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Mass Effect: Andromeda - Game Informer Details (Combat, story, more) [Up: All Info]

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Harlequin

Member
It sounded like your first name is locked. People will still call you Ryder though because you're playing as one or the other.

They're probably going for locked first names because you will be interacting with your sibling (and it sounds like your father, as well... maybe?) and it would be incredibly awkward to try and write dialogue between two siblings where they have to avoid saying each other's first names :p.
 

Schlorgan

Member
Probably not. Past BioWare games let you have whatever first name you liked, because no one ever addressed you that way anyway. You were either Shepard, Inquisitor, Warden or insert-rank/title-here.

So even if you named yourself Gandhi Ryder, it wouldn't matter. No one's going to call you Gandhi anyhow.

Play as FemRyder, name her
Dylan
. :3
 
All of tht sounds MUCH better than the mediocre trailer they showed.
Now I can be reassured this is going along nicely, and im interested more in the game.

The change to an alpha protocol dialogue wheel, if it works well with differents outcomes, will be very welcomed. I also hope you can still question guys further to get more info like in the old games.
 

Sou Da

Member
They're probably going for locked first names because you will be interacting with your sibling (and it sounds like your father, as well... maybe?) and it would be incredibly awkward to try and write dialogue between two siblings where they have to avoid saying each other's first names :p.

They've already confirmed it's not locked.
 

diaspora

Member
Even then it had those foot in the mouth moments where picked reaction and line said didn't meet.



No, first name is up to player.

Most voiced RPGs with dialogue choices do AFAIK. Witcher 3 did with hilariously silly/stupid results like when Geralt tells someone to fuck off when you just wanted to say "no".
 
Ok so the character model here looks great, but shit those fucking rocks man. Those rocks were everywhere in Inquisition and I'm sick of them. Enough is enough. Whoever it is in the environment design team who visited Northern Ireland that one time needs to move the fuck on.
I really don't like those rocks
.


You have no idea how much i agree with you on this aspect
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
-The Nomad isn't sluggish and cumbersome like the Mako, it's very fast, still boosts and maneuvers much better

Impossible.

1tD2qmL.gif


-There are no loading screens as you move through the ship

Thank goodness, I hated that from previous games.

And I'm glad at all the Character and Relationships details. It seems they have learned.

And please Bioware, don't fuck up the multi-game choice design in future installments. Don't write yourselves into a damn corner this time.
 
I pretty much gave up on the series after ME1, but the moment I saw that cooldowns were no longer global, this game suddenly made me care again. Now if they can just pull off all(well, at least some of) the other crap they are promising this time, I may just find myself getting back in. At least for the first game.
 

GorillaJu

Member
They're probably going for locked first names because you will be interacting with your sibling (and it sounds like your father, as well... maybe?) and it would be incredibly awkward to try and write dialogue between two siblings where they have to avoid saying each other's first names :p.

It's not that bad. We have lots of usable pronouns in English that make it easy.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
So often it's

Game 1
Major problem with A
Minor problems with B and C

Game 2
Major improvement on A
Major problem on B or C

They can't fix one thing without fucking up something else. Let's see if that's the case here.

Well, it would be wise to keep expectations in check, honestly, because just look at what happened to Inquisition. For example, all the talk about meaningful choices about how you can choose yourself how you can develop your bases around the world with options like might, politics, etc turned out to be complete hogwash. They even cut the whole "choose between a village or your base" thing that featured a Varric cutscene completely from the final game. So yeah...

Which I love honestly. I swear I'm like the only person I know who loves modern BioWare more than old BioWare by a massive margin.

Hey, I have no shame nor qualms in admitting that I love Bioware, despite their faults. I prefer their games much more than a vast majority of what are available right now. I played more than 1.000 hours in ME3 multiplayer alone, lol, and Dragon Age series alone already consumed that many hours of my life as well, if not more.
 

B-Genius

Unconfirmed Member
Everything sounds really promising, especially the "Choices" bullet points.
Sounds like they understand what they want to do with that system, and where players felt it fell short.
 

Harlequin

Member
They've already confirmed it's not locked.

Ah, fair enough. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be relieved or disappointed. On the one hand, being able to name your character can increase your sense of ownership a bit but, on the other hand, I really would've liked them to not have to work around not being able to use a character's first name so much in the dialogues. At the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter seeing as both options have their pros and cons.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Ah, fair enough. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be relieved or disappointed. On the one hand, being able to name your character can increase your sense of ownership a bit but, on the other hand, I really would've liked them to not have to work around not being able to use a character's first name so much in the dialogues. At the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter seeing as both options have their pros and cons.

Would it be too much work, I wonder, if they can do it like in Fallout 4's robort butler calling you by your first name but only if your name is within the list of names.

I guess to expand that to multitude of characters require too much work... but maybe they can do that for your sibling only? It's really weird for a Ryder to call the other Ryder with just... Ryder.
 

Tagyhag

Member
-The squadmate with the least amount of lines in Andromeda has more lines than the squadmate with the most amount of lines in ME3

That is awesome to hear.

-Emphasis that relationships don't just culminate in a sex scene, but rather characters can just want to get in the sack, while others are interested in long term relationships and others still aren't interested at all. Bioware wanted to capture more "shooting bottles with Garrus" moments in the game, of which there are plenty

While the relationship portion sounds great, I think them trying to capture more moments like the bottles and Garrus feels forced.

That moment with Garrus worked because you've fought with the guy across 3 games and known him for over 100 hours of gameplay. It's not going to have the same impact if you go on a romantic boatride with an Elcor that you've only known for 5 hours.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Combing over the details, I really like a vast majority of what I'm reading. I'm hoping the game manages to balance pursuing new ideas for the franchise without a loss of identity, and many of these points embrace that philosophy. It seems influenced by the concepts established in the first Mass Effect, namely more open, emergent environments, but is properly utilizing modern technology that can benefit this vision more than the last generation. I also quite like a lot of the line blurring implied in class, loadout, and conversation; I find "role playing" to be an incredibly vague concept, one I have my own definition for, and I don't always agree with the belief that rigid class systems and whatnot constitute as good role playing. A lengthy action RPG like Mass Effect could benefit tremendously from a more organic approach to character development and dialogue interactivity, particularly in build diversity and tonal responses.

Basically all my concerns are far more to do with the overall execution and narrative direction than what is written here, and much of that is impossible to gauge without playing for myself and seeing more of the game in motion. While I endorse the system changes, it's also possible BioWare has double downed on accessibility and the game will have lost its identity in that respect, and I hope that isn't the case. Though they're citing moving away from Inquisition style quest and objective structure, proof in play is better than words, and it's not outlandish for a developer to think they're doing differently when really it's just the same shit with a new coat of paint.

Narratively I feel the cinematic trailer is a lot of bunk, and Inquisition really drilled in my wavering opinion on BioWare's writers. It's a bit of a cunty thing to say I guess, but while BioWare still knock it out of the park every now and then, man some of their writing (particularly in characters) is so obnoxiously amateurish. Or the less wanky critical version; I don't like a lot of BioWare's writing style. It's absolutely nothing new; the trilogy was full of it. But I'm noticing it impacts my attention and investment in the lore and story, and I start to drift. "WE are the aliens!" from the latest trailer is such a dumb, bunk line; did nobody realize or expect this? Peebee is also a worry. Different strokes for different folks, but BioWare has this awful tendency to write obnoxious, one dimensional gimmick characters that double down in their shtick. I hope their writers do their best to avoid this. Same goes for the overall arc; it's interesting playing other games that handle their complex themes so elegantly and with a breadth of maturity that dwarves BioWare's work. Maybe it's deliberate; their aim for more simplistic, pop-like handling of themes. And that's cool. But it is wearing thin on me.

Nevertheless, I'm pumped. Gonna pick up the mag when I see it in stores (if I can in Australia), and begin my next collection of Mass Effect crap.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Combing over the details, I really like a vast majority of what I'm reading. I'm hoping the game manages to balance pursuing new ideas for the franchise without a loss of identity, and many of these points embrace that philosophy. It seems influenced by the concepts established in the first Mass Effect, namely more open, emergent environments, but is properly utilizing modern technology that can benefit this vision more than the last generation. I also quite like a lot of the line blurring implied in class, loadout, and conversation; I find "role playing" to be an incredibly vague concept, one I have my own definition for, and I don't always agree with the belief that rigid class systems and whatnot constitute as good role playing. A lengthy action RPG like Mass Effect could benefit tremendously from a more organic approach to character development and dialogue interactivity, particularly in build diversity and tonal responses.

Basically all my concerns are far more to do with the overall execution and narrative direction than what is written here, and much of that is impossible to gauge without playing for myself and seeing more of the game in motion. While I endorse the system changes, it's also possible BioWare has double downed on accessibility and the game will have lost its identity in that respect, and I hope that isn't the case. Though they're citing moving away from Inquisition style quest and objective structure, proof in play is better than words, and it's not outlandish for a developer to think they're doing differently when really it's just the same shit with a new coat of paint.

Narratively I feel the cinematic trailer is a lot of bunk, and Inquisition really drilled in my wavering opinion on BioWare's writers. It's a bit of a cunty thing to say I guess, but while BioWare still knock it out of the park every now and then, man some of their writing (particularly in characters) is so obnoxiously amateurish. Or the less wanky critical version; I don't like a lot of BioWare's writing style. It's absolutely nothing new; the trilogy was full of it. But I'm noticing it impacts my attention and investment in the lore and story, and I start to drift. "WE are the aliens!" from the latest trailer is such a dumb, bunk line; did nobody realize or expect this? Peebee is also a worry. Different strokes for different folks, but BioWare has this awful tendency to write obnoxious, one dimensional gimmick characters that double down in their shtick. I hope their writers do their best to avoid this. Same goes for the overall arc; it's interesting playing other games that handle their complex themes so elegantly and with a breadth of maturity that dwarves BioWare's work. Maybe it's deliberate; their aim for more simplistic, pop-like handling of themes. And that's cool. But it is wearing thin on me.

Nevertheless, I'm pumped. Gonna pick up the mag when I see it in stores (if I can in Australia), and begin my next collection of Mass Effect crap.

EC, reading your thoughts over the years has been one of the more unique highlights of being a part of this fandom. I always enjoy your posts.

I've been writing articles all day and my brain is suitably fried so I can't say much else right now but I look forward to discussing the finer points of this game with you and other friendly folks in the coming months. I'm going to pick me up a copy of this magazine, tomorrow, myself.

lurNoVy.png


This seems a little passive aggressive? lol. It's kinda like "I'm joking but not really".

What in tarnation.

shinobi, I hope this gets resolved for you ASAP.
 
Nevertheless, I'm pumped. Gonna pick up the mag when I see it in stores (if I can in Australia), and begin my next collection of Mass Effect crap.

Are you getting a collector edition, the one with the mako?

Made me laugh looking for mass effect andromeda on amazon and seeing there is a coloring book coming out for mass effect andromeda lol. Like literally a coloring book as typically for kids...

https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1506702872/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1478574813&sr=8-7&keywords=mass+effect+andromeda
 

Sanctuary

Member
And at the end of the game, your crew goes insane and kills each other, while your now possessed Ark travels back to the Milky Way to be discovered by a mining crew. In preparation of the sun dying.

-All key elements are still intact but the studio wanted to encourage more experimentation and wider variety of abilities

$$$

Game almost sounds too good to be true, so it probably is.

-Class system is gone; instead you have full access to abilities from all classes, you can mix and match skills from tech, soldier or biotics
-Goal is to allow players to try different approaches to combat without being locked in at the start

And there it is. Willpower and all that, but the class system was what made the previous games replayable. Guess I'll have to pretend it's a Souls game when picking abilities.


"Hmm, names, names...looks at Normandy...Oh, okay, Normandy!"

Yea at least half as good as the PC version *snigger*

I really want proper gameplay now, this in-engine stuff is lame.

Most likely no HDR on the PC version, which will be lame, because I'll still pick the PC version for the frame rate.

Since Mass Effect 2 they all wanted to make was a space shooter. They cited games like Call of Duty over and over as inspirations for the kind of franchise they wanted. They are finally using this opportunity to make that.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone familiar with Mass Effect's development over the years. James Vega was designed specifically as a tool to introduce the game to that shooter audience. The gameplay changes and multiplayer design were born out of that, This is just a continuation of it. This was always the plan, they want to make a shooter with RPG elements, not a tactical based RPG.

Bioware has always called the Mass Effect series a Shooter/RPG hybrid. Always. It's only misperceptions about what the series was supposed to be, and the fact that the combat in the first game was trash-tier that have so many screaming "sellout" or "dumb TPS" with the sequels, and that the first game was supposed to be a "true" RPG. No, it wasn't. The combat was simply terrible. Andromeda might actually be the first game that lives up to their initial vision.

What was this actual role-playing that the second two didn't have?

Being able to swap out armor and mods! Being able to invest 5 skill point cubes to gain a 20% increase, instead of being able to invest 1 rank (that cost 5 skill points) for a 20% increase!
 

Harlequin

Member
Would it be too much work, I wonder, if they can do it like in Fallout 4's robort butler calling you by your first name but only if your name is within the list of names.

I guess to expand that to multitude of characters require too much work... but maybe they can do that for your sibling only? It's really weird for a Ryder to call the other Ryder with just... Ryder.

I did think of that and it would be pretty awesome but at the end of the day, if they have to decide between recording the same lines over and over just with different names and actually recording more unique lines, I'd rather they go with the latter.
 
The more I think about it the more I like the concept of no fixed class. One thing that annoyed me in Dragon age inquisition for example was that a warrior could only have a melee weapon and not a ranged weapon, if you wanted a bow you had to be a rogue. Mass Effect was similar in terms of abilities like a vanguard's powers were all short range (except pull which is very situational)

As long as there isn't a loss of depth/variety (eg I want a vanguard charge) this could be a good thing.

The whole various arks thing also leads me to believe that sequels to andromeda could potentially have multiple player characters in a single game like halo sequels did.
 
You can see Liam in the cinematic trailer at a couple of spots. He's got the baggy pants/casual look going on mixed with white military armour.
 
what is the difference between shinobi posting every point of info from the magazine and someone posting the entire contents of an article from a website? Why is one frowned upon and this is not?

I am not saying I am personally offended or have anything against shinobi, i'm actually grateful for the writeup. I am just wondering where the line is drawn. Having that wall of info in the OP surely reduces the potential of number of sales/subscriptions/hits gameinformer will get, especially because its such a huge feature for them. The incentive to go to the source is not there anymore.
 

xealo

Member
Why can't they just list the replies normally like Witcher series or DA:O.

Even the Witcher uses a paraphrase system in it's latest release.

The paraphrase system is fine really, as long as what the character actually says in the voiceline is reasonably close to the tone implied.
 
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