[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[MonsieuRoberts]

Before I say my opinion upon the matters, are spoilers okey or not for this thread? Just want to make sure.
Also, if I am to make that cool black cover thing over a text to prevent spoilers to be seen .. how do I do that?
Thanks on before hand!

Use the Spoiler tag if you want to discuss spoilers. Quote me to see how it's done. No one will throw a hissy fit if you follow that simple rule.

[rhorle]

This is complete bullshit.

You do realize the person I quoted said any sequel they make will be hated because of the first one. That isn't bullshit at all. Nor did anything I say talk about generation having bad IP's and not bringing any new ones. I don't even know what triggered you but it wasn't anything I said. So relax.

- - - Updated - - -

Indeed... All those other recent high budget games that got absolutely shit on...

None of those games you listed are sequels to bad games. Do people not understand context or actually read posts before responding?

[OverFanNisseFrasse]

Use the Spoiler tag if you want to discuss spoilers. Quote me to see how it's done. No one will throw a hissy fit if you follow that simple rule.

Aahh! Very nice! Thank you so much!

As for the Mass Effect Andromeda, I havn't actually played it yet, so I don't know much storywise how it will proceeded through the game. I have a hunch due to looking at content, minor spoilers and gameplay. But I am not aware of everything so there might be explanation of how and why certain things are in Mass Effect Andromeda.

But there is one thing that bothers me so much after looking at the game and their awesome concept artbook. And that is Andromeda alienraces you interact with.(In before blackwall of death!)

The Kett and the Angara, what bothers me so much is that they hade so much potential with making competely utterly freakish aliens that would be inhabitant the andromeda galaxy. But both of them just look like humans with a little more wierder features, it reminds me of old Star Trek(Nothing bad with Star Trek seriers, I just don't like their way of making aliens, then again, makeup and graphic back then wasn't the greatest, so I give them that). The Vulcans that are humans with pointy ears(Space elves?!), and Klingons are humans with boneplate forhead and black long hair .. ?

The Kett looks like a human and a Collector hade a child. While the Angara looks like neanderthal version of an Asari, and Asari already looks like humans. (And no, I will not accept bachelor party from that mass effect 2, I just think it's silly.) What does bother me is that they hade so much potential to make new wierd awsome cool looking alien races, but fall back to make "hooman-ish" aliens insteed. When I look into the artbook there are concept art of different versions of Kett, that looks far more alien compared to the game. Perhaps they falled back into more human looking features in order to make relatable facial emotions(Hah! Good one~), but even then they could have savade ton of time to make an alien face, but with less facial animations, since it's so alien to us anyway. For Example: if say alien face/head would be that of a Bird, the face could at most only show expression through it's eyes, since it's beak are not bendable. This however could result with a muppet show and make it look rather silly. I am not an expert at the subject so I am not entirely sure what could be done better.

Down to it all, it bugs me so much that our own Milky Way Aliens, looks more alien(Not Asaris or Drell), then the Andromeda Alien does. Ofcourse there is this thoery which I am now very uncertain of, someone correct me if I am wrong on it. That bipedal evolution is the most logical evolution? Two arms and Two Legs and so on, which I am fine with, but even then they should look more alien, such as Turian, Krogan and Salarian, they all have a very diffrent anatomy and structure even when they walk on two legs. Funny side note: For some reason though they all have three fingers, three toes, and walk on their toes(ish?), but overall, they all look and feel very alien. And alot of other Milky Way Aliens are also very alien, Hanar and Elcor are great examples of such. Then ofcourse the are less with Asari and Drell, but they needed that Green(Blue) Sexy Alien Woman so-... yeha.

So beside the hilarious animations, the stiff faces, deathstares and such, I am most bothered with how their aliens looks like.

[dope_danny]

Tainted? Jeez dat dramatization…

Why do you think they set the game in another galaxy to begin with? They were avoiding the whole "RGB cupcakes" stuff of ME:3. It was a brand exercise reliant on selling the name but distancing itself from the last one by a literal galaxy worth of distance. A company is not your friend nor an artist as an entity. Its about the brand, the product and a brand well can quite easily be tainted. Just look at what Konami did with Silent Hill or Capcoms doing right now with the Infinity War advert that is the new MvC game.

You make the overwhelming word of mouth negative and the general "omg a paid streamer told me to git hype i need to prepurchase day one like the wise consumer they told me i am!" crowd go with the current and avoid future projects. Its absolutely possible for a brand to be tainted in the majoritys eye.

Trouble is this is EA and modern "AAA" its entirely reliant on being the summer blockbuster disposable trash where it sells gangbusters or its a failure and can't rely on the now 'niche' core audiences of gaming from before the 2007 "i watch big bang theory im such a nerd XDDDDDD" boom into the mainstream that accounts for so many "buy it day one and play for 4 hours and return in" crowd that AAA is utterly dependant on today.

It reminds me of the time a viral marketer posted info on 4chans /v/ like 8 years ago and said "the goal isn't to make people love your brand, only the mainstream falls for that. But you get people to hate your competition? everyone loves a good witchunt online nowadays and everyone bites that hook" and things like andromedas ridiculously bad animations at launch were all the fuel that fired needed.

To compare and contrast look at RE6. Horrid combat, story, music, design, structure and all around the worst game in the series. The sort you see someone oblivious to their own low standards enjoy once in a blue moon but for the majority the response is 'what a burning trash fire im so done with this series' and the kicker is RE6 was the best selling game in the series, but the brand well was so tainted by its trashy design and the word of mouth that followed they had to rip up the drawing board and make an entirely new one for RE7. Because the brand is years of potential sales, one game that sells well but kills the brand is killing all future sales and for Electronic Arts thats one more checklist for the criteria to meet for their standard "sell up all assets, fire most of the staff and cannibalise the rest for their own internal groups to spend their days making multiplayer content for shooter season passes".

If Cacpom -a company basically on monster hunter life support- said 'our only option is to risk everything and do a soft reboot of the brand' why would EA not do the same for what is effectively "taking that ff12 meets baldurs gate fantasy game we sold as a dating sim for the west and make it sci-fi"?

Its all about the brand in AAA and Mass Effect can be seen as salvageable, but 'Andromeda'? that wells good and poisoned at this point.

[Elim Garak]

Nothing bad with Star Trek seriers, I just don't like their way of making aliens, then again, makeup and graphic back then wasn't the greatest, so I give them that). The Vulcans that are humans with pointy ears(Space elves?!), and Klingons are humans with boneplate forhead and black long hair ..

There's a reasonable explanation about that in TNG. Not to mention there are non-humanoid aliens in Star Trek.

[Vankrys]

i bought this game 2 weeks ago for half price (amazing considering the game is 4 month old).

Current patch is 1.09 and as i understand, the vast majority of bug, graphical glitches and facial animation and textures have been corrected/improved.
I saw those facial animation at launch on youtube, they were horrible and would have definitely put me off had i played the game then, but in the current patch, i think they are pretty good.

I really am enjoying the game. Great gameplay, love the freedom of character building. It feels weird though that you can suddenly stop being biotic by reassigning your talent point with credits. I guess it's one of those case where gameplay trump realistic settings. I don't do wild respec to not break character, that's the way i chose to play.

Love the story thus far, i'm half way through the game (with 60 hours playtime no less), love the idea of exploring new galaxy, meeting new civilization. Excited to know what the remnant truly are and what the kett are after. It has a star trek, explore new galaxy, bodily go where no man has gone before kind of vibe. Slightly different than the impeding doom, save the galaxy of the original trilogy.

It's so stupid, STUPID of electronic arts to have released the game too early, unpolished and buggy. The game is fantastic, but you only get one chance to make a first impression. They spent 40 millions of dollars, went through a 5 years development cycle, and they couldn't wait 3 more month to polish the game and squash all the bugs?

If the game had launched today, i would have been a stellar hit, a game of the year contendent. EA lost tens of millions of dollars in sales just rushing the game out of the door too early, not to mention potentially killed the franchise. Only 3 month later, as the game is right now, it's a very solid mass effect game.

[Nazrark]

There's a reasonable explanation about that in TNG. Not to mention there are non-humanoid aliens in Star Trek.

Garak is entirely correct. The races of the Alpha Quadrant are extremely distant genetic relatives. From a precursor race that essentially seeded worlds with life. A sci fi trope where they were the only intelligent race in the galaxy and tried to make friends by creating life. Or at least manipulating worlds to have friends. That and the Iconians do not perceive time as everyone else does. The Tholians are crystalline and the Aquatic Xindi are quite massive. Not sure who else.

It is something that might be a large concern for us. Where we get into space and after an exhaustive search. Find out we are the only intelligent life and are ahead of the curve.

[OverFanNisseFrasse]

There's a reasonable explanation about that in TNG. Not to mention there are non-humanoid aliens in Star Trek.

Garak is entirely correct. The races of the Alpha Quadrant are extremely distant genetic relatives. From a precursor race that essentially seeded worlds with life. A sci fi trope where they were the only intelligent race in the galaxy and tried to make friends by creating life. Or at least manipulating worlds to have friends. That and the Iconians do not perceive time as everyone else does. The Tholians are crystalline and the Aquatic Xindi are quite massive. Not sure who else.

It is something that might be a large concern for us. Where we get into space and after an exhaustive search. Find out we are the only intelligent life and are ahead of the curve.

But it was added later to explain why so meny of them looks like humans? If I recall right, but I do accept that, it makes more sense then why so meny of them do indeed look alike each other and it also add more lore to it all as whole. I am not a Star Trek fan but I got a friend who are, I try follow up on him as much as possibal. And true, the are a non-humanoid aliens in Star Trek. So in the end, nothing bad with the Star Trek seriers as whole, I just don't like the theme that aliens pretty much look like humans.

And once again, Star Trek hade it's reasons and nothing bad with the seriers, the eras makeup and graphic, also added into the lore why so meny look like humans. So in the end it's all fine with Star Trek, but it ain't fine with Andromeda. Thats why I dislike what they have done to the aliens in the Andromeda, it's either 'caus of they are lazy to come up with alien features, or perhaps they wanted to make alot of facial animations for the aliens, or that we would relate to them easier by having a human-ish face, or perhaps some other reason completely? Regardless, I hade hoped that the aliens of Andromeda would actually be more alien.

[Edge-]

It's so stupid, STUPID of electronic arts to have released the game too early, unpolished and buggy. The game is fantastic, but you only get one chance to make a first impression. They spent 40 millions of dollars, went through a 5 years development cycle, and they couldn't wait 3 more month to polish the game and squash all the bugs?

When it had already taken that long/that much money, and they needed it out before the end of their fiscal year for their financials? Not really. This is squarely on BioWare, not EA. EA gave them more than enough time and money to make the game to proper AAA standard. BioWare just mismanaged the thing from top to bottom, and all the insider reports since the game launch confirm this.

Stop blaming EA. This is on BioWare.

[Valeron]

Stop blaming EA. This is on BioWare.

The only BioWare game that was EA's fault (or partly their fault) for a less than stellar reception was Dragon Age 2. All of the others I agree with you, BioWare's mismanagement has been a big issue.

With that said, I enjoyed ME:A despite the obvious faults

[I Push Buttons]

True, I really don’t see how is EA fault that Bioware decided to risk on a brand new IP while leaving their biggest one being handled by an understaffed support studio.

Given all the talk of internal conflicts and what not, it sounds like many at Bioware didn't want that at all.

It sounded like Edmonton just wanted to leave Mass Effect on the back burner while they worked on Anthem, but the hire ups had other plans.

[Vankrys]

When it had already taken that long/that much money, and they needed it out before the end of their fiscal year for their financials? Not really. This is squarely on BioWare, not EA. EA gave them more than enough time and money to make the game to proper AAA standard. BioWare just mismanaged the thing from top to bottom, and all the insider reports since the game launch confirm this.

Stop blaming EA. This is on BioWare.

ok perhaps bioware is to blame, but still, doesn't change the essence of what i tried to say. Why spending so much time and money creating a AAA game, and release it 95% done, unpolished and buggy. If you already had spend 5 years on a game, can't you delay the release 3 more month to fix the facial animation. That's all the game needed, just look at the great state the game is today.

They don't even have the excuse of releasing on time for christmas since the game was released in march. EA or bioware, no matter, i don't understand why they sabotage themselves like this.

[Lahis]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea.../1100-6445017/

They delayed it and EA stated that they would be willing to delay it even more...

I'm highly sceptical about that. Why would they rush out a game to top off the end of teh fiscal year if EA would have let them delay it?

[Edge-]

ok perhaps bioware is to blame, but still, doesn't change the essence of what i tried to say. Why spending so much time and money creating a AAA game, and release it 95% done, unpolished and buggy. If you already had spend 5 years on a game, can't you delay the release 3 more month to fix the facial animation. That's all the game needed, just look at the great state the game is today.

They don't even have the excuse of releasing on time for christmas since the game was released in march. EA or bioware, no matter, i don't understand why they sabotage themselves like this.

At what point does it stop, though? If developers had their way budgets would balloon out of control and deadlines would perpetually shift back, because they'd always want to take more time for polish, add more members to work on interesting new ideas/tech, expand the scope to make a bigger game etc.

Part of the reason publishers are there is to keep developers in check and "honest", to hold them to timelines and milestones, keep them on-budget (within reason, at least), and make sure that the product that's finally delivered has the best chance of being successful/profitable. Very often that means telling developers "no" when they ask for more time/budget on things, or getting on their ass because they're consistently missing milestones and are well behind schedule.

Would all that work have been done on those animations in those 3+ months? Probably not, actually. It clearly wasn't a priority for them yet, so why would it have suddenly become a priority during those 3 months without the loads of media/consumer criticism on that area, specifically? What makes you think they would have made considerable strides during that 3 month delay that hadn't already been made during the earlier public delays? Remember BioWare themselves were publicly talking up making their Spring 2017 release as late as December 2016, despite criticisms for animations in the trailers, which they said they were addressing -

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/...-release-date/
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/...ler-criticism/

But rest assured, it [the cutscene animations] will look great by the time we ship. And we’ll be sure to share more of the characters, stories, and cinematics before then.

Again, this is purely, 100% on BioWare. I'm happy to blame EA when they fuck up, like with Titanfall 1/2 (the first being a mistake as an Xbone/PC exclusive, the second having terrible launch timing). But I'm also not going to blanket blame them for shit where the fault clearly lays with one of their developers, rather than EA meddling or aggressively pushing a launch date with a shortened development timeline.

[Lahis]

This just gets better and better...



Fucking EA ;3

I don't see he issue here? Tal did amazing job on Andromeda and seems to be making good work on Anthem too.

If anything they should have brought him in earlier, but that might not have been possible due to his work at Naughty Dog.

[Edge-]

giving us some of those pathetic moments such as “mah face is tired”.

To be fair, that line also totally falls on the writers. Who the fuck actually wrote that line and thought "yup, that's how normal humans talk."

[rhorle]

To be fair, that line also totally falls on the writers. Who the fuck actually wrote that line and thought "yup, that's how normal humans talk."

Faces can look and feel tired. A google search shows that it is a common enough thing https://www.google.com/search?q=Tire...utf-8&oe=utf-8 Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it isn't normal or a thing. If your face is tired how else would you respond? Her job is to put a positive face on a hopeless situation. Wouldn't your face get tired of smiling all the time?

[Edge-]

Faces can look and feel tired. A google search shows that it is a common enough thing https://www.google.com/search?q=Tire...utf-8&oe=utf-8 Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it isn't normal or a thing. If your face is tired how else would you respond? Her job is to put a positive face on a hopeless situation. Wouldn't your face get tired of smiling all the time?

...really? You're using emoji's used to express someone being tired as proof that people say, "My face is tired." in normal conversations?

To the last bit, possibly, but there are a million better ways to express the sentiment that aren't as hilariously stupid.

[rhorle]

...really? You're using emoji's used to express someone being tired as proof that people say, "My face is tired." in normal conversations?To the last bit, possibly, but there are a million better ways to express the sentiment that aren't as hilariously stupid.

I'm guessing you've never had to work somewhere that required you to have certain facial expressions. Like greeting people with a smile for example. What if you got done working a 12 hour shift and your face is tired from smiling. How would you respond? All responses boil down to "my face is tired". Yes it is a basic and blunt response but it isn't anymore stupid then you for not understanding the phrase in the first place.

People that are despondent and tired are not known for saying the best things. Just look a few posts ago where you got triggered on something I didn't even say. People don't always respond in the best and brightest manner even at the best of times. Instead of viewing it from the players perspective view it from the characters perspective.

[I Push Buttons]

I'm guessing you've never had to work somewhere that required you to have certain facial expressions. Like greeting people with a smile for example. What if you got done working a 12 hour shift and your face is tired from smiling. How would you respond? All responses boil down to "my face is tired". Yes it is a basic and blunt response but it isn't anymore stupid then you for not understanding the phrase in the first place.

People that are despondent and tired are not known for saying the best things. Just look a few posts ago where you got triggered on something I didn't even say. People don't always respond in the best and brightest manner even at the best of times. Instead of viewing it from the players perspective view it from the characters perspective.

You are trying way to hard to defend that middle school tier garbage writing.