Mass Effect Megathread: He said "I should go." Do I sound like that? - Games

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51946178]Mass Effect 3's ending might've been shit, but the little moments with all your squad mates, and that very last level where you're [sp]storming the beam, and Harbinger kicks your ass[/sp] was incredible.[/QUOTE] When I recommend Mass Effect to people, I say play the first two games, then play three until you've done the three big things. [sp] Cured the genophage, finished the geth quarian conflict, and exhausted Javiks storyline. [/sp] After that you might as well drop the game and make up your own head canon, because almost everything else is fumbled at best, infuriating at worst. Those three storylines feel like they were penned in by Bioware around Mass Effect 2 development. Aside from minor issues, they felt pretty appropriate to the series. The banter in three was solid, but I felt it ran out pretty quick.

Anyone else expecting only two new species from the Andromeda Galaxy in this game? The ones they've shown thus far? Also occurred to me that it seems strange that none of the arks decided to bring any Vorcha, although i hope the krogan one did.

[QUOTE=death2sarge;51947152]Anyone else expecting only two new species from the Andromeda Galaxy in this game? The ones they've shown thus far? Also occurred to me that it seems strange that none of the arks decided to bring any Vorcha, although i hope the krogan one did.[/QUOTE] Vorcha are mostly considered vermin, though. I don't really see why the Initiative would have a demand for them (except for being expendable troops, but I think theu'd see them as being more problematic than anything). I feel like the angarans, kett, and I believe a third species has been mentioned but never shown; will be the only new combat capable species from Andromeda. The rest will possibly non-combatant species like the hanar or elcor. [QUOTE=fulgrim;51946459]Seems weird that they wouldn't include customisation for your squad after how fun gearing your guys up proved to be in DAI. [/QUOTE] Man, I'm a customization nut, I love trying to make my character and crew look like a badass team or have their outfits fit the environment in some way.

Yeah, it's pretty shit that they're not including any real squadmate customization, especially since ME3 had such a good system for that

I'll be honest, I don't care that much about outfit customization personally. But all these little niggles are very much making me worried about the thing that matters, story and characters.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2QBVDDG.jpg[/IMG] I hope modding for ME:A won't be too difficult. I want this to become a reality... and outfits for companions. Some of the loyalty outfits were a lot better than the default outfit, so I hope Bioware will be doing something about that. I don't actually care for Cora, it's just that her model is really... off-putting in my opinion.

[QUOTE=Zet;51947391][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2QBVDDG.jpg[/IMG] I hope modding for ME:A won't be too difficult. I want this to become a reality... and outfits for companions. Some of the loyalty outfits were a lot better than the default outfit, so I hope Bioware will be doing something about that. I don't actually care for Cora, it's just that her model is really... off-putting in my opinion.[/QUOTE] ITS NOT A PHASE MOM

The only explanation I can give about this bladant animation and pose errors and the questionable voice acting at times is that BioWare and EA are mainly counting on fans buying the game en masse just as a matter of principle, so they feel they can pull off stunts like these with impunity. And they may get away with it too.

I really want to buy this but I'm waiting for the preview before I make any decisions. All the animation bugs are a little off-putting

There are currently no plans for alternate outfit dlc. [url]https://twitter.com/tibermoon/status/840772614205390848[/url] This is honestly surprising. You would think EA would want as much dlc planned(and ready for day one) as possible.

I'm starting to get that feeling that Andromeda is being rushed like a child for school who woke up 7 minutes before the bus arrives. Everything is being rushed. No Beta, No time to make good faces, no time to clean up animations, not even for the trailers (Twisted arms, holding guns backwards), not even time for DLC of all things. It seems to me like they are determined come hell or high water to hit a Q1 street date no matter what the quality because EA needs a major release every quarter to make shareholders happy I really think it's going to turn out like ME3, where the Multiplayer, as bare bones as it is, is going to be the most fun

[QUOTE=fulgrim;51946459]Seems weird that they wouldn't include customisation for your squad after how fun gearing your guys up proved to be in DAI.[/QUOTE] Did you and I play different games? I absolutely HATED the way DAI did companion customization. The menus were bad, the customization was tedious. I ended up bringing the same dudes with me because FUCK regearing people. [editline]12th March 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=EliaMoroes;51947792]The only explanation I can give about this bladant animation and pose errors and the questionable voice acting at times is that BioWare[/QUOTE] ...has been doing this stuff since KOTOR, and has never really made a game that's 'polished,' when compared to most AAA titles of the time. Their games are usually pretty solid. Outside of Dragon Age 2, there haven't been any that I personally thought were worth skipping. Even Mass Effect 3's story for me was pretty good. As long as you pick The Only Good Ending [sp]MOUNTAIN DEW CODE RED[/sp], the game itself wraps up as if everything you're doing is concluding storylines. This game's writing, from the bits I've seen in Liam's loyalty mission, is pretty solid. The voice acting for people who count is pretty okay. The gameplay looks VERY fun. I really don't understand all the negativity. The animations are a bit janky, and some of the faces have that Real Doll aesthetic, but none of it really distracts (me) from what looks like a pretty good if not great game.

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51948069] ...has been doing this stuff since KOTOR, and has never really made a game that's 'polished,' when compared to most AAA titles of the time. Their games are usually pretty solid. Outside of Dragon Age 2, there haven't been any that I personally thought were worth skipping. Even Mass Effect 3's story for me was pretty good. As long as you pick The Only Good Ending [sp]MOUNTAIN DEW CODE RED[/sp], the game itself wraps up as if everything you're doing is concluding storylines. This game's writing, from the bits I've seen in Liam's loyalty mission, is pretty solid. The voice acting for people who count is pretty okay. The gameplay looks VERY fun. I really don't understand all the negativity. The animations are a bit janky, and some of the faces have that Real Doll aesthetic, but none of it really distracts (me) from what looks like a pretty good if not great game.[/QUOTE] I take the animation issues (among the other things) very seriously because: 1) Given this is a BioWare product, and supposing this is still a roleplaying videogame, I'll probably spend a large amount of time looking at cutscenes and talking to people, so if the animations aren't convincing (to use an euphemism) and break my immersion every time I look at them, as far as I'm concerned this is a serious, gamebreaking flaw 2) I gave them a free pass with Dragon Age: Inquisition because they were using a new engine and expanded the scope of the game considerably. But I can't give them yet another free pass if not only they refused to fix the animations, but actually managed to [I]worsen them[/I] Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age II will never be remembered as the greatest technical marvels of videogame history, but they managed to do their job pretty well, as in give you the feeling you were in a movie where you could interact with the characters and world almost flawlessly (at the time of its release, KotOR was even praised for its engine). When it comes to your opinion on the story, I can't go into detail, especially when it comes to what you said about Mass Effect 3. Suffice to say that the story behind loyalty missions may be exceptional, but they can't be a worthy substitute for the lack of a greater scope narrative, something that has been lacking since the first promotional materials were released

As a big Mass Effect fan, I don't like how ME: Andromeda looks so far. So many bad and terrible animations and other issues it's like they didn't even try. Like they were just "Oh alright guys let's make another Mass Effect game but don't try too hard we'll just cash in on the old series glory." Wanted to buy it as soon as it was out but after all this I think I'll wait.

It looks like they got completely different grades of people doing gameplay, and cutscenes and their animations. Like, you got the best of the best doing combat and "babby's first facial rig" drop-outs working the rest. So, basically they rehired the old animators.

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51948069]I really don't understand all the negativity. The animations are a bit janky, and some of the faces have that Real Doll aesthetic, but none of it really distracts (me) from what looks like a pretty good if not great game.[/QUOTE] Yes the game looks pretty but the facial animation detract from the faces, creating some sort of uncanny valley. It starts to get eerie and just takes you out of the experience. Not to mention the animations especially seen in promotions blatantly it gives me signs this game isn't polished at all. It's like sending a document with a lot of typos and grammar errors. Then there's also the fact you're going to have conversations throughout the game. It's plain unacceptable. Everything feels rushed like TheTalon said. I'm a fan of Mass Effect, I want this game to be good and probably have a better story but with all the first impressions, it doesn't give me confidence.

I think the big giveaway and red flag is Bioware said there will not be a beta (Which they had scheduled for a long time) because they felt it was polished enough that it wasn't required. This is what they said. But then you look at these trailers and see that it's still in rough shape. THE TRAILERS. There was also a little podcast and someone who played it said it crashed a lot, it had graphical flickering glitches, and cutscenes froze because dialogue that was supposed to come up didn't. [quote]Our team worked extremely hard building, testing, and balancing multiplayer, and we ultimately determined that a tech test would not be necessary.[/quote] Uh huh I'm sure it'll be an alright game overall, but it's going to have some major issues

Imagine if this game came out last December like originally planned

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51948069]Did you and I play different games? I absolutely HATED the way DAI did companion customization. The menus were bad, the customization was tedious. I ended up bringing the same dudes with me because FUCK regearing people.[/QUOTE] I think it's simply a matter of taste, I thoroughly enjoyed crafting gear for each follower, Micromanaging different teams so that the various fade-effects would complement eachother and then seeing it all pay off in combat was really satisfying for me- but I can totally understand how tedious it could be to have to work through it all if you aren't really into that aspect of the game and would prefer to just find powerful gear for everyone as you went along. That said, not having the option of even making cosmetic changes to the gear your team wears feels like something has been removed that was there in previous games.

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51948069]Did you and I play different games? I absolutely HATED the way DAI did companion customization. The menus were bad, the customization was tedious. I ended up bringing the same dudes with me because FUCK regearing people. [editline]12th March 2017[/editline] ...has been doing this stuff since KOTOR, and has never really made a game that's 'polished,' when compared to most AAA titles of the time. Their games are usually pretty solid. Outside of Dragon Age 2, there haven't been any that I personally thought were worth skipping. Even Mass Effect 3's story for me was pretty good. As long as you pick The Only Good Ending [sp]MOUNTAIN DEW CODE RED[/sp], the game itself wraps up as if everything you're doing is concluding storylines. This game's writing, from the bits I've seen in Liam's loyalty mission, is pretty solid. The voice acting for people who count is pretty okay. The gameplay looks VERY fun. I really don't understand all the negativity. The animations are a bit janky, and some of the faces have that Real Doll aesthetic, but none of it really distracts (me) from what looks like a pretty good if not great game.[/QUOTE] The whole Mass Effect series kinda stopped caring about what I cared about in ME1. So the series has a lot to make up for in my eyes. I really prefered the gameplay of ME 2 and 3, but they started having issues of scope relating to their stories and they failed utterly to handle that in a good way. Too many decisions were forgotten over the course of 3 games that were sold as being your choices, that the illusion finally fell apart. The ending was just "oh, they really stopped caring didn't they?"

[QUOTE=Zet;51947391][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2QBVDDG.jpg[/IMG] I hope modding for ME:A won't be too difficult. I want this to become a reality... and outfits for companions. Some of the loyalty outfits were a lot better than the default outfit, so I hope Bioware will be doing something about that. I don't actually care for Cora, it's just that her model is really... off-putting in my opinion.[/QUOTE] She looks like GoGo from Big Hero 6 [img]http://i.imgur.com/CwCgWVfl.png[/img]

Gogo is adorable, so not the worst thing in the world

[QUOTE=Zet;51947922]There are currently no plans for alternate outfit dlc. [url]https://twitter.com/tibermoon/status/840772614205390848[/url] This is honestly surprising. You would think EA would want as much dlc planned(and ready for day one) as possible.[/QUOTE] I guess no content is better than deliberately cut and repackaged as downloadable content

While its a questionable decision, I got to admit it doesn't really matter that much in the end. ME1 just had you equipping generic armors on squadmates simply to upgrade their stats. ME2 had recolors and then the DLC packs for a few characters. ME3 used the same system but actually provided meaningful alternative outfits. But in the end? I don't really care. Their outfits are meant to be the iconic look of the characters; and while some outfits would have been nice, its really just changing the cosmetic model of a squadmate. I don't really think its a deal breaker. As for the inability to change weapons, its very strange but yet again if their AI works well and they're useful I don't really care too much what weapon they use. Its one of those things that I'll miss but quickly get over.

I still don't feel like Mass Effect ever had a villain as cool or (almost) sympathetic as Saren.

I liked how the villains showed you the outcomes of some of the different endings. Saren believed in Synthesis, as he allowed Sovereign to implant him, but he still kept his mind (until Sovereign used him) TIM believed in Control, and he never seemed to not be in control of himself, at least. He could have been on the right track, but his personal intentions were evil Shepard swore to Destroy the Reapers in the first game

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51949756]I still don't feel like Mass Effect ever had a villain as cool or (almost) sympathetic as Saren.[/QUOTE] As much as I like Saren I don't think he was really used that well, we only interact with him about 4 times those conversations were basically: 'I don't really like you', 'You can't prove I killed that man', then a big gap followed by a cliche'd 'JOIN US' and 'you can't possibly stop me/ok i'll kill myself'. All other info comes from other sources, which is preferable to a text-dump, but meant he was away from the game most of the time, with you being told that the various enemies you were facing were connected to him in someway I still think that considering how he was one of the most respected Spectres it was surprisingly easy to have him disbared with a single piece of evidence taken from a enemy Geth. It would have been interesting to let us see how far his connections into the Citadel were if he managed to utilize other people to discredit Shepard's info again, but no, one audio recording and he flees. Maybe I was hoping too much for a repeat of court scene in Neverwinter 2 where you actually have to try your damnedest to actually win the argument

[QUOTE=Ridge;51949806]I liked how the villains showed you the outcomes of some of the different endings. Saren believed in Synthesis, as he allowed Sovereign to implant him, but he still kept his mind (until Sovereign used him) TIM believed in Control, and he never seemed to not be in control of himself, at least. He could have been on the right track, but his personal intentions were evil Shepard swore to Destroy the Reapers in the first game[/QUOTE] Saren lost control of his mind the moment he came into contact with sovereign also i'm pretty stoked to hear what the galaxy map track is in andromeda

[QUOTE=KaptonJack;51949756]I still don't feel like Mass Effect ever had a villain as cool or (almost) sympathetic as Saren.[/QUOTE] Well I mean, Harbinger looks cool, not remotely sympathetic, but still cool.

[QUOTE=Ridge;51949806]I liked how the villains showed you the outcomes of some of the different endings. Saren believed in Synthesis, as he allowed Sovereign to implant him, but he still kept his mind (until Sovereign used him) TIM believed in Control, and he never seemed to not be in control of himself, at least. He could have been on the right track, but his personal intentions were evil Shepard swore to Destroy the Reapers in the first game[/QUOTE] idk, synthesis and indoctrination aren't really the same process.