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[AlexFlame116]

Different priorities?

Nobody plays Zelda or Skyrim for the story,

.....um...what???

What I'm seeing is pretty much par for the course for Bioware. Animation was NEVER EVER their strong suit. Thinking it would be now was setting yourself up for disappointment.

They have never released a game since going 3D that has had good to great animation.

Bro then they should have been trying to improve that then. You can't just say "oh they always do that" and forget about it!

 

[Ryzaki009]

This is worse than their previous games and the writing is pretty bad as well. My face is tired, Ryder saying the same line twice in a span of 20 seconds in a cutscenes ("we got this"), companies falling into your lap for no reason, being immediately railed without justification into the Bioware Space Jesus, etc.

The first part of the game is demonstratively worse than previous Bioware games (barring DA2 maybe)

All of the bolded is standard BW fare.

Did you forget "we fight or we die!" or how Shepard can become a Spectre candidate when the only thing of note he did was not get killed by Thresher Maws?

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

Doesn't really matter if they fix it or not anyway, there's still a reasonable amount of bad writing and bad VA going by the footage. Fixing that is pretty much a no go.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

the animations and character models have looked like ass for a while now, im really not quite sure where all the shock and changed minds are coming from now.

the dialog however, that's brand new

 

[N7.Angel]

Talking about shipping when it's not ready, Bioware or EA fiasco ? the game isn't ready for sure and should have release in the end of the year at the earliest.

 

[Button]

Quick, post a bunch of misleading unflattering GIF's, then ask whether the Devs plan to immediately address your concerns in 3 days, then be outraged when they obviously cannot.

Abunch of unflattering gifs? I think the game is in such a despicable condition right now that these kind of posts just don't have any weight. It's not like the game isn't a huge mess.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Quick, post a bunch of misleading unflattering GIF's, then ask whether the Devs plan to immediately address your concerns in 3 days, then be outraged when they obviously cannot.

What is misleading about them? As far as it being fixed in 3 day EA and Bioware knew this game was in shit state a long time ago and decided to release it any way.

 

[Harlequin]

This is worse than their previous games and the writing is pretty bad as well. My face is tired, Ryder saying the same line twice in a span of 20 seconds in a cutscenes ("we got this"), companies falling into your lap for no reason, being immediately railed without justification into the Bioware Space Jesus, etc.

I'm pretty sure that the game explained that (but I may be wrong?).

Spoiler

When Alec died, the only one close enough to transfer his Sam connection to was Scott/Sara. Thus, he had no choice but to transfer it to them (or transfer it to no one) and obviously, them being connected to Sam gives them the kind of capabilities and advantages that the Pathfinder needs and which no one else on the team has which is why they become the Pathfinder instead of Cora.

 

[Kintaro]

.....um...what???

Bro then they should have been trying to improve that then. You can't just say "oh they always do that" and forget about it!

Sure I can say that. Since they literally have been this way forever. At some point, you either look forward to their strengths or you move on and stop wasting your breath over a video game. =P

That like when Obsidian announces a game, you know what it will probably be strong in and what it will probably lack. Or Bethesda. And so on. Bioware is no exception and I'm not sure why, at this point in their existence, we would expect otherwise.

So, either their fans accept it and love their strengths while dealing with the weakness, or you stop buying their games.

 

[Real Hero]

The people leaping to defend the game are like the council in the first game denying the reaper threat

 

[Chemist]

Quick, post a bunch of misleading unflattering GIF's, then ask whether the Devs plan to immediately address your concerns in 3 days, then be outraged when they obviously cannot.

To be fair the unflattering gifs happen with so much frequency it's insane. I have been holding my tongue but from what I have played (7 hours now) the game feels like something that should have been shelved or held back. For a cinematic story game the level of lifeless characters is inexcusable. And this is coming from someone who loved every second of ALL three mass effect games. It's shameful for this day and age.

 

[Garlador]

Quick, post a bunch of misleading unflattering GIF's, then ask whether the Devs plan to immediately address your concerns in 3 days, then be outraged when they obviously cannot.

We're not idiots. The game is unfinished and unpolished, and EA obviously didn't give them the time to fix the issues, despite saying they would earlier last year.

"We're really pleased with its progress. However, as you've seen, we are willing to make moves in launch dates if we feel it's necessary to deliver the right player experience."

If the gameplay is not where BioWare wants it to be, the developer could delay it with EA's blessing. The delay could be a week, or it could be "three or four or five months" if need be, Jorgensen said.

I don't think for a second the devs are "lazy" or "incompetent", but more that this is the stuff that they could get to fixing in the time they were given... and, I remind you, what we're playing right now with Early Access is AFTER the Day 1 patch. There must have been stuff far worse than this before they patch.

You only have so many hours in the day and so many people on hand to do this stuff. It reminds me of a Nintendo interview where they said that they had "finished" a Zelda game a whole year ago, but they spent a solid year exclusively stamping out bugs and polishing the game to perfection. That's a huge time and money cost, and not every company (e.g. EA) will allow it.

Even the Witcher 3 improved over time. It's a far cry from its launch version.

But, yes, it still does suck to see a game as big as a new Mass Effect game, after a painful five year wait, hit the ground with a splat and a poor first impression with so many rough edges. Even if they get fixed later on, the damage could be far more lasting with the general public. Assassin's Creed Unity eventually became much better too, but its buggy reputation still haunts the franchise years after release.

The people leaping to defend the game are like the council in the first game denying the reaper threat

... This is a "real" Mass Effect fan answer.

 

[Stormblessed]

Why would you want to fix it? The animations have memetic potential. People will buy the game to see the weirdness for themselves!

 

[John Petrucci]

We are seeing different games then if you aren't seeing what me and 4 other outlets are seeing if the first part of the game

Oh FOUR outlets?! *immediately reads articles and hates game*

We're not seeing different games. We're having different experiences based on our tastes/what we want to experience in a videogame. The game may end up in the high 70's on Meta or whatever, but for me this game feels great.

A couple of my way favorite games ever have had scores in that range. Don't see what's wrong with that. I'm guessing it'll be low 80's, but high 70's wouldn't shock me.

 

[OriginalPoe]

*sigh* I'm really regretting my preorder.

I mean I wasn't expecting the moon. DAI in space without the MMO quests would've been good for me. This isn't each reaching that level.

Why don't you cancel? There's literally no reason to keep a pre-order you are doubtful for.

 

[Ryzaki009]

I'm pretty sure that the game explained that (but I may be wrong?).

Spoiler

When Alec died, the only one close enough to transfer his Sam connection to was Scott/Sara. Thus, he had no choice but to transfer it to them and obviously, them being connected to Sam gives them the kind of capabilities and advantages that the Pathfinder needs and which no one else on the team has which is why they become the Pathfinder instead of Cora.

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure Alec did it because if he hadn't Scott/Sara would've died and however distant he was his other child was already in a coma and watching his second die on a foreign planet probably was a bit more than he wanted to take. So he transferred the SAM to them since without a pathfinder the rest of them are screwed before he kicked it saving their life.

At least that's what you get so far from the prologue. That and papa ryder being into some fishy AI/human hybrid shit.

Why don't you cancel? There's literally no reason to keep a pre-order you are doubtful for.

As I already said because it's already been charged and if nothing else I can do the refund before 2 hours since I bought it off origin so I might as well play it on release.

 

[Vince DiCola]

It seems like a lot of people overreacting to minor issues here, sure the animations look a bit whack sometimes but overall the game is good and I've only played a couple of hours.

It seemed like a number of people on GAF wanted the game to suck and are happy that it has issues, that's a little sad to me

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Why would you want to fix it? The animations have memetic potential. People will buy the game to see the weirdness for themselves!

I don't buy RPGs for comedic relief.

 

[afternoon delight]

the animations and character models have looked like ass for a while now, im really not quite sure where all the shock and changed minds are coming from now.

the dialog however, that's brand new

Yeah, but it's probably easy to assume most people weren't sitting through those mind blowing demos they've eeked out over the years.

The intense reaction is interesting nonetheless.

 

[Garlador]

I don't buy RPGs for comedic relief.

Try the Bard's Tale. Might change your mind.

 

[OriginalPoe]

As I already said because it's already been charged and if nothing else I can do the refund before 2 hours since I bought it off origin so I might as well play it on release.

If you haven't tried contacting Origin support, you should. But whatever.

 

[captainnapalm]

I feel like it's important to distinguish between bugs and glitches and the problems that seem like they were intentional. A lot of the laughs in the animation thread are coming from bugs and I don't really want to rag on Bioware for those.

Every game of this size is going to have bugs and glitches. Witcher 3 had plenty. They will be fixed in time.

It's the stuff like the crazy/dead eyes that are more worrying. That shit needs to be fixed too.

Obviously nothing can be done about the derpy character models and animation though. We're stuck with those.

 

[N7.Angel]

Can't stop laughing, those animations are gold...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUfZMocgHKc&

 

[Harlequin]

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure Alec did it because if he hadn't Scott/Sara would've died and however distant he was his other child was already in a coma and watching his second die on a foreign planet probably was a bit more than he wanted to take. So he transferred the SAM to them since without a pathfinder the rest of them are screwed before he kicked it saving their life.

At least that's what you get so far from the prologue. That and papa ryder being into some fishy AI/human hybrid shit.

Either way, the game offers an explanation for it that, while feeling somewhat conveniently contrived, makes perfect sense.

 

[Ghazi]

That's a shame, I guess that means the game is unplayable for me because my PC loses power during a specific cutscene at the beginning. I don't have any problems with any other games.

 

[xZoneHunter]

Obviously nothing can be done about the derpy character models and animation though. We're stuck with those.

If Bungie can patch in a bearable voice actor for your ghost in Destiny, Bioware can deal with the janky animations in ME:A.

 

[Ryzaki009]

Either way, the game offers an explanation for it that, while feeling somewhat conveniently contrived, makes perfect sense.

Oh yeah it definitely makes sense.

Spoiler

(that said it didn't feel that contrived to me because it had happened in the first few seconds of the mission. Ryder just wasn't lucky the second time).

 

[Ryzaki009]

That's a shame, I guess that means the game is unplayable for me because my PC loses power during a specific cutscene at the beginning. I don't have any problems with any other games.

You might want to have your PC checked out. That doesn't sound like a game issue. (Unless it's using so many resources your computer just conks out but it's using 100% of my CPU and that doesn't happen for me so =/ )

 

[Vinnk]

I'll wait until it is fixed or there is a Game of the Year edition with all the DLC. I rarely play games like this more than once and I want the optimal experience the first time I play it. Too much to play right now anyway. Just gotta stay out of spoiler threads.

 

[Stormblessed]

I don't buy RPGs for comedic relief.

That's a shame. I'll say this, though: if you've played BioWare games before, you probably have a decent immunity to shitty character animations, so it won't be too big a deal.

They look to me like marionettes with amateur puppeteers.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Yeah I mean the animations aren't great but I don't think anyone should have been expecting them to be changed in a day 1 patch lol

 

[Falchion]

The animation stuff doesn't seem like something that can be easily fixed with a patch if it's an engine issue. Unless there are specific glitches that can be prevented, we're probably stuck with the jank.

 

[Harlequin]

Oh yeah it definitely makes sense.

Spoiler

(that said it didn't feel that contrived to me because it had happened in the first few seconds of the mission. Ryder just wasn't lucky the second time).

Spoiler

I didn't mean that the fall/broken visor on its own was contrived but just the whole set-up with the Sam link being tied to the position of Pathfinder in combination with everything else that led up to the situation.

I mean, I don't really mind it (and I also didn't think about it too much while playing the game so it's not like it negatively impacted my experience) but it is a very convenient set-up, obviously.

 

[captainnapalm]

If Bungie can patch in a bearable voice actor for your ghost in Destiny, Bioware can deal with the janky animations in ME:A.

They can fix some things, but they're not going to able to change the basic 'acting' in the scenes, the captured facial movements. I don't think anyway.

 

[JoJo UK]

OK so I've put about 4 hours into it and I'm really conflicted. The environments look fantastic and the gameplay is tight and enjoyable. I was having freezing and fps drops (PC) however I think that was down to playing it before the trial was fully downloaded as that seems to be gone. It is fun to play (when things are going well) and that is a big factor to me.... However, some of the animations (be it facial or full body), dialogue and bugs in general are really taking away from the enjoyment of the game.

I've just got to Eos (or whatever the 2nd planet it called, sorry if I got it wrong) and during in game cut scene Ryder is not wearing a helmet, neither is Cora or Liam, as soon as I'm back playing a helmet pops on, but only on Ryder. Cora and Liam are more than happy to walk about planet side in a toxic atmosphere. Hell, so is Ryder except when he wants to have a chat (be he indoors or not). I don't care what anyone says, that's immersive breaking.

Addison on The Nexus is downright terrible, she looks like she has been shot with Homers makeup gun, her dialogue sounds like something that has gone through Google Translate 3 times and delivered by someone who is busting to take a shit. I don't care if people think I'm being hyperbolic, it's rubbish and frankly I'm shocked anything to do with this character got through any sort of QA.

When I got to ‘the bridge' of the Nexus some crazy woman with bright orange hair who looked like she hadn't slept in a month started talking. I couldn't concentrate I was too busy looking at Ronald McDonalds drug addicted sister to care what was happening.

I actually think that maybe someone in Bioware thought because these guys have been marooned for 14+ months they are starting to lose it and need to make the characters/NPCs look dishevelled but dialled it all the way to 11.

I know some people will say I'm being over dramatic but I really don't care. I'm no ‘super fan' but I do love the series, hell I think it was ME1 got me into RPGs. I can remember buying it with some trepidation however a few hours into is I fell in love.

That's not to say that it's all doom and gloom, for example when the crew comes together and you get to the Tempest for the first time it really felt like ME1 all over again, I got genuine chills. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later I was on Eos getting pulled right out of because of the issues outlined previously.

Maybe I was lucky but I really don't remember this much jank in ME1 – 3. I remember at the time seeing gifs / memes etc. and thinking ‘damn, I must be so lucky as I've never seen X, Y or Z bug', ME:A however it's like the series is catching up with lost time and throwing all the ‘Bioware jank' I missed in ME 1 – 3. So far I have run into every ME:A shit gif I've seen. I also don't think 'lol Bioware jank' is a good enough excuse if I'm honest.

Again (and I really don't want to come over as an apologist as I might actually cancel my pre order) the gameplay is great as at time I'm wowed by the graphics, environments and aliens look great. This was not ready for release and this is not ‘lol Bioware jank' it's just bad at times.

Fake edit: WOW sorry for long post...

 

[Ryzaki009]

Spoiler

I didn't mean that the fall/broken visor on its own was contrived but just the whole set-up with the Sam link being tied to the position of Pathfinder in combination with everything else that led up to the situation.

I mean, I don't really mind it (and I also didn't think about it too much while playing the game so it's not like it negatively impacted my experience) but it is a very convenient set-up, obviously.

Spoiler

Oh yeah but I've come to expect such things in BW games. It's part of their space/middle earth jesus thing.

@Jojo: you can make it so Ryder never wears a helmet unless it's needed. That's what I did. Least in ME3 you could see Shep taking the helmet off so it wasn't so ridiculous.

 

[JoJo UK]

Spoiler

Oh yeah but I've come to expect such things in BW games. It's part of their space/middle earth jesus thing.

@Jojo: you can make it so Ryder never wears a helmet unless it's needed. That's what I did. Least in ME3 you could see Shep taking the helmet off so it wasn't so ridiculous.

Thats good to know, I'll look into that. Thank you.

 

[Lucifon]

Game just feels like it isn't ready for release. It could have used a good few more months in the tank. Feels like it's being pushed out to hit the end of the fiscal.

 

[prag16]

It really seems like they're willing to kill all hype for the game just to stick to their shitty marketing plans

Yeah, they really should move up the embargo. Have to believe all the low information hot takes will have at least some impact on sales. They have to be able to see that. And it's largely their own fault.

 

[danm999]

Lol this animation gate is absurd. Skyrim had shit animation, did everyone skip it? Zelda barely has any voice acting, barely any Cutscenes.. Doesn't matter one bit.

Because Skyrim and Zelda have different draws.

Mass Effect's draw has been it's characterisation, its storytelling, its dialogue.

If these things are sloppy, that's a problem for a Bioware RPG.

 

[Wanderer5]

Too bad it is being released in this state, but well I sure EA wants it out before the end of this fiscal.

 

[prag16]

Abunch of unflattering gifs? I think the game is in such a despicable condition right now that these kind of posts just don't have any weight. It's not like the game isn't a huge mess.

The game isn't a huge mess. Outside this echo chamber, a ton of people are really enjoying it, so right now posts like this from somebody who probably haven't played the game just don't have any weight.

 

[JamesHolden]

Abunch of unflattering gifs? I think the game is in such a despicable condition right now that these kind of posts just don't have any weight. It's not like the game isn't a huge mess.

The game is not a huge mess.

 

[gogosox82]

Day one patch? Already glad I decided to wait until after launch to pick this up.

 

[Garlador]

The game is not a huge mess.

Neither was Assassin's Creed Unity!...

... Eventually.

 

[LNBL]

Reached the end of the sp part of the trial, really enjoyed it! Can't wait for the 21st to come

 

[JamesHolden]

Fine, the 10 hour demo that's reflective of the final game and that they're using to promote the game is a huge mess.

The 10 hour demo that's reflective of the final game that they're using to promote this game is not a huge mess.

 

[prag16]

Fine, the 10 hour demo that's reflective of the final game and that they're using to promote the game is a huge mess.

Still wrong. There are warts no doubt. But the game (even the trial) is not a huge mess.

 

[anddo0]

Wow that's rough. It sure didn't feel like a finished product. I'm glad I spent the $5 to experience it. I'm still interested, but this doesn't bode well.

 

[JamesHolden]

... Yes it is.

Nice. This battle of conclusory statements without evidence is riveting. I hope you are as enthralled as I am.