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[HarryDemeanor]

Regarding romances:

Spoiler

Am I only locked into one romance? Went through Jaal just because I wanted to see where it went. Got to Peebee's zero-g scene and there wasn't any romance option at all.

 

[Grisby]

So I see a lot of the animation budget went into Cora's

Spoiler

_____love_____

scene.

Spoiler

Ryder's got some abs going on.

 

[Freezasaurus]

Regarding romances:

Spoiler

Am I only locked into one romance? Went through Jaal just because I wanted to see where it went. Got to Peebee's zero-g scene and there wasn't any romance option at all.

Peebee's

Spoiler

true romance scene comes later on, but you need to choose the comment about wanting "strings" while you're in the escape pod scene. This might not pop up as an option if you're already committed to another character.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Peebee's

Spoiler

true romance scene comes later on, but you need to choose the comment about wanting "strings" while you're in the escape pod scene. This might not pop up as an option if you're already committed to another character.

Spoiler

Yeah that option didn't pop up at all. Oh well.

 

[Meus Renaissance]

I think I enjoyed Destiny's story and dialogue more than this. I've been rushed to different sectors of the galaxy, and in each planet, there are a thousand side missions to the point I don't even remember why I left the Nexus in the first place.

I'm asked to go to A, then B, then A again before going to C in the Nomad, which gets incredibly tedious. This isn't to mention the constant holding down of the Y button to open door after door.

I had my doubts from the first moment the trailer dropped a few months ago, and it looks like I was right; this is not Mass Effect at all. It should have been a spin-off title.

 

[hawk2025]

Is there a cap on romances per playthrough?

Because I'm hitting on EVERYONE, male or female, from any planet in the universe!

 

[Madness]

Spoiler

Yeah that option didn't pop up at all. Oh well.

Did you ever

Spoiler

flirt with PeeBee? The middle heart option? I had done it twice just to screw around and Cora mentioned it like PeeBee? REALLY? And Scott goes I like her and then Cora is I just don't want blah blah. Eventually you have to commit to one. I think you didn't flirt with PeeBee enough for her to offer strings or no strings and committed to Jaal too quick.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

Is there a cap on romances per playthrough?

Because I'm hitting on EVERYONE, male or female, from any planet in the universe!

Only one true romance, though that was always true in terms of being in a relationship.

There doesn't seem to be as many options for casual encounters, or banging someone and breaking it off then hooking up with another squadmate as in ME2 and 3 though. My Shepherd was such a manwhore in those two games. Started and ended with Liara, but pretty sure I slept with every female option possible in between with the casual encounters and ability to break up and then start relationship with someone else.

 

[hawk2025]

Only one true romance, though that was always true in terms of being in a relationship.

There doesn't seem to be as many options for casual encounters, or banging someone and breaking if off then hooking up with another squadmate as in ME2 and 3 though. My Shepherd was such a manwhore in those two games. Started and ended with Liara, but pretty sure I slept with every female option possible in between with the casual encounters and ability to break up and then start relationship with someone else.

Aw, that sucks.

I guess I'll drop everyone else and stick to... to...

 

[Papercuts]

I ended up in two commited relationships and I am not sure if it was meant to happen or not.

Spoiler

I said no strings with Peebee but later still was able to work and get to her scene, and went for Cora normally.

That + the reporter got me the trophy in one playthrough.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Did you ever

Spoiler

flirt with PeeBee? The middle heart option? I had done it twice just to screw around and Cora mentioned it like PeeBee? REALLY? And Scott goes I like her and then Cora is I just don't want blah blah. Eventually you have to commit to one. I think you didn't flirt with PeeBee enough for her to offer strings or no strings and committed to Jaal too quick.

Spoiler

I flirted at every possible opportunity. Pretty much with everyone whenever the option was available. I think it's just because I committed to Jaal instead of denying him right before having that scene with Peebee. Thought I would be able to romance everybody. I'll just save it another playthrough.

Spoiler

Or maybe it's all tied to the Peebee loyalty mission? She's the only one I have left. Either way it's no big deal.

 

[Mindlog]

I still don't see how the biggest complaint isn't about reloading.
Can't count how many times I fired an empty weapons.

 

[epeternally]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

 

[mbpm1]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. They deserve better. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

it killed the franchise?

 

[megalowho]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. They deserve better. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

I don't know what to say to posts like this. Blame EA for forcing Bioware Edmonton to hit a Q2 release with a game full of known shippable bugs? The mixed/negative reaction cannot be a surprise to those that lived and breathed the game during development, they know where it succeeded and where it fell short better than any of us. There's likely reasons the PR was so tightly kept under wraps. We don't know the ins and outs of project management, key team members leaving, feature creep and any other number of development issues that crop up. Criticism is deserved and fair, and no one's forcing them to crunch "for the fans." It still is likely selling fine and there's gonna be another one. Bet on it.

 

[Madness]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. They deserve better. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

Why because they tried to be inclusive and it still wasn't good enough? How did it kill the franchise forever? I mean how many AAA games do you know make prominent characters gay, thought they would try and incorporate a trans character to increase representation, have a black squadmate again as the only romanceable lead, prominent characters like Sloane Kelly, Reyes Vidal are not necessarily white etc. Obviously more can be done and better but come on.

Also, this is the nature of the industry. It is brutal but no different than other jobs. If you release a sub par product, it needs to be fixed. I think you are overestimating the difficulty they are facing. From what I am hearing, Edmonton is the ones having it tough because they have to sideline their IP and work to now go all hands on deck for Andromeda to get it fixed. I blame EA the most. They are the worst publisher. Ruined TitanFall 2 launch and the series after Respawn made such a great game.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

I don't know what to say to posts like this. Blame EA for forcing Bioware Edmonton to hit a Q2 release with a game full of known shippable bugs? The mixed/negative reaction cannot be a surprise to those that lived and breathed the game during development, they know where it succeeded and where it fell short better than any of us. There's likely reasons the PR was so tightly kept under wraps. We don't know the ins and outs of project management, key team members leaving, feature creep and any other number of development issues that crop up. Criticism is deserved and fair, and no one's forcing them to crunch "for the fans." Plus, there's gonna be another one. Bet on it.

Also, if EA had let them delay it, they'd still be crunching to make the new date. So there's no real impact on their workload.

There is the impact on their reputation and the franchises reputation from putting it out clearly unfinished, so I agree with that part of their post.

Whether we get another one is up in the air IMO. It depends on 1) how well this sells over time (including DLC) and 2) whether Bioware really wants to make another. They clearly didn't view it as their flagship anymore since they pawned it off on the B team. So now it's really up to, again if it sells enough, whether the B team wants another crack at it, or the A team decides they want to re-commit to the IP after they finish whatever they're working on.

 

[Schlorgan]

I don't know what to say to posts like this. Blame EA for forcing Bioware Edmonton to hit a Q2 release with a game full of known shippable bugs? The mixed/negative reaction cannot be a surprise to those that lived and breathed the game during development, they know where it succeeded and where it fell short better than any of us. There's likely reasons the PR was so tightly kept under wraps. We don't know the ins and outs of project management, key team members leaving, feature creep and any other number of development issues that crop up. Criticism is deserved and fair and no one's forcing them to crunch "for the fans." Plus, there's gonna be another one. Bet on it.

Edmonton was a support studio on this, Montreal was the lead developer. They were given this game to make while Edmonton finished up Inquisition and started full development on their new IP. It's apparent that this studio was not ready for a project of this size that they were given so much time and this is the game that came out. It's a sad situation on all sides.

 

[megalowho]

Edmonton was a support studio on this, Montreal was the lead developer. They were given this game to work on while Edmonton finished up Inquisition and started full development of their new IP. It's apparent that this studio was not ready for a project of this size that they were given so much time and this is the game that came out. It's a sad situation on all sides.

True, got the studios mixed up. Thanks for the correction.

I still believe the team likely learned a ton of lessons making this game, and despite me having a lot of problems with Andromeda across the board I'd be legit interested to see what they can do next go round now that they have one under their belt. Hopefully with the confidence to tell their own stories too instead of leaning heavily on the familiar tropes and beats of the original trilogy.

 

[TheChaos]

Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

Dramatic much? The Male Romance options were a little lacking, yes, but the f/f options were fine. Bioware is working on fixing it, too. You're acting as if they removed all same-sex content completely.

Also Mass Effect should in no way be seen as the go-to place for LGBT content. The game is marketed primarily towards straight guys and it shows. The Asari, Miranda butt shots, EDi sexbot, come on...

 

[Schlorgan]

True, got the studios mixed up. Thanks for the correction.

I still believe the team likely learned a ton of lessons making this game, and despite me having a lot of problems with Andromeda across the board I'd be legit interested to see what they can do next go round now that they have one under their belt. Hopefully with the confidence to tell their own stories too instead of leaning heavily on the familiar tropes and beats of the original trilogy.

I would like to see them at least get another shot at a big game, even if it's not Mass Effect.

 

[Kayhan]

Did EatChildren do a review of the game?

 

[Deleted member 752119]

True, got the studios mixed up. Thanks for the correction.

I still believe the team likely learned a ton of lessons making this game, and despite me having a lot of problems with Andromeda across the board I'd be legit interested to see what they can do next go round now that they have one under their belt. Hopefully with the confidence to tell their own stories too instead of leaning heavily on the familiar tropes and beats of the original trilogy.

I mostly agree. They need to hire new (or prior ME) writers to add to the team though. Writing quality isn't something they're likely to improve on.

Otherwise the only things they really need to do to make a great sequel they can do inhouse with what they have.

The graphics issues should go away as they learn the engine and patch up ME:A. The crappy sidequests, bad pacing etc. will go away if they mirror the original trilogy and make the sequel a tighter, more focused game ala ME2 and cut the open world trappings (and need to stuff it full of content).

 

[Bombless]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

So what you're saying is Bioware shot themselves in the foot?

 

[Laughing Banana]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

The world doesn't work like that.

You put out a sub-standard product and demand money for it, you are fair game for criticisms.

The notion that Bioware is somehow the victim in all this is ridiculous.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Having played a good chunk of the game as both, I can confidently say that Sara Ryder is soooo much better and more likeable as a character than Scott Ryder.

 

[UltraMav]

Having played a good chunk of the game as both, I can confidently say that Sara Ryder is soooo much better and more likeable as a character than Scott Ryder.

Weird; I feel the opposite. Scott can effectively deliver the quips and the more serious lines, while Sara's delivery on any of the more sarcastic responses just makes me cringe.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Weird; I feel the opposite. Scott can effectively deliver the quips and the more serious lines, while Sara's delivery on any of the more sarcastic responses just makes me cringe.

I think it has to do with Sara having a more awkward personality which is something I find endearing. You don't see that a lot in major games.

Scott, to me, feels more generic as a character and delivers lines as you would expect them to be delivered if that makes sense. Both are fine though. I find them both to have more personality than Shepard.

 

[GGNKovalski]

I think it has to do with Sara having a more awkward personality which is something I find endearing. You don't see that a lot in major games.

Scott, to me, feels more generic as a character and delivers lines as you would expect them to be delivered if that makes sense. Both are fine though. I find them both to have more personality than Shepard.

+1. I love Sara.

 

[malfcn]

Getting annoyed with the ai and combat loop.

The ai on both enemy and friendly sides either ignore each other or appear out of thin air. How am I flanked when my back is against a wall.

It's garbage.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

Started in on Elaaden. Did a couple random quests, got the monoliths and vault done. Will focus on the quests to get the settlement next and get it to 100% viability and will be glad to be done with the open world stuff and focus on knocking out the character missions and finishing the story.

 

[samn]

I don't know what to say to posts like this. Blame EA for forcing Bioware Edmonton to hit a Q2 release with a game full of known shippable bugs? The mixed/negative reaction cannot be a surprise to those that lived and breathed the game during development, they know where it succeeded and where it fell short better than any of us. There's likely reasons the PR was so tightly kept under wraps. We don't know the ins and outs of project management, key team members leaving, feature creep and any other number of development issues that crop up. Criticism is deserved and fair, and no one's forcing them to crunch "for the fans." It still is likely selling fine and there's gonna be another one. Bet on it.

their managers are forcing them to crunch or they'll be fired

The world doesn't work like that.

You put out a sub-standard product and demand money for it, you are fair game for criticisms.

The notion that Bioware is somehow the victim in all this is ridiculous.

Can you really not see there's a difference between 'Bioware' and the hundreds of people who work at Bioware in particular jobs like engine dev and animation and modelling and that it's not really their fault that the game didn't come together right?

 

[Jaraghan]

I don't like Liam as a squad mate, but I'd be a liar if I said his loyalty mission wasn't fun. That mission had me dying at several parts.

 

[Laughing Banana]

their managers are forcing them to crunch or they'll be fired



Can you really not see there's a difference between 'Bioware' and the hundreds of people who work at Bioware in particular jobs like engine dev and animation and modelling and that it's not really their fault that the game didn't come together right?

So what should we do, withhold our criticisms for fear that the people who work on the game gets fired?

 

[Sioul]

Regarding romances:

Spoiler

Am I only locked into one romance? Went through Jaal just because I wanted to see where it went. Got to Peebee's zero-g scene and there wasn't any romance option at all.

Spoiler

I flirted at every possible opportunity. Pretty much with everyone whenever the option was available. I think it's just because I committed to Jaal instead of denying him right before having that scene with Peebee. Thought I would be able to romance everybody. I'll just save it another playthrough.

Spoiler

Or maybe it's all tied to the Peebee loyalty mission? She's the only one I have left. Either way it's no big deal.

Check this table to see if you locked your romance:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/4F5VtHf.jpg

After that point you cant continue with other squadmates.

 

[Renekton]

WTB Kotaku investigative journalism 😀 This stuff is 2x juicier than Destiny 1.

 

[samn]

So what should we do, withhold our criticisms for fear that the people who work on the game gets fired?

Has anyone suggested that? What are you talking about?

 

[royox]

I feel awful for everyone at Bioware. Months of crunch and instead of getting a break on release, more crunch as they try to do six month's worth of clean up work in two weeks. I'm looking forward to Mass Effect Andromeda being improved, but seeing these extremely ambitious patch promises just makes me feel sick. These are real people and what they're being put through right now is life ruining. Not to mention the knowledge that their game, through no real fault of it's own, has killed the franchise for LGB representation in video games; a franchise that means the world to thousands of struggling queer kids. This is wrong and they deserve better.

What? How? I'm 40h in and the game is filled with LGB characters. Gosh I almost made my Scott Ryder gay by accident just by being cool with Reyes (srsly "you owe me a beer" is NOT a flirt line Bioware).

 

[MCD250]

I still don't see how the biggest complaint isn't about reloading.
Can't count how many times I fired an empty weapons.

That was a problem for me early on, and the fact that they've changed it so that you have to pick up ammo (and health) from crates that are inexplicably placed at specific locations in combat areas didn't help (nor did the fact that the game does not explain this new mechanic very well, at least not to my recollection). I'm playing as a pure soldier, which means I'm mostly relying on guns to get my damage. I've emptied many a gun before.

Eventually I started using mods to increase clip size and just straight up bringing along more weapons in my loadout. I think I have two assault rifles equipped right now.

 

[Vengal]

That was a problem for me early on, and the fact that they've changed it so that you have to pick up ammo (and health) from crates that are inexplicably placed at specific locations in combat areas didn't help (nor did the fact that the game does not explain this new mechanic very well, at least not to my recollection). I'm playing as a pure soldier, which means I'm mostly relying on guns to get my damage. I've emptied many a gun before.

Eventually I started using mods to increase clip size and just straight up bringing along more weapons in my loadout. I think I have two assault rifles equipped right now.

I switched to weapons with unlimited ammo near the end of the game. I'm seriously tired of horde/wave based games and how they managed ammo. The unlimited ammo weapons aren't as strong but not having to worry about reloading was entirely worth it to me. I was also playing a space wizard though so shooting was mainly for damage buffs.

 

[Sioul]

Started in on Elaaden. Did a couple random quests, got the monoliths and vault done. Will focus on the quests to get the settlement next and get it to 100% viability and will be glad to be done with the open world stuff and focus on knocking out the character missions and finishing the story.

Fun stuff, if you get 100% in all worlds before completing the main story the game will give you a spoiler ;(

 

[MCD250]

I switched to weapons with unlimited ammo near the end of the game. I'm seriously tired of horde/wave based games and how they managed ammo. The unlimited ammo weapons aren't as strong but not having to worry about reloading was entirely worth it to me. I was also playing a space wizard though so shooting was mainly for damage buffs.

Yeah, I wanted to get my Mattock assault rifle, but it's not really as good in this game as it was in ME2-ME3 (it's still okay though). I might end up going for a cooldown weapon instead, if I like how it feels (it's strange to me that this game gives you 800 weapons to research and develop at the cost of resources but no way to try them out beforehand to see if it's worth the investment).

 

[Vengal]

I think on Eos if you picked a research colony you get research stations on forward bases. Do a manual save and you can experiment outside.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I kinda blew through this game faster than I thought.

I just got 100% completion on all the colonys and when I looked up what priority mission I was on it was the second from the end. I was surprised because it felt like the story might be wrapping up, but there didn't seem to be that many larger story/loyalty missions. I've still got Peebee's, and Liam's left, but so far the loyalty missions overall haven't been too impressive. There's more little missions leading up to the big conclusion, but that doesn't make them that much better compared to ME2 and 3 IMO.

I'm going to wait until the Thursday patch to play more since today was mainly spent doing busy work getting the last two planets up to 100% and putting a colony down. Once the patch is done I'll finish scanning all the systems (so I can skip the flying animation) and do the last few sidequests I still care about before the big story ones.

After I beat it I don't think I'll touch it again until all the DLC and Patches are out for it to do a New Game+ or another character (might try the multi-player, though). I never finished my second Dragon Age Inquisition playthrough I started before MEA came out and I'm excited to play the DLC for that one and to see how it performs on my gtx 1070 which I bought mainly for ME:A.

 

[Blue Ninja]

I still miss my Harrier. I found that rare Halberd rifle that looks the same as a Mattock and got my hopes up for a moment, but then it goes and fires even slower. :'(

 

[MeisterLeder]

Lol the last Cutscene from the Drack Loyality mission was completly broken for me.
The fuck.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I think on Eos if you picked a research colony you get research stations on forward bases. Do a manual save and you can experiment outside.

You have a research station on only the forward station of each colony, regardless of your pick. None on the outside world. Which is another annoyance.

 

[truestatic]

Kallo seems to have bugged out for me. Every time I board the Tempest now, he asks for a chat. But when I speak to him, he just skips straight to his usual conversation options. Anybody else experienced this? I feel like this might be the

Spoiler

movie night

quest.

 

[soulluos]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jt0fm5sk20

 

[Bisnic]

(Post Peebee Loyalty spoiler)

Spoiler

Poor Peebee, she's asking for help and everyone throw some lame excuse not to. Although I did laugh at Jaal saying it was an angarian holiday

.