they are connecting the story of Multiplayer to that of the single player story. All optional locations/rewards/etc but something that can influence or be done in a seamless transition from single player. As the article says though we will likely here more about it by the end of January.

[Edge-]

So no one is asking for perfection, yet you are here.

I'm asking for animations on-par with other AAA games. I guess you think they're all perfect then, I guess?

Its okay for a released game to have a glitch with animations/stuff but an in-development game can't have one and must be perfect even though you earlier said no one is asking for perfection.

That's not a player animation glitch, and you're continuing to conflate two entirely unrelated issues. Seriously, the bug you presented and the "bug" in the trailer are two completely different things that can't be compared. Doubly so when you consider that BioWare had plenty of time to catch the "bug" in the trailer and replace the footage, but apparently thought, "Nah, it's fine!"

Yes, I expect marketing trailers for AAA games to be bug-free. Because they are 99.9% of the time. I wouldn't think that's a very high bar to set. I mean, I've worked on trailers for small games that we've sent back to re-record/cut sections of footage because of smaller issues than this.

If it is unrelated then why do you keep praising BF1 as having the kind of stuff Andromeda should be while dismissing any problems with your pedestal.

They're built on the same tech (Frostbite), so I'm comparing what the tech has shown to be capable of vs. what is being shown in the trailers for ME:A. Do I expect similar bugs to randomly occur after ME:A is live? You bet. Those kinds of graphical glitches happen in AAA games from time to time.

But they don't occur in marketing trailers for AAA games, again, is my point.

The problem is you are biased. You are blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. They have admitted there was a problem.They have said that specific problem from the marketing video will be fixed, and have even acknowledged that it has become a lightning rod for negativity. What more can you ask from a game studio? It sure seems like you are asking for perfection.

They've called it a "bug", but only after they tried to say that it was an issue of "polish" that would be fixed before launch. So they're on their second "excuse" now.

And given how shit poor animations have been throughout the series (see the video linked earlier with the hilariously awful running animations in ME3), it's absolutely a reasonable concern/criticism. If they had stellar animation work in the prior games, I wouldn't be worried about it. But they don't.

If it doesn't bother you, or others, that's great. If you enjoy the game, that's fantastic. But for others, myself included, that's a pretty significant issue. Different opinions and all that jazz.

[May90]

I don't think this holds any truth. If it works for Uncharted/ MGS:TPP etc. why not for RPGs. You make it sound as if it's any different to talk to a NPC in an RPG compared to the NPCs in the other games, all of them are generic characters and if they are featured in cutscenes, they should get some work.
3xA games

It is one thing to have a set of pre-rendered/pre-made cutscenes, with few player choices, with preset camera positions. It's another entirely to make dozens hours worth of cinematic elements, in which the player can react differently countless times throughout just one cinematic, which sometimes can be triggered by talking to some NPC at random place. Not to mention the variety of character appearances the player can make, the companions he/she has with them... There is just no comparison in complexity between a story-based dialogue-heavy RPG, and an adventure game like Uncharted.

I would be surprised if cutscenes in Uncharted weren't smoother and more polished than in Mass Effect or Dragon Age. It would mean that Bioware designers have done an almost impossible job in comparison. Look at Witcher games, similar to Bioware games cutscene-wise - you will see the same thing, minor flaws and sometimes awkward camera positions, creepy faces at times and so on. Even despite the character cast being pretty much independent of the player, and the main character having fixed appearance!

Then look at a Battlefield 3 campaign. Sure, cinematics look almost like real movies. But, they are essentially pre-rendered, there is no choice to be made, etc. To demand this level of cutscenes from a dialogue-heavy story-based RPG is to be very detached from the current technological stage.

You fucked up somewhere then, or just took the wrong choices as you could get synthesis without doing MP.

You couldn't in Vanilla. You needed, if I remember correctly, 4000 points, and you couldn't get more than 3500 or so, pretty much, no matter what choices you made. On my first walkthrough, I had to use a save editor and manually set a higher number of points to get the "best" ending.

It was fixed in Director Cut, or before that, don't remember now for certain.

[Matt0193]

In order to get the perfect endings when the game was released you had to do some MP, no matter your choices it wouldn't be enough =/
They changed that after some patches later on ~

Currently, you'd only need the DLC if you're using the original cut (Can get between 8400-8900 comfortably with all DLCs, all side quests, all collectables and reasonable choices) to get High Red ending.

With the Extended cut you only need 3600 EMS, down from 4200 (I think that's what High Red used to be?). Attainable with almost any configuration of forces unless you decided to save Wrex in ME1 and don't cure the Genophage, which results in a net loss of some 400-500 Assets (Something ridiculous, I remember that much). Avoidable with the Leviathan DLC as you can use the Dr's house to go back to the ship rather than returning to the Dock where you have an encounter and lose your assets.

Alternatively, you can get High Red with as little as 3400 assets by using the Galaxy at War web app they added which lets you reach and maintain around 100% readiness. That means you could literally fuck up your galaxy and still get the highest ending.

[rhorle]

They've called it a "bug", but only after they tried to say that it was an issue of "polish" that would be fixed before launch. So they're on their second "excuse" now.

Or the bug was to deal with it not being polished and it would have been fixed prior to release? You are inventing arguments to continue to hate on the game. Because they said polish and then a bug it means they lied and have a second excuse. That is only what someone that needs to fish for a reason to justify hate would say.

Never happens in AAA game trailers? http://www.craveonline.com/site/8639...honest-trailer Again you keep inventing arguments to justify your hatred and bias for Bioware and Andromeda. You keep blowing this way out of proportion and fixating on specific things in order to justify it to yourself. AAA game makers are just as prone to having issues in trailers, marketing material, and anything else as any other game devs. Because stuff happens or you don't want to spend the time and resources on a trailer when you can focus it on other aspects that are more important then a bad facial.

Graphical glitches happen in AAA games from time to time. But there can't be graphical glitches, or other problems in an in-development tittle using the same engine. Great. A double standard. Yes the running has been terrible but the rest over all really hasn't been that bad. You keep hyper focusing on a few things and labeling it "shit. The fact that they don't have a stellar animation record means that you really shouldn't worry about it now. Because they are not doing any worse but they are not doing any better. You are making a big deal about something just because you can. Which really isn't a good reason at all.

- - - Updated - - -

You couldn't in Vanilla. You needed, if I remember correctly, 4000 points, and you couldn't get more than 3500 or so, pretty much, no matter what choices you made. On my first walkthrough, I had to use a save editor and manually set a higher number of points to get the "best" ending. It was fixed in Director Cut, or before that, don't remember now for certain.

https://levelskip.com/rpgs/Mass-Effe...ination-Theory

That article has values for the pre-EC changes. The "best" ending was always labeled as the one with the N7 armor breathing. That ending was only possible with 5000+ EMS. Synthesis could be obtained without multiplayer. The only ending that couldn't was Destroy-Alive. That was changed with the Extended Cut.

[May90]

Well, I think criticism of a bug in an official trailer is valid; the official trailer is supposed to be very polished, contain only the best scenes possible to find in game. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed with their excuse; it would be better if they just said that they are still working actively on the game and we shouldn't be worried that everything will look in the final game as it does now. The "bug" excuse is pretty lame.

That said, like rhorle mentioned, this happens all the time with other games, and not only games, but also movies, various advertisements... To say that one facial animation being below the expected level means the animators are not qualified enough is to decide to live in some idealistic world where people aren't supposed to ever make mistakes.

https://levelskip.com/rpgs/Mass-Effe...ination-Theory

That article has values for the pre-EC changes. The "best" ending was always labeled as the one with the N7 armor breathing. That ending was only possible with 5000+ EMS. Synthesis could be obtained without multiplayer. The only ending that couldn't was Destroy-Alive. That was changed with the Extended Cut.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, as far as I remember, you could only get Synthesis ending without playing MP and without editing any files manually if you decided to save the Collector base at the end of ME2, plus a few other controversial major decisions.

[Chickat]

Is it necessary for me to play Mass Effect 1 to understand the story? I've heard 2 and 3 are much better.

[Edge-]

Is it necessary for me to play Mass Effect 1 to understand the story? I've heard 2 and 3 are much better.

Story, no. This is a brand new storyline, though I'm not sure if it will reference events from earlier games or not.

But it will add a huge amount of context/backstory to the universe, as I'm not sure how much of that Andromeda will retread for folks new to the franchise.

[May90]

Story, no. This is a brand new storyline, though I'm not sure if it will reference events from earlier games or not.

But it will add a huge amount of context/backstory to the universe, as I'm not sure how much of that Andromeda will retread for folks new to the franchise.

This. If you aren't planning to play 2 and 3 and want to hop right into Andromeda, I'd say it is not necessary, and you probably can get away with just reading a short lore and story summary. If you are planning to play 2/3 as well though, I would definitely start with 1, because otherwise you won't understand countless references and jokes.

ME1 is great as well, just the combat is a bit wonky, and a lot of copy-pasting is involved. If you can live with that, then it is a stellar game and definitely worth playing.

[pateuvasiliu]

They'll probably have easter eggs and references to the main trilogy.

I'd play ME1-3 if I were you, ME1 might be a bit rougher on the eyes but the trilogy is top class RPG.

[GennGreymane]

I am personally lookin forward to this game. Honestly I just hope its good. I heard there were lots of development issues, firings, etc.

[Aeula]

As long as it doesn't require multiplayer like ME3 did, I'm alright with that. Only managed to ever get into one partial round in ME3, so I never had the synthesis option (hahaha, as if it's any different) for the ending despite having cleared out all the side missions I could find.

If you can do it solo or ignore it entirely and not miss out on anything, that's fine by me.

There's a website you can use that increases your galactic readiness % through Facebook/WoD's Garrison esque 'missions'. I personally used that over multiplayer in ME3.

Anyway I've yet to see Bioware do 'good' multiplayer. Hopefully it's like it was in dragon age inquisition so I can ignore it.

[I Push Buttons]

I am personally lookin forward to this game. Honestly I just hope its good. I heard there were lots of development issues, firings, etc.

Any links? I don't remember ever hearing of anyone getting fired or any development issues, beyond one senior dev leaving to take a more senior role at another studio.