Mass Effect Megathread: "I'm sorry, my face is tired from dealing with everything." - Games

Lol damn, that is one fucked looking OP, poor thing.

New patch was released yesterday that greatly improved the multiplayer. [url]http://blog.bioware.com/2017/05/09/patch-1-06-combat-balance-updates/[/url]

Yeah but apperently the patch screwed up the UI for everyone using a resolution above 1080p..

The latest patch really improved cutscenes, shame that the game launched with inexcusably bad ones

Its crazy to think this patch and the last patch occurred so quickly after launch. I mean obviously the lukewarm reception lit a fire under their ass but it just makes me wonder. Why wasn't this the game's quality on release? I feel the game would fared much better if it released now instead of when it did. Probably would have gotten mid, maybe high 80s. But it also confuses me that after 4+ years, it wasn't already like this in the first place and we had to wait for two patches.

I tried playing multiplayer yesterday to see what the patch changed. I lost connection before I could even join a lobby so I went and played something else. :\

[QUOTE=doommarine23;52220040]Its crazy to think this patch and the last patch occurred so quickly after launch. I mean obviously the lukewarm reception lit a fire under their ass but it just makes me wonder. Why wasn't this the game's quality on release? I feel the game would fared much better if it released now instead of when it did. Probably would have gotten mid, maybe high 80s. But it also confuses me that after 4+ years, it wasn't already like this in the first place and we had to wait for two patches.[/QUOTE] Yeah it's a fucking joke really, like well done, you got me guys, now stop being annoying shits, I don't like these kinds of jokes. [editline]12th May 2017[/editline] They pushed hard for those memes.

I tried MP and it felt pretty good now, but it's probably a case of too little, too late.

[QUOTE=doommarine23;52220040]Its crazy to think this patch and the last patch occurred so quickly after launch. I mean obviously the lukewarm reception lit a fire under their ass but it just makes me wonder. Why wasn't this the game's quality on release? I feel the game would fared much better if it released now instead of when it did. Probably would have gotten mid, maybe high 80s. But it also confuses me that after 4+ years, it wasn't already like this in the first place and we had to wait for two patches.[/QUOTE] ... what? The patch took two fucking months to fix [I]database errors[/I], aka changing a numerical value to another numerical value; that is not even a kind of quick in the universe of frozen jello, and the previous "patch" was literally changing a specular map and taking the raw motion data from me3 and injecting it into the conversation engine, aka the "work" was already done [I]five years ago[/I]. Meanwhile CTD's still happen on every platform and the sound still cuts out on every platform and the state lag glitches are still there and good luck staying connected in MP for more than five minutes unless you host. Data Fixes in ME3 occurred [i]every week[/i] and code and console fixes occurred every six weeks.

[QUOTE=27X;52220929]... what? The patch took two fucking months to fix [I]database errors[/I], aka changing a numerical value to another numerical value; that is not even a kind of quick in the universe of frozen jello, and the previous "patch" was literally changing a specular map and taking the raw motion data from me3 and injecting it into the conversation engine, aka the "work" was already done [I]five years ago[/I]. Meanwhile CTD's still happen on every platform and the sound still cuts out on every platform and the state lag glitches are still there and good luck staying connected in MP for more than five minutes unless you host. Data Fixes in ME3 occurred [i]every week[/i] and code and console fixes occurred every six weeks.[/QUOTE] Honestly I'm just not sure what you're even trying to say and I feel perhaps I worded myself poorly and caused a misunderstanding? All I'm saying is that they released a few decently sized patches within the first 2 months of the game's life and it makes me wonder why they didn't just delay, or rather; why the game wasn't like this on launch. I mean hell, 1.05 was released 2 weeks after launch and included things that really should have been in the game like normal looking eyeballs on people and skipping ship travel. I'm just really not sure where you're pulling this stuff about the last patch being simply "specular map" data or any of this other craziness.

They did delay though. Game was supposed to come out in December. Wouldn't be surprised if they knew it still wasn't ready but EA or Bioware heads wouldn't let them delay it a 2nd time.

Wasn't there something about EA offering BioWare another 6 months, but they declined?

[QUOTE=doommarine23;52221280]Honestly I'm just not sure what you're even trying to say and I feel perhaps I worded myself poorly and caused a misunderstanding? All I'm saying is that they released a few decently sized patches within the first 2 months of the game's life and it makes me wonder why they didn't just delay, or rather; why the game wasn't like this on launch. I mean hell, 1.05 was released 2 weeks after launch and included things that really should have been in the game like normal looking eyeballs on people and skipping ship travel. I'm just really not sure where you're pulling this stuff about the last patch being simply "specular map" data or any of this other craziness.[/QUOTE] Because 1. ALL frostbite patches are enormous, and the face fix is literally just a specular and altered material map, the planet transition was coded to take that long on purpose because it's "cinematic", and the "cut scene fixes" are literally ME3 motion data already done, and 2. they thought what they released was [I]fine[/I], because they tested it with a focus group composed of people they cherrypicked from Cons and reddit, that only said nice things about them 24/7. Literally. Go watch Teawrex's pre-launch stream. The second patch has various code fixes and database updates and is the size it is because it has three MP kits with full voice, not because it's amazingly robust, two characters of which were supposed to be available on launch but [I]their power sets didn't and don't work[/I] so they delayed them (turian agent is supposed to have remote mines, not a flamethrower). The database fixes are quite literally different numbers than what was there before and different attribution files that are literally [I]megabits[/I] of code. bits. Instead of pushing the data and material fixes immediately and then waiting on console cert for mostly SP fixes, they delayed everything to release all at once, and in the meantime the one revenue stream they did have in MP revenue evaporated because people got tired of waiting for usable weapons that weren't the vanquisher and usable kits that weren't infiltrators, turians or melee asari. Meanwhile in the same time frame ME3 launched three MP maps, five kits, three of which were completely new races with at least one unique power, and 6 weapons, with weekly challenges to try to get 6 more weapons, and made weekly data-based bugfix and balance passes for both MP and SP. Also meanwhile Andromeda still crashes routinely, loses all sound routinely and is apparently incompatible with its own connection scheme, in addition to being region locked for MP, so the patch didn't even fix the important things it was supposed to.

So from how Andromeda's multiplayer is now vs ME3 multiplayer, is Andromeda's multiplayer good? Thinking less about how many races/species there are and more about balancing and gameplay. I've been thinking about picking the game up and a fair bit of time would go into MP, still trying to gauge how low I'm waiting for the price to go.

The multiplayer recently received a pretty huge balance patch, and they're still working on improving it. So; It's a works in progress but it's a lot of fun, imo.

[QUOTE=Gar;52236016]So from how Andromeda's multiplayer is now vs ME3 multiplayer, is Andromeda's multiplayer good? Thinking less about how many races/species there are and more about balancing and gameplay. I've been thinking about picking the game up and a fair bit of time would go into MP, still trying to gauge how low I'm waiting for the price to go.[/QUOTE] In my experience, no, it's not. All the matches soon end up becoming a tresure hunt or something where you must go around the whole map to find all the enemies you need to kill as they move around constantly on multiple levels, with little to zero team sinergy involved. Also, only some weapons and powers are truly viable on a good basis and you must milk a very grindy character progression system just to make a single character actually be worth something and a RNG gear unlock mechanism to gain additional characters who look like shit and don't have interesting abilities to begin with

I didn't read any of the books, but why do people hate Kai Leng so much? Other than, y'know, for who he murdered in ME3.

[QUOTE=Noob4life;52257884]I didn't read any of the books, but why do people hate Kai Leng so much? Other than, y'know, for who he murdered in ME3.[/QUOTE] I never read the books as well but to me he felt out of place as well as the phantoms. Suddenly space ninja's out of no where and he also looked rather silly to me with his visor.

[QUOTE=Noob4life;52257884]I didn't read any of the books, but why do people hate Kai Leng so much? Other than, y'know, for who he murdered in ME3.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE] Then, having placed a wireless tap under the comm console, he was done. Or should have been done. But Leng was something of an adrenaline junkie and enjoyed being where he was.That’s why he checked the cupboards, located some cereal, and had breakfast before putting everything back exactly as it had been. It was his apartment now, a place where everything that happened would be known to him, and to Cerberus. The thought pleased him and Leng was still smiling as he left.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Noob4life;52257884]I didn't read any of the books, but why do people hate Kai Leng so much? Other than, y'know, for who he murdered in ME3.[/QUOTE] In the books, aside from very, shall we say, odd behaviours for a hitman, Kai Leng is constantly portraied as very competent at what he does and something of a potential hero killer. It also helps that several people who like the genre, me included, have a weakness for cyborg assassins/ninjas, which is Leng's main design inspiration. However, in Mass Effect 3 proper, as Qbe-tex summed up above, Kai Leng comes off as a "all talk" Shepard's nemesis wannabe who doesn't do anything to justify his fearsome reputation. And it doesn't help that every time you have to face him directly, this happens: 1) You get to fight a [I]nerfed[/I] Cerberus Phantom enemy. 2) After you, naturally, cleaned the floor with Leng, you are put in a cutscene where Leng either gets away and/or screws up Shepard's plan in the most unbeliveable ways possible, to the point your playable character looks like an idiot. I know TvTropes isn't exactly well-liked here, but I think this summs the whole issue best: [QUOTE=Tv Tropes, Mass Effect's Scrappy page]Kai Leng is a pretty Flat Character with a design that would look more at home in Mortal Kombat or Metal Gear than Mass Effect, but what really earns him Scrappy status is that until the last time the player fights him, every encounter with him is a Heads I Win, Tails You Lose situation in which no matter how handily the player beats him, Shepard is struck with Cutscene Incompetence and loses to him anyway. The fact that Leng then sends Shepard taunting emails adds insult to injury, coming across more like the act of an Internet troll than a serious villain.[/QUOTE]

Ah, I see. Thanks. I only remembered stabbing him in the chest. [I]god me3 was so long ago the trilogy feels like a distant memory for me[/I]

We don't like TVTropes around here? But yeah, I remember feeling the exact same thing that Qbe-Tex did above. Cutscene starts and Kai-Leng does his shit the first time around and I think [I]"Dammit! Well, time to show Cerberus what a Spectre can really do!"[/I] but the cutscene keeps playing, and I'm waiting for the fight to start so I can wreck his ass, but it doesn't, and I'm forced to watch him Mary Sue his way out of getting his shit kicked in by my at-this-point-almost-godlike Shepard. I like my headcanon better, where I Charge him into a pillar on Thessia and crush every bone in his body and he doesn't fuck anything else up again.

In Andromeda, do biotic charge with the vanguard profile and you'll rarely ever use cover. On normal at least, not sure how well it works on higher difficulties. And I enjoyed the overall story, it's nothing amazing like ME1 was, but there's some good moments.

Who had that list of reccomended ME3 mods?

[QUOTE=Qbe-tex;52258588] [sp] I finished it with the DLC's before going any further, so I belive the ending was altered. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending but it wans't bad. I chose to destroy the reapers (although I was really very close to chose synthesis) and apparently the threat ended...but not? The game ends with a message from liara far into the future saying we failed and yet the child talking to the "Stargazer" comments on how we saved them from destruction and I didn't really understand it but whatever. Got to shoot illusive man in the head, which is nice I suppose. Really wish I could punch a bioware writer in the face for the shody writing with cerberus, by god.[/sp] [/QUOTE] You might have gotten a glitch [sp]the ending you're describing plays only when you shoot the star-child. The Destroy ending starts when you shoot the big red tube full of red reaper i don't know what the fuck[/sp] Anywho, the gameplay of Andromeda is pretty good but the story is lackluster apart from a handful of moments. It's not as bad as a lot of people are saying, but it's easily the worst of the series. Considering the previous Mass Effect games, that's a pretty high bar, admittedly, but that's the only way to describe it.

[QUOTE=Hatley;52258723]Who had that list of reccomended ME3 mods?[/QUOTE] Back Off is pretty good if you don't like some the slightly railroaded dialogs options the base game give you. Such as selecting something that's suppose to represent care for your friend can be construed as a romantic one so it makes the obvious romance one and the friendly one.

I mean overall Mass Effect has a pretty big gap between your gameplay Shepard and the narrative/cutscene Shepard, and it really, [I]really[/I] bothers the shit out of me. It doesn't matter if my gameplay Shep is a biotic god, they will never know shit about biotics in the cutscenes or any conversations (thanks, Liara, for explaining the singularity for me, a thing I was doing before I met you). Mass Effect 3 really ups the frustration with Kai Leng, as people have already mentioned quite a bit. Like shit, if Kai Leng's giggling ass jumps onto a flying car, my Shepard would just throw a goddamn grenade on it and be done with it, but I'm forced to watch him just do nothing and whine like a bitch. At least in all the Dragon Age games there's actually a narrative difference with you being a mage or not. Often it's very small, but at least it's there and it makes a huge difference, at least to me; somehow space-magic just doesn't feel good when it could just as well not be a thing within the game's narrative.

I remember that Kai Leng was half-decent in the novel Retribution (not the one that cereal meme comes from). You have to admit, reading about Anderson putting a bullet in both of Leng's knees is fucking satisfying.

You can reload and choose the ending you intended to pick tho. [sp]Control for my Spacer War Hero Paragon Soldier ("This will remove the threat and minimize damage"), Destroy for my Earthborn Ruthless Renegade Vanguard ("Fuck you, you are going down") and Synthesis for my Colonist Sole Survivor actually dead inside Paragade Sentinel ("Guess this will be the best for everybody...")[/sp]

My only ending for Mass Effect 3 with the Extended Cut still remains the [sp]shoot the space child "fuck you" ending that was surprising yet real shitty.[/sp] Before it came out I think I went with the colour red, but I'm not entirely sure as that entire day has been blocked off from my memory. Goddamn it was soul-crushing to find out that the rumours and stupid jokes we had thrown around with a friend about how shitty the ending would be were almost spot on.