"Good story telling will come later; we don't need it for the intro"
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Mass Effect: Andromeda - EA/Origin Access trial coming March 16th - 10 hour trial
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
GenericBadGuy
Member
If multiplayer is still unplayable when I give it another go tomorrow I'm going to be pretty upset. I can't trust it will be fixed at launch when we already have the day 1 patch. Even when rubberbanding doesn't make a round unplayable, you can forget using weapons like sniper rifles since even slight lag means shots don't register.
FTL travel was in system though right? Even at light speed, the nearest star to us is over 4lys away. Even if they have significant FTL capability, it should take weeks, if not months hoping between these stars. And remember, star density is farthest apart as you move away from the center of the galaxy. On the edge where they are, there should be quite a passing of time between these runs lol. Since they came from the Milky Way, they can't possibly have tech that is more advanced than what they left back home.
amiablepercy
Banned
That's fair but for the most part, people who aren't feeling the game are spouting off nothing more than weightless and context-less pejoratives "This is shit" or "That is shit". Branny and a few others are offering compelling takes and expressing opinions that catalyze discussion. A lot of people aren't, they are just piling on.
Alright, just reveal all the answers in the opening. Be my guest.
I mean we did know imeediately about the beacon and why it was on Eden Prime, right?
Wouldn't the multiplayer entirely dependent on the population? Why don't you just wait until Tuesday and try then when more people are playing and see if that results in a better experience. Having a larger population to pull from should help quite a bit.
GenericBadGuy
Member
I hope that's the case, but I would think folks would be hopping in multiplayer as its only a day from the trial start date and it was a highly anticipated gamemode.
truestatic
Member
When first acquiring a weapon, you can equip it immediately in the window you loot it from. Otherwise, I believe you're stuck waiting til your next forward operating post visit or deployment.
Naw, you used FTL travel within star clusters, as well. You used Mass Relays to jump between clusters.
I have no objections to alien dick in general (would've loved to bang Thane in ME2 and I found the Bull in DAI hot, too - not strictly speaking an alien but a different species, nonetheless) but most of the Mass Effect species just don't look appealing to me whatsoever, unfortunately.When you say Liam, do you mean on a Sara Ryder playthrough? Or was that a typo?
Would like to see a Krogan sex scene just because I'm not sure how that happens mechanically. Wait, Grunt was grown, right? But that's not how it normally gets done?
I completely agree. It would have helped the intro feel less rushed if I had more than a semblance of an idea of why Ryder and the rest of the crew were in Andromeda and her relationship with her family. You're just thrown into a catastrophic event before getting a chance to interact with anyone. It worked better in ME2 because you were already familiarized with the Normandy, Shepard, and the crew which made their losses more impactful. In ME:A, I'm asked to feel sad about characters I've spent very little time with.
OverdriveOtaku
Member
Posting this just in case anyone is in a similar situation:
ME:A on PC via Origin works just fine with the Steam Link and a X360 or XB1 controller. Works pretty seamless to be honest.
My setup is a wired Xbox 360 controller plugged into my gaming tower, and a wireless Xbox One Bluetooth controller paired with my Steam Link.
All you have to do is add (on the Steam PC Client) the Origin.exe into your Steam Library as a Game, and when on your Steam Link, launch Origin, then launch ME:A from the Origin window. Just make sure Origin is not open before using your Steam Link.
You can close out Origin through the Steam Link simply by going to File>Exit on the top left of the Origin window after you quit ME:A, and it will bring you back to Steam's Big Picture mode.
ME:A on PC via Origin works just fine with the Steam Link and a X360 or XB1 controller. Works pretty seamless to be honest.
My setup is a wired Xbox 360 controller plugged into my gaming tower, and a wireless Xbox One Bluetooth controller paired with my Steam Link.
All you have to do is add (on the Steam PC Client) the Origin.exe into your Steam Library as a Game, and when on your Steam Link, launch Origin, then launch ME:A from the Origin window. Just make sure Origin is not open before using your Steam Link.
You can close out Origin through the Steam Link simply by going to File>Exit on the top left of the Origin window after you quit ME:A, and it will bring you back to Steam's Big Picture mode.
Ryzaki009
Member
Not bad, I expected worst.
Gettting some inquisition vibes as planets could be the equivalent of the zones in inquisition and you gain points and shit with everything you do in each planet. At least the graphics arent as bland as inquisition I guess.
Seems like it may have potential to be a great shooter with some small rpg on top, although there is nothing like that (rpg) that I could see in the trial, plus I completed it in 3 hours.
Some missing tutorials or explanations in several places (like when you first go to a planet/asteroid that has nothing, do I need to scan it? Why there is a scan? why should I scan it if it gives me nothing?) but that could be due to the unfinished nature of the trial.
But the menus, OMG the menus. Is like they got someone who never did rpg menus. Comparing stuff is stupidly difficult to understand as there is no clear message what you are comparing to, plus you have no idea if you are comparing a pistol to a grenade launcher or a sniper.
You cannot equip different guns out of the planets, but there is no indication of this, so you just create a new weapon in the R&D section of the ship, try to equip it and you cant. No messages or anything to indicate that you just cant do it so its confusing.
Talking about R&D, another freaking UI/UX mess. No idea what any weapon/armor that you build does, you need to build them first to see if they are worth it or not. And again navigation in the menus is a pain in the ass, slow, confusing, useless. Oh, and try to check the materials needed for anything its, again, confusing.
Plus going through all the inventory mini-menus to see what you have is stupidly slow and useless.
You simply cannot release a triple A game in 2017 with those atrocious menus. You just cant, it screams incompetence and something which you will have to fight with during the whole game.
Gettting some inquisition vibes as planets could be the equivalent of the zones in inquisition and you gain points and shit with everything you do in each planet. At least the graphics arent as bland as inquisition I guess.
Seems like it may have potential to be a great shooter with some small rpg on top, although there is nothing like that (rpg) that I could see in the trial, plus I completed it in 3 hours.
Some missing tutorials or explanations in several places (like when you first go to a planet/asteroid that has nothing, do I need to scan it? Why there is a scan? why should I scan it if it gives me nothing?) but that could be due to the unfinished nature of the trial.
But the menus, OMG the menus. Is like they got someone who never did rpg menus. Comparing stuff is stupidly difficult to understand as there is no clear message what you are comparing to, plus you have no idea if you are comparing a pistol to a grenade launcher or a sniper.
You cannot equip different guns out of the planets, but there is no indication of this, so you just create a new weapon in the R&D section of the ship, try to equip it and you cant. No messages or anything to indicate that you just cant do it so its confusing.
Talking about R&D, another freaking UI/UX mess. No idea what any weapon/armor that you build does, you need to build them first to see if they are worth it or not. And again navigation in the menus is a pain in the ass, slow, confusing, useless. Oh, and try to check the materials needed for anything its, again, confusing.
Plus going through all the inventory mini-menus to see what you have is stupidly slow and useless.
You simply cannot release a triple A game in 2017 with those atrocious menus. You just cant, it screams incompetence and something which you will have to fight with during the whole game.
lastplayed
Member
Sure, star density is lower towards the edge of a galaxy... except in clusters which are more densely populated groups of stars bound by gravity, which in the Heleus Cluster's case is a massive black hole in the centre.
And yeah, even travelling faster than the speed of light can take days, even weeks going between stars. But just about every sci-fi universe overlooks or ignores this. And that's not even considering time dilation. Going close to the speed of light, the occupants of a ship would observe circumnavigating the entire observable universe within a life time. There'd be no need for cryosleep.
I didn't have much of a problem with that, personally. It was just part of my summary about the mission feeling rushed and the motivations being all over the place.
Using what I wrote as a suggestion,
the outcome would've basically been the same, just without Alec. SAM would take control of Ryder at the obelisk and do whatever Alec did. If anything, this also would've made the Kett's hologram show Ryder as the Pathfinder interfacing with the tech instead of Alec, painting Ryder as a bigger target for continued conflict.
I dont think thats a fair comparison. The geth had a full backstory already built on the time frame of mass effect, so an introduction like that one makes sense. There is no mystery to what the geth are, the mystery is what they are doing there and why they are interested in the eden prime artifact.
While in this one, they had the opportunity to make the kett a more mysterious race, more interesting to just *see* them.
I dont really care, but I have to admit that the first encounter didnt felt that interesting as they turned into targets in less that 2 minutes after seeing the first one. I would have loved a bit more of a buildup to it, but I guess its easier to just throw the "big bad guys who are killing your teammates" trope so Ryder has a motive to start shooting that soon in the game
I mean sure, that is an alternative beginning. It just doesn't make sense to make such changes without knowing how the story plays out. It seems pointless.
Slackbladder
Member
There is a weapon wheel where you can choose up to 4 weapons and ammo types and armour/shield boosts. You have three "skills" that can be added to 4 profiles that you can swap on the fly. So you can have 12 skills in use.
I dont think thats a fair comparison. The geth had a full backstory already built on the time frame of mass effect, so an introduction like that one makes sense. There is no mystery to what the geth are, the mystery is what they are doing there and why they are interested in the eden prime artifact.
While in this one, they had the opportunity to make the kett a more mysterious race, more interesting to just *see* them.
I dont really care, but I have to admit that the first encounter didnt felt that interesting as they turned into targets in less that 2 minutes after seeing the first one. I would have loved a bit more of a buildup to it, but I guess its easier to just throw the "big bad guys who are killing your teammates" trope so Ryder has a motive to start shooting that soon in the game
The Kett are completely new. No back story, no contact, nothing. It may be that they are forced into the "big bad guys" role but there was going to be someone fulfilling that position (along with other baddies in the game). Maybe first contact could have been more nuanced. I'm sure the Kett will be more interesting than simple cannon fodder later. At least I hope so.
Alpha Phoenix
Member
Don't know what you're talking about here. Inquisition's graphics were anything but bland. Especially the environments looked stunning at times. And I played it on XB1.
Lol, fair enough. The point of all the changes is just to make the first mission better. That's all.
After 30 hours of planet scanning, no one's going to remember what happened in the tutorial, anyway.
I hear you and understand!
SonicXtreme
Member
I found the best Sara
did this dude ever post sliders
I dont think thats a fair comparison. The geth had a full backstory already built on the time frame of mass effect, so an introduction like that one makes sense. There is no mystery to what the geth are, the mystery is what they are doing there and why they are interested in the eden prime artifact.
While in this one, they had the opportunity to make the kett a more mysterious race, more interesting to just *see* them.
I dont really care, but I have to admit that the first encounter didnt felt that interesting as they turned into targets in less that 2 minutes after seeing the first one. I would have loved a bit more of a buildup to it, but I guess its easier to just throw the "big bad guys who are killing your teammates" trope so Ryder has a motive to start shooting that soon in the game
I was on the bus so couldn't respond but yes I would've said this.
Exploratory
Banned
I'm sorry that's not a masterclass at all. TLoU is a 10/10 game with a strong opening but that opening is in no way genius.
Probably a matter of preference. English is not my first language so bland may not be the word that Im looking for or that express what I tried to say.
Maybe alive is better? DA:I scenarios felt a bit...empty, lifeless? less "real" maybe?
But to each its own, Im not one to criticize game for their looks while still playing 20 year old games
So the game is 10/10 and has a strong opening but the opening is not genius. Somehow I think you've could've made your argument better.
Exploratory
Banned
It's not genius. It does something very simple to make you sad. It's not rocket science to make someone sad.
Killing little girls to make you sad ain't genius man.
You can be a great opening and not be genius. It's not like it was something we haven't seen before.
We've literally been discussing for pages now how killing off a family member doesn't automatically make the player sad. I think you underestimate how much work goes into the writing, direction, performance, hell even the lighting, of a scene like the one in TLoU.
amiablepercy
Banned
'The last of us' was great the way a latter-day Spielberg movie is great. Everything was put together well and the writing and story were servicable but it was by no means intellectually challenging, groundbreaking, or a masterpiece in my opinion and I'm sure ME:A won't be a masterpiece either but TLoU was incredibly effing enjoyable. The same kind of joy I had with the trial.
texasairhead101
Member
How does scanning work?
amiablepercy
Banned
On the xbox one controller you press Y
Played the $5 for EA Access. Might as well try it out myself and see what to make of it.
So far, I'm kind of digging some of it. The shooting felt a bit wonky at first, but its becoming more fun the more I get used to it. The biotic powers are especially fun this time around and its awesome being able to combine them immediately without any overall cooldown getting in the way. I was disappointed at first when I heard you can no longer command your squad's powers and combine them with yours, but I kind of like doing it myself with my own powers. Especially with how biotics work in this game. To automatically grab and enemy with pull, aim them towards a direction yourself, and then throw them. It's wildly entertaining.
I agree the beginning feels a bit off in pacing though and immediately throws you in this dire situation without any real build up. Felt like it was rushing me to get to shooting things. At least shooting those things was fun. Things start slowing down a bit after that first mission similar to the first Mass Effect when you reach the Citadel and more dialogue is involved. Those parts I've always liked in ME. Unfortunately in this one it comes with a sizable amount of bad writing, with some of the banter during combat being unbearable at times. "I killed it, by shooting it in its stupid head" is a line in the game, or something along those lines. Dumbest [censored] I've ever heard. At least with the dialogue system itself though, I like the dialogue options focusing more on expressing your character's personality rather than the typical "good, neutral, bad" options of old. Its turned out better than I expected. I stopped playing when getting to the Nexus and speaking to only the female Krogan. I'll play for whatever hours I have left tomorrow and see what's left.
Overall, I can see myself playing more of this game. Despite some issues, it does feel nice to be back in the Mass Effect universe again.
So far, I'm kind of digging some of it. The shooting felt a bit wonky at first, but its becoming more fun the more I get used to it. The biotic powers are especially fun this time around and its awesome being able to combine them immediately without any overall cooldown getting in the way. I was disappointed at first when I heard you can no longer command your squad's powers and combine them with yours, but I kind of like doing it myself with my own powers. Especially with how biotics work in this game. To automatically grab and enemy with pull, aim them towards a direction yourself, and then throw them. It's wildly entertaining.
I agree the beginning feels a bit off in pacing though and immediately throws you in this dire situation without any real build up. Felt like it was rushing me to get to shooting things. At least shooting those things was fun. Things start slowing down a bit after that first mission similar to the first Mass Effect when you reach the Citadel and more dialogue is involved. Those parts I've always liked in ME. Unfortunately in this one it comes with a sizable amount of bad writing, with some of the banter during combat being unbearable at times. "I killed it, by shooting it in its stupid head" is a line in the game, or something along those lines. Dumbest [censored] I've ever heard. At least with the dialogue system itself though, I like the dialogue options focusing more on expressing your character's personality rather than the typical "good, neutral, bad" options of old. Its turned out better than I expected. I stopped playing when getting to the Nexus and speaking to only the female Krogan. I'll play for whatever hours I have left tomorrow and see what's left.
Overall, I can see myself playing more of this game. Despite some issues, it does feel nice to be back in the Mass Effect universe again.
amiablepercy
Banned
Down on the direction button. You run the orange box over a landscape and you should here and auditory cue and a rumble when there is something in the general area of where your pointing that is scannable.
Sometimes you will get story tidbits and sometimes you will start off some group chatter but you almost always get currency that you will use later on. I find it is better to get in the highest point where you can see everything and do the scan then and you will have a general idea of where stuff is.
I was able to reproduce that horribly awkward running animation from that GIF that is making the rounds. In order to do so, I basically had to hold down the walk forward key while rapidly hitting my left and right strafe keys. Not saying it couldn't have glitched out for the GIF creator, but it seems to me like they went looking to break the game by intentionally entering erratic inputs.
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
If it seriously was that easy then so many games would be 10/10 stories or openings.
I think you're seriously underselling how the pace builds up and how much ND put into making Sarah believeable as a little girl.
Consensus that combat is great,guys ?
What is it comparable to ?
A faster, better handling Mass Effect 3.
Never played ME3.
Played ME2 years ago,can't quite recall the experience.short lived playthrough.
Ok, so after playing three hours it is very hard to judge for me. Yes, definitely, the animations, facial animations and some of the writing is honestly very disappointing. I honestly cannot believe how ugly some NPCs are, and how unpolished the overall game feels, it is surprising considering this is Mass Effect for the first time in this console generation. It feels rushed and careless, not from a mature IP or veteran developer with the financial backing of EA. I am not trying to undermine the developers work, not trying to be that person, but compared to what we have seen from The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn I would say they have no excuses.
That being said, I do have great things to say, the game is actually a lot of fun. I am very intrigued by the setup, loving the mystery, the sense of exploration, the music,
and I am getting a very good vibe of my time with the original Mass Effect trilogy. So it is truly disappointing to see the potencial of a great game be squandered by maybe releasing it to early or just poor execution. Either way, so far this game is not bad, so far it has been fun, I would encourage people interested in it not to be dissuaded by the animations, but don't go expecting to much on that department, and presentation in general is very inconsistent. Maybe it gets better eventually, I hope, but if it doesn't I will manage, still a good game in my opinion so far. I hope everybody that gives it a chance has fun!
That being said, I do have great things to say, the game is actually a lot of fun. I am very intrigued by the setup, loving the mystery, the sense of exploration, the music,
loved the cutscene of the Kett leader trying to replicate what Alec Ryder did
amiablepercy
Banned
For me the jet back is a game changer. It is versatile and gives me so many more strategies to think about. The verticality added to the game is awesome too. Jetpacking to a ledge throwing down some cover fire for Lliam. It is fun as heck. PLUS all the cover is procedurally generated so things are mixed up and self-refreshing.
10 hours? More like 10 minutes.
I didn't even get to Eos. Played too much Salarian Infiltrator*. Now dumb ol' me let my time run out and I can't update strike missions until launch.
*I play my Salarian as if he was a Krogan**
**This is apparently not the best way to play a stealthy snipey Infiltrator***
***But it's so much fun
I didn't even get to Eos. Played too much Salarian Infiltrator*. Now dumb ol' me let my time run out and I can't update strike missions until launch.
*I play my Salarian as if he was a Krogan**
**This is apparently not the best way to play a stealthy snipey Infiltrator***
***But it's so much fun
cripterion
Member
What's funny is people asking for codes to share their Ryders. You can literally make any Ryder you see from looking at other people's shots in jiffy since they'll all look the same, the things that change the face the most being the face preset you choose and hair lol. You can't change eyebrow type, nose type, mouth type, eyes type... Awesome right?
Facial hair is just... ok no more. And for fucks sake let's up skip the intro. It's annoying to go through it again when you wanna see how your Ryder will look like under cutscene/talks.
I made a black Ryder and somehow he looks like an old man when making facial expressions when he looked young and ok during the character creation process.
Blue Ninja
Member
I thought it was great.
It's hard for me to draw a parallel, I don't play a ton of third person shooters.