While I get where your coming from I still think that's not the whole case either. Mass Effect 1 is my favourite because of the story but also the sense of exploration. I like this one also because I can see the sum of its parts being good. While the story may not be as good as the first or the writing as good (I will judge this once I have finished the game) the old feeling of exploration is definitely there.
EA/OA Mass Effect Andromeda includes Day1 Patch, no launch day animation improvements
- Thread starter Horse Armour
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While I get where your coming from I still think that's not the whole case either. Mass Effect 1 is my favourite because of the story but also the sense of exploration. I like this one also because I can see the sum of its parts being good. While the story may not be as good as the first or the writing as good (I will judge this once I have finished the game) the old feeling of exploration is definitely there.
So you're basing this off of the internet hate troll machine and some gifs, not actually playing it? game is Mass Effect through and through. It's great so far. Every 'plot' or 'dialogue' issue people have had have been either absurdly unfounded, or that single npc saying my face is tired.
Yeah Drew's leaving Bioware was too much to handle for them, ME3 really suffered from that and MEA looks terrible, is ME Dead ?
That's a custom character. If you go back in the video, you see the default Fem Ryder which they customize.
Depends primarily on sales and secondarily if EA is willing to use Montreal once more to lead a major project after what has presumably happened after 5 years.
If the game sells well, you most likely will see a sequel - the brand is still pretty strong and I don't see them abandoning it unless the game is a major disappointment sales-wise and critically. They still went ahead with DA:I after DA2, so...
That's only part of it. I enjoy the game am not here to persuade others to like it, just don't like this crap about if you are a true Mass Effect fan you will hate it bullshit.
Perhaps you missed the poster I was responding to claiming that "true ME fans" would be buying this game despite all the issues that have become painfully evident in the lead up to release. Mine was meant as a rebuttal. You're free to disagree of course but for those of us who loved ME for it's narrative and characters I feel it rings true.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Narrative and interaction are gameplay in RPG'S.
Then I apologise, and he is incorrect. Being a true ME fan has no bearing on wether you buy or skip this game.
Tertullian
Member
We now have tens of hours of footage and half a dozen previews whose response to the game can best be summarized as "eek..." All of the characters look like squishy mannequins. All of the writing ranges from middling to really bad. I took John Walker's preview with a grain of salt too, but it's clear at this point that this stuff is just not good. And there is no "internet hate machine" here. Tons of high-profile games have come out in the past month with no internet mob making fun of them. This game has just shown really badly. People are saying this game doesn't look good because this game doesn't look good.
DrunkShogun
Member
That basically makes the game pointless for me because the main appeal is the story and characters. Guess the first game to fail to deliver has arrived in 2017.
FlutterPuffs
Member
This is how cults get started.
Neogaf isn't some monolithic identity. If you check the GAF GOTY awards, year after year games with a narrative focus do well.
All of this using the "stupid" definition of what gameplay is.
I mean yea but your first part of the sentence contradicts the statement you make in the 2nd part when you imply that it's always the narrative focus games that do well in GOTY awards.
Vincent Grayson
Member
A big chunk of the gameplay in an RPG is the dialogue and conversation elements, so if those suck (or animate in a goofy way), that's going to hurt it in many people's eyes.
That's the only thing I've taken out of this launch. Even though, IIRC, Shinobi has played longer than we have so it might be the case that the game does a 180 and stops being a jankfest later on.
I doubt it.
I trust that Shinobi truly does enjoy the game but I don't think my tastes align with his on this one. You're free to (and should) come to your own conclusions.
LOL, since when is that a NeoGAF creed? In my experience there's more extremely long threads freaking out about tiny 'downgrades' or other graphical things here than in any other gaming forum I visit. Like it's not even close.
Personally I'm squarely in the middle on this one -- I'm pretty incredulous about how terrible these animations are, and how badly they hold up against games from 3+ years ago with lower budgets and shorter dev cycles.
On the other hand, if the game's fun I'll play it -- some of my favourite games are either A) old and clunky as hell or B) janky as hell or C) both -- so I find it more amusing than anything. I get why ME superfans would be pretty disappointed though.
Hardly, GOTY awards contain lots of games. I only said they do well.
cripterion
Member
That's pretty much where I am too.
I'll add though that it's disappointing the game turned out like this and even made more frustrating knowing Frosbite is not mod friendly so we're not likely to see some niggling issues fixed by modders like it was the case for Fallout 4, for example.
SunBroDave
Member
No it doesn't. His point was that both gameplay heavy games AND story heavy games do well every year.
MisterShine
Member
Read impressions from the Origin access thread + ME community thread. A lot of people posting similar things to Shinobi, from people who have actually played the trial
Not to say that anybody bashing the game just hasn't played it, it just seems a bit more mixed-to-positive elsewhere.
For me I still remember HATING the first couple hours of ME2 when I first played it on release night, so my lukewarm response to the first couple of hours to Andromeda is not concerning.
texhnolyze
Banned
But do we have to dismiss the positive impressions then?
Lots of Gaffers have actually played the trials and found the game fun and can't wait for the release day. What else matters?
Mass Effect is an third person action series with light RPG undertones. I wouldn't really place too much credence in its RPG credentials. Even the first game - mountains of awful loot and clipboard side missions don't make a compelling case for being called a core RPG.
cripterion
Member
What I've played was fun and I want to play more of it. I'm still highly critical of many things I see in the game. And well the bugs and other things still have me in tears.
If this were a game like Ninja Gaiden or something you might have a point. But yeah, the gameplay looks solid for sure.
The fuck are people on about this "if you are a fan you need to buy despite problems" bs?
It's like reverse entitlement. Actually it should be the other way around. Ahuge fan of the franchise would let his money speak, this is the best feedback there is
Maybe he is simply enjoying the game? I am sure many of the fans will, including myself on at least some level. I honestly think it is going to be a mixed bag that is incredibly unpolished or even unfinished. But that does not mean that everything is going to be a complete mess.
oneils
Member
Cdpr has a track record of enhancing its games after release. I don't think bioware has ever really done that. For better or worse, mea is not really going to change much. My hype has been deflated. I really hope the multiplayer is good.
texhnolyze
Banned
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's clear that the game is so janky it's undeniable. But the most important thing is still that one word, fun. No need to push people away from the game. Just let them make their own judgement.
jediyoshi
Member
Phew, good thing you're here to put things into objective perspective. How else were we supposed to know the way in which discourse worked? Who taught you all this wisdom?
Soul of the Beast
Member
The Japanese voice acting in Breath of The Wild is absolutely incredible. Not everyone here played the English version you know?
MisterShine
Member
I'm very much in the camp that these problems are being way overblown by the memetic nature of gifs and images, but Bethesda absolutely gets ripped for these problems. Fallout 4 especially was savaged by a lot of the gaming public (and media, once the hype died down)
cripterion
Member
Mods would be the difference. They know it and even found its way on consoles. It's something they can rely on.
I don't give Bethesda a pass though. Fallout 4 sucked and couldn't barely stomach playing it, spent more time installing and trying mods than actually playing the damn thing.
Meanwhile, I've actually played the entirety of the playable portion of the game. As have tons of other people. When most of the people trying to shit on it have clearly not even touched it, yes it's just 'internet hate machine' nonsense.
Get a pass? They get shit on a lot, and Fallout 4 especially seem to have passed the lime light pretty quickly.
Skyrim was pre-Witcher 3, so expectations for this kind of game were lower i think.
Get a pass? Damn man, we're not even close to Fallout 4 levels of criticism from people yet.
Even then, Bethesda Jank was talked about a lot, and rightfully so even though I've enjoyed all their games.
But yeah, we're close to a decade since the original Mass Effect and certain elements like the animation in this game somehow feel like a step backwards.
Yoda
Member
Just finished the Giantbomb stream, the animations are really bad. I'm not sure how they managed to make them significantly worse than DA:I, (which weren't spectacular to being with) but they did. While it's theoretically possible for them to patch these, I suspect that won't happen due to the amount of work it'd entail.
I'm also not optimistic about the story, given how abysmal a lot of the dialogue is. Are good writers really that expensive?
I'm also not optimistic about the story, given how abysmal a lot of the dialogue is. Are good writers really that expensive?
Yeah I don't expect any noticeable improvement witb the animations. If there is I'll be pleasantly surprised.
It seems like the eyes could be fixed in a patch, though, no? or at least improved.
Posted this in the hilarous anims thread:
Makes sense that you can't "patch" the animations. I think they have been done using an "audio-only" solve for their facial animations.
That means they recorded audio lines in a booth and these get batched through a software that generates facial animation from the .wav files as the only source.
e.g. Face FX.
https://www.facefx.com/
Not saying it was that piece of software though, dunno how good that is normally!
But an audio only solve is always inferior to real performance capture (if done right).
The sheer amount of lines and the branching they have in the game probably made going for real performance capture too frightening of a workload with the looming deadline?
With performance capture you have to have your actors with a headrig with camera(s) attached and marked up. Those markers get tracked and then translated into the facial performance in the game. This process is not really automatic and needs handholding often times which is expensive but also gives accurate translation of performance if done well.
I think WITCHER 3 also had this "audio-only" solve for their facial animations, but then had animators go in and push that facial sequence further with manual love.
Makes sense that you can't "patch" the animations. I think they have been done using an "audio-only" solve for their facial animations.
That means they recorded audio lines in a booth and these get batched through a software that generates facial animation from the .wav files as the only source.
e.g. Face FX.
https://www.facefx.com/
Not saying it was that piece of software though, dunno how good that is normally!
But an audio only solve is always inferior to real performance capture (if done right).
The sheer amount of lines and the branching they have in the game probably made going for real performance capture too frightening of a workload with the looming deadline?
With performance capture you have to have your actors with a headrig with camera(s) attached and marked up. Those markers get tracked and then translated into the facial performance in the game. This process is not really automatic and needs handholding often times which is expensive but also gives accurate translation of performance if done well.
I think WITCHER 3 also had this "audio-only" solve for their facial animations, but then had animators go in and push that facial sequence further with manual love.
Stone Ocean
Member
The first Mass Effect is a 10 year old game and the first game in the franchise. We expect series to evolve over iterations, not have the same problems.