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[Vengal]

No developer goes to such extreme lengths to make the player character literally Jesus as BioWare does.

That's their first problem, and until they come to terms with that, they'll never be able to break the holding pattern they're in. It's very similar to Blizzard, imo, another company that (once upon a time) was known for having quality storytelling before they completely devolved into embarrassing fanfiction-tier garbage.

BioWare's better than Blizzard. But that's setting the bar very very low.



The Mass Effect trilogy barely has a plot throughline across multiple games, let alone within individual games. That's a pretty big hole.

Im a pretty big Blizzard fan and buy most their games, but i dunno if I would call any of them "quality" storytelling. An unrelated tangent but what specifically that they produced would you consider that?

Its possible my fever dreams of Azmodan mustache twirling in D3 and going through the Dark Portal sliders style to the past, or thrall smoking a hooka with deathwing is coloring my views of blizzard storytelling however.

 

[jtb]

Im a pretty big Blizzard fan and buy most their games, but i dunno if I would call any of them "quality" storytelling. An unrelated tangent but what specifically that they produced would you consider that?

Its possible my fever dreams of Azmodan mustache twirling in D3 and going through the Dark Portal sliders style to the past, or thrall smoking a hooka with deathwing is coloring my views of blizzard storytelling however.

like... OG Starcraft.

I mean, people used to marvel at their pre-rendered custscenes and everything. Idk. I'm with you though, they're trash now.

 

[Jarmel]

The Mass Effect trilogy barely has a plot throughline across multiple games, let alone within individual games. That's a pretty big hole.

So what? Yes as a whole all three didn't flow together well but that has less to do with the individual writing in each of the three games and more of a general fault with Walters who switched direction after ME2. All three games have a clear plot contained within each game with a precise endpoint in mind. ME1's was to stop Saren and Sovereign, ME2 was to investigate the Collectors and stop them, ME3 was to stop the Reaper invasion.

 

[Kimaka]

It's way more in The Witcher 3 school of questing with regards to narrative and lore. Even rote sidequests have something interesting to say, about these settlers/colonists and their struggles. Once you start visiting multiple planets, you start to see the open-world "rhythm" or "seams," so to speak, with some repeating activities that increase planet viability and allow settlement. But there's just a metric crapload of sidequest with good stories on top of that.

Did you encounter quests that you could complete in multiple ways? In the trial, I only found two sidequests that were more than just fetch quests, but they were linear and at the end of them you only had two choices to choose from.

 

[TheYanger]

Have you played Fallout 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition? How does it compare structure-wise to those two games? Because it sounds a lot more similar to those two games, with settlement, resource collection, general repetition...

It's literally nothing like DA:I.

It has the facebook mission table (which ties to multiplayer) which might take you ten seconds per play session to interact with if you want. Beyond that it's all actual sidequests so far, there are random resources you can get for crafting but you don't need to, you can scan shit and read entries about them but you don't need to.

Did you encounter quests that you could complete in multiple ways? In the trial, I only found two sidequests that were more than just fetch quests, but they were linear and at the end of them you only had two choices to choose from.

Since when does having multiple ways to solve every quest become a requirement to it being a non-fetch quest? those two things don't mean the same thing at all.

I think the lack of paragon renegade makes some people not realize the options you're being given/taking either, any time a dialogue choice has the 3 branching arrow,s it's a decision that is cutting off the other options.

 

[ironcreed]

More great looking characters that people have created:

So refreshing to see these.

 

[nelsonroyale]

It's way more in The Witcher 3 school of questing with regards to narrative and lore. Even rote sidequests have something interesting to say, about these settlers/colonists and their struggles. Once you start visiting multiple planets, you start to see the open-world "rhythm" or "seams," so to speak, with repeating activities that increase planet viability and allow settlement. But there's a metric crapload of sidequests with good stories on top of that.

That definitely sounds promising. You are using a spectrum where say W3 would be on one of side quest design, and Dragon Age Inquisition would be near the other?

 

[KyleOnTheRun]

Have you played Fallout 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition? How does it compare structure-wise to those two games? Because it sounds a lot more similar to those two games, with settlement, resource collection, general repetition...

Played Fallout 4, not DA:I. I watched my wife play through DA:I.

I guess structurally (but not in quality of sidequests) you could liken it to Inquisition in that you move through "zones" (in this case, planets) through the course of the game and, to a large extent, it's up to you when you want to move on with the adventure or tinker away on the planet. The planets have consistent activities

Spoiler

(every planet has Forward Operating Bases, a Vault to unlock, etc.)

, but any repetition would be self-inflicted.

 

[cripterion]

It's way more in The Witcher 3 school of questing with regards to narrative and lore. Even rote sidequests have something interesting to say, about these settlers/colonists and their struggles. Once you start visiting multiple planets, you start to see the open-world "rhythm" or "seams," so to speak, with repeating activities that increase planet viability and allow settlement. But there's a metric crapload of sidequests with good stories on top of that.

That's actually good to hear.

 

[TI82]

I see this guy is still here attacking people for not liking the game. 👀

It's literally nothing like DA:I.

It has the facebook mission table (which ties to multiplayer) which might take you ten seconds per play session to interact with if you want. Beyond that it's all actual sidequests so far, there are random resources you can get for crafting but you don't need to, you can scan shit and read entries about them but you don't need to.

Since when does having multiple ways to solve every quest become a requirement to it being a non-fetch quest? those two things don't mean the same thing at all.

I think the lack of paragon renegade makes some people not realize the options you're being given/taking either, any time a dialogue choice has the 3 branching arrow,s it's a decision that is cutting off the other options.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

.
Since when does having multiple ways to solve every quest become a requirement to it being a non-fetch quest? those two things don't mean the same thing at all.

thats not what they said.

 

[KyleOnTheRun]

Did you encounter quests that you could complete in multiple ways? In the trial, I only found two sidequests that were more than just fetch quests, but they were linear and at the end of them you only had two choices to choose from.

Yeah, lots. A few really interesting ones

Spoiler

don't really telegraph how your choices are changing the quest until the very end, when its resolution is clearly a result of your dialogue choices.

That definitely sounds promising. You are using a spectrum where say W3 would be on one of side quest design, and Dragon Age Inquisition would be near the other?

Pretty much. W3 on one end, typical MMOs on the other. I think a fair way of describing it would be W3-quality writing on a lot of side quests, but like 20-30% of the game feeling like Ubisoft open-world activities -- a thing on the map to do for XP or loot.

 

[Kimaka]

Since when does having multiple ways to solve every quest become a requirement to it being a non-fetch quest? those two things don't mean the same thing at all.

I think the lack of paragon renegade makes some people not realize the options you're being given/taking either, any time a dialogue choice has the 3 branching arrow,s it's a decision that is cutting off the other options.

Maybe I didn't find the right quests, but in the saboteur and murder quests they did not branch. I had two options that said the same thing but in slightly different ways during the quests.

Yeah, lots. A few really interesting ones

Spoiler

don't really telegraph how your choices are changing the quest until the very end, when its resolution is clearly a result of your dialogue choices.

Thanks for responding. I was hoping that was the case. Hard to know if any of some of the decisions I'm making are going to affect anything since I can't play further than the trial.

 

[jtb]

So what? Yes as a whole all three didn't flow together well but that has less to do with the individual writing in each of the three games and more of a general fault with Walters who switched direction after ME2. All three games have a clear plot contained within each game with a precise endpoint in mind. ME1's was to stop Saren and Sovereign, ME2 was to investigate the Collectors and stop them, ME3 was to stop the Reaper invasion.

Eh. A plot is more than just having a big bad (generic, faceless) villain. All three games lack any sense of progression or plot arc. They're very "Here, go to X planets to do some random things that may or may not advance the plot forward" then BOOM something happens.

Along those lines, time to retire the dumb "Visit X locations in any order! ~freedom~" thing which really just ruins pacing and plotting.

 

[TheYanger]

Maybe I didn't find the right quests, but in the saboteur and murder quests they did not branch. I had two options that said the same thing but in slightly different ways during the quests.



Thanks for responding. I was hoping that was the case. Hard to know if any of some of the decisions I'm making are going to affect anything since I can't play further than the trial.

The murder quest literally ends with a branch. So does the Saboteur.

Spoiler

You can either let the murder conviction stand or you can have them let the guy go as innocent, and similarly you can let the saboteur go into exile or you can jail him

I see this guy is still here attacking people for not liking the game. ��

Correcting blatant misinformation != attacking someone for not liking the game. I see you're managing to still be here screaming about how nobody should play it, so what's your beef?

 

[TI82]

Yeah, lots. A few really interesting ones

Spoiler

don't really telegraph how your choices are changing the quest until the very end, when its resolution is clearly a result of your dialogue choices.

Pretty much. W3 on one end, typical MMOs on the other. I think a fair way of describing it would be W3-quality writing on a lot of side quests, but like 20-30% of the game feeling like Ubisoft open-world activities -- a thing on the map to do for XP or loot.

The mining felt incredibly tedious in this game already, does it improve as the game goes on? Also does the NOMAD get better controls because it was not as good as the Mako from my 10 hours of playing experience.

 

[Johnny Cage]

Wow, the time to view a different planet each time is unreal. Who thought "yeah they'll love this 10 second planet hop every time"

 

[Lime]

The Mass Effect series has never been well-written. If you're lucky, you'll get a handful of competently done characters and an interesting quest line or two.

That doesn't mean that we have to be entirely dismissive of the narrative aspect of video games by saying irrational and uninformed shit like "if I want a story I'll go read a book". It removes any critical standards that we might have of the actual narrative that's one of the main aspects in the game! Why even have dialogue? Why even have characters with backstories? Why even bother with a plot?

It's completely intellectually bankrupt when people want to remove critical thinking and standards from things that are actually prominently present in the game.

 

[jtb]

Witcher 3's side quests weren't that well-designed. (And I love W3) The crutch of the open world meant that there was generally a single critical path to completing every quest -- well designed as it may have been.

Witcher 2? Now that game had great, branching side quest design.

That doesn't mean that we have to be entirely dismissive of the narrative aspect of video games by saying irrational and uninformed shit like "if I want a story I'll go read a book". It removes any critical standards that we might have of the actual narrative that's one of the main aspects in the game! Why even have dialogue? Why even have characters with backstories? Why even bother with a plot?

It's completely intellectually bankrupt when people want to remove critical thinking and standards from things that are actually prominently present in the game.

I agree. I am highly critical of BioWare's repetitive and tissue-paper thin writing because they can do so much better.

For a while, they barely had any competition on the story-driven RPG front. Well, they got worse and the competition got better.

They're getting lapped now.

 

[Jarmel]

Eh. A plot is more than just having a big bad (generic, faceless) villain. All three games lack any sense of progression or plot arc. They're very "Here, go to X planets to do some random things that may or may not advance the plot forward" then BOOM something happens.

Along those lines, time to retire the dumb "Visit X locations in any order! ~freedom~" thing which really just ruins pacing and plotting.

All three have clear plot arcs complete with twists and turns. ME2 was the most episodic in nature due to the whole building a team of separate individuals but there were progression points built in. ME1 and ME3 definitely had a sense of progression.

The issues with the writing in ME1 has more to do with the companions being flat. ME2's problem is that the Collectors aren't an interesting villain and it comes across as a timewaster in the large scheme of things but that's also partially Walter's fault for discarding the dark energy subplot. ME3's problem writing-wise is the whole Earth assault and the shit that follows.

 

[UserDoesNotExist]

Im a pretty big Blizzard fan and buy most their games, but i dunno if I would call any of them "quality" storytelling. An unrelated tangent but what specifically that they produced would you consider that?

Its possible my fever dreams of Azmodan mustache twirling in D3 and going through the Dark Portal sliders style to the past, or thrall smoking a hooka with deathwing is coloring my views of blizzard storytelling however.

No, your sober recollections are the truth. Blizzard games have always been a mismash of stereotypes that would make a manga writer blush, and every. single. one. of their games has the storyline of "hero falls from grace" and, optionally, "later becomes Jesus", but they've always had gameplay and, more importantly, a strong sense of presentation to overcome this defect. Still do.

Bioware, on the other hand, was never god-tier at storytelling, but they were at least competent. Trouble is, they specifically carved out a niche as middlebrow storytelling (by game story standards) and now they have little to fall back on other than "Hey! Remember when Shepherd and Wrex kept saying each other's names? Wasn't that great?"

 

[Poodlestrike]

The mining felt incredible tedious in this game already, does it improve as the game goes on? Also does the NOMAD get better controls because it was not as good as the Mako from my 10 hours of playing experience.

I dunno about the former, but one impression I saw explicitly said that the Nomad is a lot more fun to drive after getting a few upgrades. Stuff we can't get to in the Trial, specifically.

 

[Kimaka]

The murder quest literally ends with a branch. So does the Saboteur.

Spoiler

You can either let the murder conviction stand or you can have them let the guy go as innocent, and similarly you can let the saboteur go into exile or you can jail him

I meant branching during the quests.

Spoiler

There is no way for you to fail to find the right person. You are always directed to the right conclusion.

I also misunderstood your question. I wouldn't expect much of that.

Well, damn.

 

[KyleOnTheRun]

I meant branching during the quests.

Spoiler

There is no way for you to fail to find the right person. You are always directed to the right conclusion.

I also misunderstood your question. I wouldn't expect much of that.

The mining felt incredible tedious in this game already, does it improve as the game goes on? Also does the NOMAD get better controls because it was not as good as the Mako from my 10 hours of playing experience.

What about the NOMAD annoys you? I mostly like it but 4WD feels punishing and annoying -- like the game suddenly drops your speed on even small hills just to force you to use 4WD.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

I meant branching during the quests.

Spoiler

There is no way for you to fail to find the right person. You are always directed to the right conclusion.

Well, damn.

Man, I thought this was obvious.

 

[ajanke]

getting it early tonight. Will let yall know my thoughts in the morning. ps4 pro.

 

[Kimaka]

Man, I thought this was obvious.

I had a slimmer of hope that rest of the game got better in that regard.

 

[OverdriveOtaku]

Does anyone have a good image of the Pathfinder Casual Outfit that comes with the Deluxe Edition Pre-Order?

Trying hard to find an image on Google but only coming across this so far:

 

[Rodney McKay]

What about the NOMAD annoys you? I mostly like it but 4WD feels punishing and annoying -- like the game suddenly drops your speed on even small hills just to force you to use 4WD.

That's definitely one of the things I don't like about it. I'm sure once it's upgraded several times it will probably be better, but at default I would think an ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE built for planet exploration would at least be able to handle anything on Earth (like sand or ice or slopes greater than 45 degrees). lol

 

[MisterShine]

Does anyone have a good image of the Pathfinder Casual Outfit that comes with the Deluxe Edition Pre-Order?
..]

Looks like it'll be Ryder in an Andromeda hoodie... like the one I'm wearing right now, haha.

ME3 vibes all over again of me in my N7 hoodie controlling Shepard running around the Normandy in a matching hoodie.

edit: My google powers have also failed me, friend.

 

[Compsiox]

Campaign definitely ends in bullshit spot for trial.

 

[Chris_Rivera]

Has anyone ordered mass effect andromeda from GMG and got a code?

Normally I buy steam games on GMG and get the codes instantly, not sure if when they release keys for preorders for origin games...

The game doesn't release until Tuesday.

 

[Stantron]

Is there a way to check time left in the 10 hour trial? I'm on X1.
I think I sunk about 4 hours into MP last night. When the rest gets used up this weekend, I'm going to be antsy until the 21st.

 

[OverdriveOtaku]

Looks like it'll be Ryder in an Andromeda hoodie... like the one I'm wearing right now, haha.

Well sure, but the only actual picture of the Pathfinder Casual Outfit I can find so far to visualize it has me like:

 

[Slackbladder]

I also misunderstood your question. I wouldn't expect much of that.



What about the NOMAD annoys you? I mostly like it but 4WD feels punishing and annoying -- like the game suddenly drops your speed on even small hills just to force you to use 4WD.

It's 4WD initially and you go to 6WD to get up inclines etc. And it is upgradeable including performance. However that is likely to annoy some people.

From my experience with the game it plays exactly like earlier Mass Effect games. Maybe that's the problem for some.

 

[Lime]

It's way more in The Witcher 3 school of questing with regards to narrative and lore. Even rote sidequests have something interesting to say, about these settlers/colonists and their struggles. Once you start visiting multiple planets, you start to see the open-world "rhythm" or "seams," so to speak, with repeating activities that increase planet viability and allow settlement. But there's a metric crapload of sidequests with good stories on top of that.

Sounds cool. Looking forward to the full game and more holistic impressions.

For a while, they barely had any competition on the story-driven RPG front. Well, they got worse and the competition got better.

They're getting lapped now.

True, let's hope it improves beyond the first EA access part or so.

 

[adj_noun]

Is there a way to check time left in the 10 hour trial? I'm on X1.

I found out by virtue of the game closing and getting a popup that said my time was up. ;_;

For some reason I'd assumed I'd start getting warning popups or something once I'd reached 9 hours. More the fool me!

 

[Koriandrr]

No. IIRC this was made by the team behind ME3MP and it definitely shows form the faster, more fluid, combat system.

Fake news

I see I see. Interesting. How did this whole rumour start then? Seems like a bizzare thing to say if it's fake.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Does anyone have a good image of the Pathfinder Casual Outfit that comes with the Deluxe Edition Pre-Order?

Trying hard to find an image on Google but only coming across this so far:

https://youtu.be/FGs-pLmDd1s?t=3143

 

[Iceternal]

More great looking characters that people have created:

So refreshing to see these.

OMG the last female Ryder reminds me of an actress, like a perfect rendition.

It seems it's much easier to create a good looking female Ryder than a male.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

It didn't really have the buggy facial expressions but normal convos were far less expressive in general. MEAs faces are much more expressive but that's kind of the problem when there's more that can go wrong.

Yeah DAI had stilted convos, specifically whenever someone different spoke it was like a second pause between lines.

The thing I'm wondering here is how in Inquisition you had some people complaining how with so many conversations they purposefully avoided traditional BioWare cinematic closeups and instead just left the camera in your typical third person POV. And now seeing all the issues some people are having with the animations in conversations, if that choice in Inquisition wasn't just a very intentional one since the animations maybe aren't holding up to that increased level of scrutiny you get when you're more zoomed in? Either way, it seems like something is amiss if they're having issues doing these sort of cinematic closeups and edits that they had previously been doing without any major issues prior to the switch to Frostbite.

Have you played Fallout 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition? How does it compare structure-wise to those two games? Because it sounds a lot more similar to those two games, with settlement, resource collection, general repetition...

More than anything, the red flags I've had with Andromeda has been watching some of the streams and hearing things like "Andromeda Viability Points" or how you'll need to gather resources to wake up people from cryosleep. Hearing stuff like that is just setting off alarms in my head that you're going to have to grind out a bunch of garbage resource collecting or assorted other time wasting things like Inquisition had in order to advance the story or to do that sort of stuff and get a more complete ending or something.

I didn't hate a lot of the grinding resource MMO junk in Inquisition right off the bat. I ended up hating it once I realized I had spent dozens of hours doing that stuff with practically zero narrative payoff for doing any of that. No cool story things happened for doing those damn shards or closing all the portals- you unlocked a mediocre temple boss and got some underwhelming codex entries.

 

[TI82]

I also misunderstood your question. I wouldn't expect much of that.



What about the NOMAD annoys you? I mostly like it but 4WD feels punishing and annoying -- like the game suddenly drops your speed on even small hills just to force you to use 4WD.

The biggest thing is that it's very slow and the boost/jump felt almost pointless. I was constantly getting stuck on the little settlement with

Spoiler

the fiend

?

 

[OverdriveOtaku]

https://youtu.be/FGs-pLmDd1s?t=3143

May fortune smile upon you, my friend. Thank you

 

[rashbeep]

I had a slimmer of hope that rest of the game got better in that regard.

Bethesda/Bioware unfortunately will never get out of that design mentality. Gotta handhold as much as possible.

 

[Lashley]

OMG the last female Ryder reminds me of an actress, like a perfect rendition.

It seems it's much easier to create a good looking female Ryder than a male.

Aisha Tyler?

 

[KyleOnTheRun]

The biggest thing is that it's very slow and the boost/jump felt almost pointless. I was constantly getting stuck on the little settlement with

Spoiler

the fiend

?

You can upgrade the speed and boost later. It's definitely helped a lot and I don't find it nearly as frustrating as I used to.

 

[TI82]

You can upgrade the speed and boost later. It's definitely helped a lot and I don't find it nearly as frustrating as I used to.

That's good, does it also get weapons later on? Also does the mining ever get... good? It felt even worse than ME2 planet scanning.

 

[Professional Enthusiast]

The combat looks fun buy everything else? It has that B-team stench wafting from every hole.

 

[Slackbladder]

That's good, does it also get weapons later on? Also does the mining ever get... good? It felt even worse than ME2 planet scanning.

No weapons for the Nomad which is fine. In ME1 I would use the Mako to snipe enemies and it was too easy.
As for the scanning for minerals it's not as bad as ME2. In ME2 you could find multiple sites on one planet until its resources were 100% found and could take ages. Now you find one and it's done. However when you're on a planet you can still do mining and that seems a little time consuming if you try and follow it very closely. However it probably isn't needed. Most stuff you can make can be bought. Resources for colonies are probably more important.

 

[Jeffolation]

The combat looks fun buy everything else? It has that B-team stench wafting from every hole.

What's that smell like? Wet dog? Spoiled milk?