Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[Alienmorph]

Yeah... weird faces aside (from the previews I've seen the face animations are even WORSE than the usual) everything else seems to be on part with the course, as long as we're talking such basic elements.

What the old ME and DA games did well though was to allow you to overlook such flaws because you gave a significant amount of a fuck about the universe and the characters. Andromeda in that regard starts already ferociously disadvantaged because the plot is literally trying to escape from the old plot and universe and make it look like it's a good thing.

So I dunno... if it's just regular BW shtick but with no fucks left to give, that could be already enough to make it bomb...

[Vol]

Having literally just replayed them, ME1 does not start strong. You get a little dialogue, then Eden Prime, which while interesting and a decent tutorial, is not very well designed. Then it's talk-talk-talk, run around the Citadel, before you get to the meat of the story and the characters.

Then ME2 with that long, unskippable intro. Cool as hell the first time, long in the tooth when you're trying to get your Shepard moving again. Though I liked the tutorial there, and Freedom's Progress.

Honestly, if stripmining the galaxy had a reward, I would have done it. As is, I've depleted about a quarter of it as of right now, and I'm out of things to upgrade.

[Vol]

"It has been three months since first contact between the Third Reich and the Migrant Fleet. New technologies revitalize a beleaguered German war machine as the Admirals take a closer look at their new allies. Meanwhile, Joachim Hoch and Hanala'Jarva come to terms with how complicated their relationship is."

Fanfiction.net has taken an interesting tilt since I last checked. Though I know of the author, one of the few Humanity Rah Rah! writers out there, made a lot of stuff involving alpha males getting harems of aliens across settings.

[TheodoricFriede]

I cant think of anything worse than the synopsis you just gave.

[Spartanburger]

Something interesting I just noticed having just started Legion's loyalty mission:

The Heretic station was a Quarian station. Stripped to little more than a superstructure and abandoned during the Morning war.

Though it does have extensive upgrades, it's a seriously impressive feat of engineering. It's 20.5km km long, 11.3km wide and tall. That's half the size of the Citadel.

God I wish we could've seen the Quarians at their peak.

Fanfiction.net has taken an interesting tilt since I last checked. Though I know of the author, one of the few Humanity Rah Rah! writers out there, made a lot of stuff involving alpha males getting harems of aliens across settings.

FF.net is a bit of a mixed bag. I've seen plenty of unusual stories there, like one involving Tali somehow timetraveling and teleporting into the Sol system during WWII. "Inglorious Bosh'Tets" I think that one was called.

I won't fault their creativity. It's certainly amusing to see what some people come up with, even if it would be difficult to find something less interesting.

[TheodoricFriede]

Are people playing the game yet in that trial?

Do we know the romance options yet?

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LViubGO2H0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkCwNprq9rs

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

forbes.com: 20 Quick Thoughts About The First Few Hours Of 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

[Deano]

I've just had a quick playabout in the character customisation, I'll play around for a bit more and play the game.

My god is it not good at all. You're given preset faces that you can play with by adjusting colours and positions of elements of the face, but you can't actually change your eyebrows shape for example. Disappointing really considering DA:I had more customisation, I may just end up using default scott.

[Grand Admiral Cheesecake]

I've just had a quick playabout in the character customisation, I'll play around for a bit more and play the game.

My god is it not good at all. You're given preset faces that you can play with by adjusting colours and positions of elements of the face, but you can't actually change your eyebrows shape for example. Disappointing really considering DA:I had more customisation, I may just end up using default scott.

Just as planned.

They want that default face out there. Just like the default name!

[Deano]

Fuck the system I made my own Ryder.



I liken him to a young Ainsley Harriot.

[Vol]

http://imgur.com/Rq9zqLP

So is the early access coming with the Day 1 patch or what?

[TheodoricFriede]

Turns out Groucho Marx will be everyone's first character.

"Once i shot a Krogan in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I have no idea?"

"Will you marry me? Are you rich? Answer the second question first."

"Say the magic word and the pyjak will come down and give you 22 credits."

[TheodoricFriede]

You're getting slow internet. I thought this game would be data-mined by now.

[Someone With Mass]

Frankly that sounds like every other mass effect game.

Yeah, I recently replayed ME1 and there are in fact a lot of dialogue options that make Shepard say the same thing regardless of what you pick with the only difference being the morality labels. And people praise that one to be the only "true" RPG in the series. I've always wondered why tedious busywork/inventory management with arbitrary numbers is considered one of the pillars of RPGs.

[TheodoricFriede]

FYI data-mining is im progress. some stuff was revealed.

I looked up what i was interested in.

[Mazder]

http://imgur.com/Rq9zqLP

So is the early access coming with the Day 1 patch or what?

Most likely not.
Seeing as there are still different release times and all...

The Day 1 patch probably fixes a bunch of stuff.

I've just had a quick playabout in the character customisation, I'll play around for a bit more and play the game.

My god is it not good at all. You're given preset faces that you can play with by adjusting colours and positions of elements of the face, but you can't actually change your eyebrows shape for example. Disappointing really considering DA:I had more customisation, I may just end up using default scott.

Just as planned.

They want that default face out there. Just like the default name!

Either that or the early build was given out with the early version.
There are people known to spend hours on at character creation maybe they didn't want them to spend all 10 hours, or a good chunk of it, in the damn character creator.

[Deano]

FYI data-mining is im progress. some stuff was revealed.

I looked up what i was interested in.

Are we good? Or shall I show my interest towards another character?

[magnuskn]

http://imgur.com/Rq9zqLP

So is the early access coming with the Day 1 patch or what?

"600 years of not going to the bathroom, hngngngngnh!"

[Deano]

Okay, so I've played a couple of hours and here are some quick thoughts of someone who had more positive outlook going into the game.

The writing - I disagree with that RPS article about the writing, I feel like he confused bad writing with more upbeat and youthful writing. I like all of the characters so far, none of them have had instantly annoying traits about them like for example Miranda.

Graphics and animation - The environments look stunning, as expected of Frostbite, but also as expected of Frostbite all you've seen about the facial animations are true, however it feels like something you can have a laugh at and will eventually get used to.

Combat and movement - The movement is a little heavy, and the autocover is janky but not as bad as I was expected. Climbing is definitely off, plenty of times I've spent multiple tries trying to jump up to something and it won't latch on to it for some reason. The combat feels fine, more punishing than the previous games as enemies feel tankier and will attempt to flush and flank you out quite heavily.

Audio - The OST gives me vibes of Deus Ex which is a little odd. It still has a feel of grandeur but doesn't quite produce the chills ME3's did.

Overall I'm enjoying the game, it definitely has flaws but it feels like Mass Effect is really back.

[magnuskn]

In case you are playing this combo, does Biotic Charge/Nova still win all the encounters?

[Deano]

In case you are playing this combo, does Biotic Charge/Nova still win all the encounters?

I went the adept class cause I wanted to throw bitches.

My friend Biotic Charge feels good still, and you can follow it with a melee which is much faster. Not sure about nova.

[Someone With Mass]

I've read that you can do a Tactical Cloak/Charge combo, which sounds awesome.

[magnuskn]

Well, I guess we'll see. The Charge/Nova combo how I played Insanity in ME3 (I remember also doing a Sentinel build which was even easier). It was really fun and I don't know if I'll even do other power combos.

[TheodoricFriede]

FYI data-mining is im progress. some stuff was revealed.

I looked up what i was interested in.

Are we good? Or shall I show my interest towards another character?

Hey I only looked up one thing. You'll have to ask someone willing to dig through more.

But if you want to know what i found, check my post in the spoilers thread.

[SciFlyBoy]

Achievement Hunter just put out an hour long Let's Watch for ME:A for it's subscribers. I want to watch it so bad, but I can't until I get way past that point sometime next week.

[Mazder]

Achievement Hunter just put out an hour long Let's Watch for ME:A for it's subscribers. I want to watch it so bad, but I can't until I get way past that point sometime next week.

Yeah I'm not gonna watch that until I've put in at least four hours so I can pity their stupid decisions.

[DarkStorm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icLFe66dbrM

[TheodoricFriede]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icLFe66dbrM

Uh...

So were any of those animations supposed to be bad aside from the walking animations?

Because the walking animations weren't great, but everything else looked fine.

Also holy FUCK salarians are tall.

[DarkStorm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icLFe66dbrM

Uh...

So were any of those animations supposed to be bad aside from the walking animations?

Because the walking animations weren't great, but everything else looked fine.

Also holy FUCK salarians are tall.

Some of those facial animations werent that great, especially female ryder her fucking face almost always looks stupid every time I see it.

[TheodoricFriede]

Uh sure...

Look i have been watching a lot of Horizon Zero Dawn and that games facial animations make Andromeda look like LA fucking Noir.

[Mazder]

Also holy FUCK salarians are tall.

And LANKY!

You really see where the "Grey Alien" influence came and went.

[DarkStorm]

Uh sure...

Look i have been watching a lot of Horizon Zero Dawn and that games facial animations make Andromeda look like LA fucking Noir.

Haven't seen it. But those animations in both shouldnt be that terrible to begin with.

[magnuskn]

The problem for Andromeda is that Witcher 3 exists. We know now how a great game is supposed to look like.

[Someone With Mass]

The problem for Andromeda is that Witcher 3 exists. We know now how a great game is supposed to look like.

Have never played it and never want to.

[TheodoricFriede]

Look Bioware animations aren't great, but i seriously do not see the issue with those facial animations.

[SciFlyBoy]

Also holy FUCK salarians are tall.

The skill tree profile pic in ME2 had Mordin almost to the top of the picture frame while Miranda seemed like a foot shorter then him. I know in the game everyone had a similar height, but at least in the skill profiles they represented some height differences.

[Raga]

FemRyder's grin was a little overly toothy. Everything else was adequate.

[DarkStorm]

FemRyder's grin was a little overly toothy. Everything else was adequate.

Expect almost everyone's eyes look kinda dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zUilV_oemg Look at her reaction to what she says.

[Someone With Mass]

Look Bioware animations aren't great, but i seriously do not see the issue with those facial animations.

Compared to the trilogy's facial animations that were all over the place at times...no, they're not that bad.

I've certainly seen worse.

[magnuskn]

Am I the only one who thought that ME3 was actually extremely good with facial animations?

First impressions from Gamestar, German magazine/website are out... and they basically confirm that they feel it is DA:I in space.

[Someone With Mass]

Am I the only one who thought that ME3 was actually extremely good with facial animations?

First impressions from Gamestar, German magazine/website are out... and they basically confirm that they feel it is DA:I in space.

And I've heard other people say that it feels more like ME1. So I'm taking everything with a Grand Canyon worth of salt.

[Alienmorph]

There were still quite a few janky face animations in ME3, but also some very very good ones. It was a mixed bag, but probably the closest BW got to very expressive characters. Andromeda overally looks like a step back, but probably not as much as it could look after I haven't touched the previous games in years.

[Raga]

I actually thought DAI face animations looked the best so far other than everybody being perpetually sweaty and this happening sometimes:

[SciFlyBoy]

Yeah I'm not gonna watch that until I've put in at least four hours so I can pity their stupid decisions.

I can guarantee they're going to have a blast of a fun time playing it though. I'm going to be too serious and too into the game.

[magnuskn]

The problem for Andromeda is that Witcher 3 exists. We know now how a great game is supposed to look like.

Have never played it and never want to.

That doesn't stop it from existing.

[Sites32]

Just downloaded the early access version and haven't played it yet, what is the general overall thoughts on ME:A so far. I've stayed away from this thread, wanted to go in blind. Are you folks enjoying it?