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[Quick Mustard]

So, finished it last night. 90 hours at 97%. I've got that bugged quest for the Nomad upgrade, but is there any easy way of knowing of anything else I might have missed to get it to the 99% others people have?

Also, loved the final mission. Was balls to the wall fun.
Overall a really good game with certain flaws, with one being the lack of waypoints for tasks causing a lot of driving to find random data pads, dead bodies and other stuff.

 

[dreamer3kx]

How come allies arent wearing helmets on planets?

 

[harriet the spy]

How come allies arent wearing helmets on planets?

I think it's a menu option and the default is on only for ryder

 

[SlimySnake]

Cora is like an otaku. She thinks shes asari just because she trained with them. lol

Finished the game last night. I loved the final mission but while it started out strong it's no suicide mission. Still the scale was amazing and it's what the final ME3 mission should have been. Gorgeous graphics too.

Also finished Liam's loyalty mission and burst out laughing on two different occasions. Games dont normally make me laugh but this was legit funny. i am usually a very easy going commander but i was not tolerating any of his bullshit in that mission which made it even funnier because pissed off Sarah is actually kind of cute.

I'd say Drak, Liam and Pheobe's missions were my favorite. Lots of character development and humor. Drak was just badass. Cora's was great too but god i hate her. such a bland character. Didnt care for the Turian at all. Jaal was a badass in his mission.

I feel like there is an excellent 20 hour game in here between the story and loyalty missions. the rest is exceedingly mediocre only saved by some excellent combat. it was enough to keep me playing for nearly 60 hours but i'd say only 10 of those hours were combat. the rest was going from one planet to the other and hitting up navpoints. They need to go back to a linear Mass Effect. This open world system was a bad idea.

Overall, I am flabbergasted by the reception this game received just because it had some unfinished animations and bugs that are prevalent in big AAA RPGs like Witcher and Fallout.. the core combat system is better than pretty much any RPG out there including GOTYs 2014 Dragon Age and 2015 Witcher 3. the story missions and loyalty missions are fun and yet it has a 70 on metacritic which is worse than Killzone Shadowfail, vanilla Destiny which was eviscerated by critics and is only 7 points higher than the order.... one of the worst games this gen.

The outrage culture went hard on this game and while it's good to hold EA accountable for releasing yet another unfinished product to meet Fiscal year deadlines, maybe other games with boring combat and fetch quests should be reviewed just as harshly. Facial animations had no effect on the gameplay or even the story quests seeing as how the loyalty missions get the character moments right, and big plot twists hit just as hard despite the unfinished facial animations. The combat and quests in DAI and Witcher 3 bored me to death and yet they were showered with GOTYs by both critics and industry awards. What a load of bullshit.

 

[Lagamorph]

I finished the game this morning and really enjoyed it overall. I really liked the plot and the characters. Played through with male Ryder this time and once all the DLC has dropped I'll probably pick it up and do another playthrough with female Ryder. Can't say I had any issues with animation, but then I didn't start playing until after a patch or two.
I did get a few bugs still, did have to reload my game once due to an NPC not spawning for a side quest, but overall I had a really good time.

Having said that, the amount of back and forth just to talk to people is quite frankly unforgivable. I spend longer in load screens going from A to B than I spend actually at my destination before I have to go to C through yet more load screens. I wouldn't mind if there weren't so many loading screens to go through just to go from one planet to another.
You've got a loading screen to fast travel back to the Tempest, another loading screen to take off, then you have to re-open the Galaxy map, a loading screen to transition to the other system, a loading sequence to zoom in on whatever planet you're going to, another loading screen to land and then another loading screen to fast travel to wherever the nearest travel point is to your objective. If you're going to the Nexus or Kandara then you've also got another loading screen for the tram/lift.


I really hope this isn't the end of the Mass Effect series, I really want to see a follow up to Andromeda, then maybe another follow up to bring the two galaxies together. Would love to see how the Milky Way has developed in the 600 years the Andromeda crew were in stasis.


Also finished Liam's loyalty mission and burst out laughing on two different occasions. Games dont normally make me laugh but this was legit funny. i am usually a very easy going commander but i was not tolerating any of his bullshit in that mission which made it even funnier because pissed off Sarah is actually kind of cute.
I absolutely loved the

Spoiler

dramatic music ramping up, then cutting off abruptly everytime Liam or Ryder cut off his transmission again and again.

 

[Gator86]

Cora is like an otaku. She thinks shes asari just because she trained with them. lol

Finished the game last night. I loved the final mission but while it started out strong it's no suicide mission. Still the scale was amazing and it's what the final ME3 mission should have been. Gorgeous graphics too.

Also finished Liam's loyalty mission and burst out laughing on two different occasions. Games dont normally make me laugh but this was legit funny. i am usually a very easy going commander but i was not tolerating any of his bullshit in that mission which made it even funnier because pissed off Sarah is actually kind of cute.

I'd say Drak, Liam and Pheobe's missions were my favorite. Lots of character development and humor. Drak was just badass. Cora's was great too but god i hate her. such a bland character. Didnt care for the Turian at all. Jaal was a badass in his mission.

I feel like there is an excellent 20 hour game in here between the story and loyalty missions. the rest is exceedingly mediocre only saved by some excellent combat. it was enough to keep me playing for nearly 60 hours but i'd say only 10 of those hours were combat. the rest was going from one planet to the other and hitting up navpoints. They need to go back to a linear Mass Effect. This open world system was a bad idea.

Overall, I am flabbergasted by the reception this game received just because it had some unfinished animations and bugs that are prevalent in big AAA RPGs like Witcher and Fallout.. the core combat system is better than pretty much any RPG out there including GOTYs 2014 Dragon Age and 2015 Witcher 3. the story missions and loyalty missions are fun and yet it has a 70 on metacritic which is worse than Killzone Shadowfail, vanilla Destiny which was eviscerated by critics and is only 7 points higher than the order.... one of the worst games this gen.

The outrage culture went hard on this game and while it's good to hold EA accountable for releasing yet another unfinished product to meet Fiscal year deadlines, maybe other games with boring combat and fetch quests should be reviewed just as harshly. Facial animations had no effect on the gameplay or even the story quests seeing as how the loyalty missions get the character moments right, and big plot twists hit just as hard despite the unfinished facial animations. The combat and quests in DAI and Witcher 3 bored me to death and yet they were showered with GOTYs by both critics and industry awards. What a load of bullshit.

Have you considered the fact that maybe your opinions diverge from reviewers'? I highly doubt reviewers were hyperventilating over the endless gifs of this game breaking and getting hyped up to bash it.

Read this Austin Walker article: https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/the-worlds-of-mass-effect-andromeda-arent-worth-saving

That's not "outrage culture," which isn't even a thing. Just accept that a lot of people were disappointed in the game. That doesn't mean you can't still like it.

 

[Cornbread78]

Getting annoyed at the mission markers...

I got stuck on

Spoiler

Havarl

last night. The guy says he's waiting by the third

Spoiler

monolith

, but there's no way to find it. The markers lead you nowhere..... uugggh

I was serious here...


Does anyone know where to find this a$$hole?

The markers take me back through to where I met the sage, I've gone through that building a ton of times, but the markers lead you to nowhere...

 

[v0mitg0d]

OMG so I was fighting Archon's Sword and I used Biotic Charge at the exact moment he teleported to his safe room, and it drew with him. Have you guys seen this?

I captured it here:

https://youtu.be/0JWQJyhairk

Spoiler

"Think you're so sneaky don't you!" -Ryder

 

[prag16]

Argh. Not that Austin Walker article yet again. No it's not "outrage culture". But it IS masturbatory pretentious schlock that doesn't actually manage to say a whole lot. Why does everyone always point to this piece as a gold standard for ME:A criticism.. Well that or John Walker's.. THAT one is closer to "outrage" I guess.

 

[Rodhull]

I was serious here...


Does anyone know where to find this a$$hole?

The markers take me back through to where I met the sage, I've gone through that building a ton of times, but the markers lead you to nowhere...

I think that's the one where you

Spoiler

drop to the bottom of the big gap between the areas and go left. Basically the opposite direction to when you went to climb and see the hermit Angara.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Cora is like an otaku. She thinks shes asari just because she trained with them. lol

Finished the game last night. I loved the final mission but while it started out strong it's no suicide mission. Still the scale was amazing and it's what the final ME3 mission should have been. Gorgeous graphics too.

Also finished Liam's loyalty mission and burst out laughing on two different occasions. Games dont normally make me laugh but this was legit funny. i am usually a very easy going commander but i was not tolerating any of his bullshit in that mission which made it even funnier because pissed off Sarah is actually kind of cute.

I'd say Drak, Liam and Pheobe's missions were my favorite. Lots of character development and humor. Drak was just badass. Cora's was great too but god i hate her. such a bland character. Didnt care for the Turian at all. Jaal was a badass in his mission.

I feel like there is an excellent 20 hour game in here between the story and loyalty missions. the rest is exceedingly mediocre only saved by some excellent combat. it was enough to keep me playing for nearly 60 hours but i'd say only 10 of those hours were combat. the rest was going from one planet to the other and hitting up navpoints. They need to go back to a linear Mass Effect. This open world system was a bad idea.

Overall, I am flabbergasted by the reception this game received just because it had some unfinished animations and bugs that are prevalent in big AAA RPGs like Witcher and Fallout.. the core combat system is better than pretty much any RPG out there including GOTYs 2014 Dragon Age and 2015 Witcher 3. the story missions and loyalty missions are fun and yet it has a 70 on metacritic which is worse than Killzone Shadowfail, vanilla Destiny which was eviscerated by critics and is only 7 points higher than the order.... one of the worst games this gen.

The outrage culture went hard on this game and while it's good to hold EA accountable for releasing yet another unfinished product to meet Fiscal year deadlines, maybe other games with boring combat and fetch quests should be reviewed just as harshly. Facial animations had no effect on the gameplay or even the story quests seeing as how the loyalty missions get the character moments right, and big plot twists hit just as hard despite the unfinished facial animations. The combat and quests in DAI and Witcher 3 bored me to death and yet they were showered with GOTYs by both critics and industry awards. What a load of bullshit.

That's the thing: it received exactly the scores it deserved. Having an excellent 20-hour game hidden underneath 60 hours of useless content is just not very good. I say that as someone who loves the series and this game.

 

[Lashley]

The revelation that the Kett were

Spoiler

turning Angara into Kett

really wasn't surprising

 

[Cornbread78]

I think that's the one where you

Spoiler

drop to the bottom of the big gap between the areas and go left. Basically the opposite direction to when you went to climb and see the hermit Angara.

Yeah, I wish the mission markers actually helped you find that location though.... I'll keep trying again tomorrow night, but it's super frustrating wasting very limited game time running around un circles....

 

[SirPinkyNose]

Bugs almost killed my enjoyment for this game. Having an assault on Kett base with infinite spawn bug, invisible enemy bug, RAM bug while the frame rate dropping to 40s (I normally play at steady 60) is just not fun. I had to spend an hour trying to complete it with all the bugs before dropping the difficulty to narrative and just speed through it.
I'm ok with the animation, but a game full of disrupting bugs is just a bad product to me.
Which is a shame because I really enjoy playing the game when there is no bug.

 

[MiamiWesker]

That's the thing: it received exactly the scores it deserved. Having an excellent 20-hour game hidden underneath 60 hours of useless content is just not very good. I say that as someone who loves the series and this game.

I think witcher 3 has a 100 hours of useless content. That still gets stellar reviewers across the board. To me if the core gameplay is great, the game is great, that's what matters to me most. But I see to others it's story, how that story plays out and strange things like not having your time wasted which is different for everyone as people love witcher and BOTW and those are filled with what some would consider time wasting.

 

[SlimySnake]

Have you considered the fact that maybe your opinions diverge from reviewers'? I highly doubt reviewers were hyperventilating over the endless gifs of this game breaking and getting hyped up to bash it.

Read this Austin Walker article: https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/the-worlds-of-mass-effect-andromeda-arent-worth-saving

That's not "outrage culture," which isn't even a thing. Just accept that a lot of people were disappointed in the game. That doesn't mean you can't still like it.

Yeah, no, I am sick of everyone hiding behind the 'oh its just my opinion' argument whenever it comes to justifying shitty scores for a perfectly good game. a 70 average on metacritic basically means the game is a failure. No Mans Sky has a better average than this game and that game is barely even a game.

The combat in this game is objectively better than Dragon Age and Witcher 3. This is not a subjective thing where you can hey it's just your opinion man. The quests at least the story and loyalty missions are just as good as DAI and Witcher 3. All three games have your boring fetch quests and yet only one game is sitting at 70 on metacritic. Facial Animations and cutscene quality is probably worse than DAI and Witcher 3 but let's not pretend those games are that much better. Fallout 4 has an awful story, copy paste quests and some horrific facial animations and yet its in the mid 80s. I always figured the great combat was the reason why it scored so high and that made sense to me. But then they turn around and pretend ME:A suffering from all these issues is a deal breaker all of a sudden.

It's ok to be disappointed. This game is a major disappointment. No argument there. but you have to rate the game for what it is. And it is by no means a bad game like the average suggests.

If the industry was this harsh on every game then i'd be perfectly fine with a 70 average but right now they are saying it's basically a little bit better than Ryse and the order and frankly that's insulting. Same genre or not, ME: Andromeda was held to a different standard and its pros were all but ignored when comparing it to other RPGs this gen.

That's the thing: it received exactly the scores it deserved. Having an excellent 20-hour game hidden underneath 60 hours of useless content is just not very good. I say that as someone who loves the series and this game.

Fine. Then rate everything accordingly. Uncharted 4 has maybe 4-5 hours of combat, the rest of the 15 hour campaign is mind numbingly boring and full mundane platforming with some really bad puzzles thrown in between. So why is Uncharted 4 sitting at 93 while this game was penalized for boring side content?

Like I said above, they need to be consistent. Dont go and give DA:I pretty much all GOTY awards and then turn around and shit on ME for following the same mission and open world structure.

 

[obeast]

Facial animations had no effect on the gameplay or even the story quests seeing as how the loyalty missions get the character moments right, and big plot twists hit just as hard despite the unfinished facial animations. The combat and quests in DAI and Witcher 3 bored me to death and yet they were showered with GOTYs by both critics and industry awards. What a load of bullshit.

Two points: first, facial animation *is* important even in "unimportant" quests, because it is a crucial element in engaging the player in character and story elements. If you're attempting to upgrade your sidequests with character and narrative beats -- as Bioware does repeatedly in ME:A -- those beats are unlikely to be effective without half-decent animation. And terrible facial animation can pull the player right out of the game in crucial moments. ME:A's animation pretty much forced me to play the game with subtitles on and avoid looking at its characters' faces, which is needless to say not my preference in cinematic gaming.

Second, even if you, personally, were bored by TW3's quests, you must be able to recognize why players might prefer them to ME:A or DA:I-style structure and writing, right? Preference is subjective, but the fact that TW3's sidequests are better-produced (in terms of camera angles, animation, etc.) and more elaborately written is something close to an objective fact. You may not care about this, but it's a bit unreasonable to frame anyone else caring as "bullshit."

I do share some of your frustration with how brutally ME:A has been mocked. I generally like the game, on balance, and I recognize that not all criticism sent its way has been entirely fair. But there are many fair criticisms to be made.

The quests at least the story and loyalty missions are just as good as DAI and Witcher 3. All three games have your boring fetch quests and yet only one game is sitting at 70 on metacritic.

I think this is just wrong, re:TW3. It simply does not have fetch quests in the same vein as DA:I and ME:A.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I think witcher 3 has a 100 hours of useless content. That still gets stellar reviewers across the board. To me if the core gameplay is great, the game is great, that's what matters to me most. But I see to others it's story, how that story plays out and strange things like not having your time wasted which is different for everyone as people love witcher and BOTW and those are filled with what some would consider time wasting.

So the Witcher 3, on average a 70-100 hour game, has 100 hours of useless content in your opinion?

You can simply say you didn't like the game lol. To effectively say The Witcher 3 sucks therefore ME:A's side quests and tasks should get a pass isn't really the best argument imo. Gameplay is a large component, but it is not the only component to a good game for the vast majority of players.

If you love ME:A, that's fine. But cut down on the hyperbole please. You may disagree, but the side quests of ME:A do not compare favorably to the sidequests of Witcher 3 (where in both the Base Game and Blood and Wine, your actions in a few particular sidequests DRASTICALLY affect the ending)

 

[SirPinkyNose]

The problem with Andromeda is it's lack of polish. A diamond in the rough is practically worthless if you bring it to sell on the market.
The low score is definitely justified even though the core gameplay is good.

 

[Gator86]

Yeah, no, I am sick of everyone hiding behind the 'oh its just my opinion' argument whenever it comes to justifying shitty scores for a perfectly good game. a 70 average on metacritic basically means the game is a failure. No Mans Sky has a better average than this game and that game is barely even a game.

The combat in this game is objectively better than Dragon Age and Witcher 3. This is not a subjective thing where you can hey it's just your opinion man. The quests at least the story and loyalty missions are just as good as DAI and Witcher 3. All three games have your boring fetch quests and yet only one game is sitting at 70 on metacritic. Facial Animations and cutscene quality is probably worse than DAI and Witcher 3 but let's not pretend those games are that much better. Fallout 4 has an awful story, copy paste quests and some horrific facial animations and yet its in the mid 80s. I always figured the great combat was the reason why it scored so high and that made sense to me. But then they turn around and pretend ME:A suffering from all these issues is a deal breaker all of a sudden.

It's ok to be disappointed. This game is a major disappointment. No argument there. but you have to rate the game for what it is. And it is by no means a bad game like the average suggests.

If the industry was this harsh on every game then i'd be perfectly fine with a 70 average but right now they are saying it's basically a little bit better than Ryse and the order and frankly that's insulting. Same genre or not, ME: Andromeda was held to a different standard and its pros were all but ignored when comparing it to other RPGs this gen.


Fine. Then rate everything accordingly. Uncharted 4 has maybe 4-5 hours of combat, the rest of the 15 hour campaign is mind numbingly boring and full mundane platforming with some really bad puzzles thrown in between. So why is Uncharted 4 sitting at 93 while this game was penalized for boring side content?

Like I said above, they need to be consistent. Dont go and give DA:I pretty much all GOTY awards and then turn around and shit on ME for following the same mission and open world structure.

It's like words don't even mean anything regarded the bolded.

Also, standards change over time. Just because something was accepted several years ago doesn't mean it's accepted now. Further, a 70 doesn't meant a game is a disaster. It means it's flawed but there's still some good points in it and that sounds like an accurate description of Andromeda.

 

[MiamiWesker]

So the Witcher 3, on average a 70-100 hour game, has 100 hours of useless content in your opinion?

You can simply say you didn't like the game lol. To effectively say The Witcher 3 sucks therefore ME:A's side quests and tasks should get a pass isn't really the best argument imo. Gameplay is a large component, but it is not the only component to a good game for the vast majority of players.

If you love ME:A, that's fine. But cut down on the hyperbole please. You may disagree, but the side quests of ME:A do not compare favorably to the sidequests of Witcher 3 (where in both the Base Game and Blood and Wine, your actions in a few particular sidequests DRASTICALLY affect the ending)

When witcher 3 does side quests well it's great, that's as rare as the mass Effect loyalty missions and main missions are. The majority of witcher 3s quests involve following a glowy line to a spot, hearing some sob story about a swamp creature eating a baby or something, following a line again, fighting the same monster for the 20th time and then finding out the baby is the monster or some little twist like that. The combat isn't even that great.

At least ME has a wide variety of abilities with large battles you can tackle in different ways. I am not giving ME side quests a pass I am saying the better gameplay makes them better. I don't care about the tiny sub story you get with each quest in witcher, I care that all I do is follow a line and fight a boring monster. At least in ME I have fun battles in between the good story moments.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

It's like words don't even mean anything. Also, standards change over time. Just because something was accepted several years ago doesn't mean it's accepted now. Further, a 70 doesn't meant a game is a disaster. It means it's flawed but there's still some good points in it and that sounds like an accurate description of Andromeda.

Right? A 75 is not a bad game. I've enjoyed For Honor a lot and it sits at like a 78. Personal enjoyment shouldn't be partially derived by metacritic and/or others opinions. You don't have to tear down other games because you enjoy something else more. Just enjoy it...

 

[SlimySnake]

Two points: first, facial animation *is* important even in "unimportant" quests, because it is a crucial element in engaging the player in character and story elements. If you're attempting to upgrade your sidequests with character and narrative beats -- as Bioware does repeatedly in ME:A -- those beats are unlikely to be effective without half-decent animation. And terrible facial animation can pull the player right out of the game in crucial moments. ME:A's animation pretty much forced me to play the game with subtitles on and avoid looking at its characters' faces, which is needless to say not my preference in cinematic gaming.

Second, even if you, personally, were bored by TW3's quests, you must be able to recognize why players might prefer them to ME:A or DA:I-style structure and writing, right? Preference is subjective, but the fact that TW3's sidequests are better-produced (in terms of camera angles, animation, etc.) and more elaborately written is something close to an objective fact. You may not care about this, but it's a bit unreasonable to frame anyone else caring as "bullshit."

I do share some of your frustration with how brutally ME:A has been mocked. I generally like the game, on balance, and I recognize that not all criticism sent its way has been entirely fair. But there are many fair criticisms to be made.



I think this is just wrong, re:TW3. It simply does not have fetch quests in the same vein as DA:I and ME:A.

I only put in around 20 hours into Witcher 3. Most of the quests i got revolved around finding goats, frying pans or killing bandits. What's worse is that they force you to use the detective mode and spend a lot of time tracking people. Maybe they got better once you progressed through the game a bit more but ive heard impressions of people who stuck around far longer than i did and all the quests follow this very rigid structure.

Everyone told me to at least give the Bloody Baron quest a shot and while I would concede it was better produced than your average ME side quest, i dont see whats so great about them in terms of gameplay. They are basically glorified cutscenes with some mediocre combat sections thrown in between.

 

[mbpm1]

I used to think 7/10 was a bad thing, but I was being too strict with the scale.

There are plenty of good games that are 7/10. There are good games that are lower than 7/10.

 

[dankir]

25 hours in, loving the gameplay, exploration, visuals, etc.

But man oh man did they drop the ball on the soundtrack in this game. There hasn't been a single memorable song/music theme so far. It's all at such low volume sometimes I even forget there is music.

What a shame considering how good the trilogies music was.

 

[exYle]

I only put in around 20 hours into Witcher 3. Most of the quests i got revolved around finding goats, frying pans or killing bandits. What's worse is that they force you to use the detective mode and spend a lot of time tracking people. Maybe they got better once you progressed through the game a bit more but ive heard impressions of people who stuck around far longer than i did and all the quests follow this very rigid structure.

Everyone told me to at least give the Bloody Baron quest a shot and while I would concede it was better produced than your average ME side quest, i dont see whats so great about them in terms of gameplay. They are basically glorified cutscenes with some mediocre combat sections thrown in between.

But that one is really funny

 

[diaspora]

25 hours in, loving the gameplay, exploration, visuals, etc.

But man oh man did they drop the ball on the soundtrack in this game. There hasn't been a single memorable song/music theme so far. It's all at such low volume sometimes I even forget there is music.

What a shame considering how good the trilogies music was.

Not going to lie, I almost wish the game was more like No Man's Sky as far as ambient music is concerned. Though I highly suspect that's just me.

 

[Drewfonse]

When witcher 3 does side quests well it's great, that's as rare as the mass Effect loyalty missions and main missions are. The majority of witcher 3s quests involve following a glowy line to a spot, hearing some sob story about a swamp creature eating a baby or something, following a line again, fighting the same monster for the 20th time and then finding out the baby is the monster or some little twist like that. The combat isn't even that great.

At least ME has a wide variety of abilities with large battles you can tackle in different ways. I am not giving ME side quests a pass I am saying the better gameplay makes them better. I don't care about the tiny sub story you get with each quest in witcher, I care that all I do is follow a line and fight a boring monster. At least in ME I have fun battles in between the good story moments.

You nailed it. So true.

 

[obeast]

When witcher 3 does side quests well it's great, that's as rare as the mass Effect loyalty missions and main missions are. The majority of witcher 3s quests involve following a glowy line to a spot, hearing some sob story about a swamp creature eating a baby or something, following a line again, fighting the same monster for the 20th time and then finding out the baby is the monster or some little twist like that.

Look, while I acknowledge that this sort of argument is inherently subjective, this is pretty close to a straight-up false summary of TW3's sidequests. I can name more great sidequests in TW3 off the top of my head than there are total companions in ME:A, and the vast majority of them do not fit the model you just described (you're welcome to fact-check: http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Witcher_3:_Wild_Hunt_-_Guide_to_Secondary_Quests)

I only put in around 20 hours into Witcher 3. Most of the quests i got revolved around finding goats, frying pans or killing bandits. What's worse is that they force you to use the detective mode and spend a lot of time tracking people. Maybe they got better once you progressed through the game a bit more but ive heard impressions of people who stuck around far longer than i did and all the quests follow this very rigid structure.

Everyone told me to at least give the Bloody Baron quest a shot and while I would concede it was better produced than your average ME side quest, i dont see whats so great about them in terms of gameplay. They are basically glorified cutscenes with some mediocre combat sections thrown in between.

As I note above, I think this is a summary so uncharitable that it's factually inaccurate. That said, I'm not going to sit here and lecture you on how you're an idiot for not liking the game - everyone has different gaming preferences, and if you dropped 20 hours into TW3 and hated it then it just wasn't a game that matched yours. I can live with that.

 

[Kin5290]

The revelation that the Kett were

Spoiler

turning Angara into Kett

really wasn't surprising

Honestly would have liked it better if they went full

Spoiler

Combine or Cerberus in ME3, where the Kett grunts look like masked/helmeted unmodified Angara until it's realized they're not. Also play up the Kett occupation as being more of a thing, turn the Resistance into more of a resistance/insurgency rather than just another militia, and so on.

 

[SlimySnake]

I used to think 7/10 was a bad thing, but I was being too strict with the scale.

There are plenty of good games that are 7/10. There are good games that are lower than 7/10.

Right? A 75 is not a bad game. I've enjoyed For Honor a lot and it sits at like a 78. Personal enjoyment shouldn't be partially derived by metacritic and/or others opinions. You don't have to tear down other games because you enjoy something else more. Just enjoy it...

It's like words don't even mean anything regarded the bolded.

Also, standards change over time. Just because something was accepted several years ago doesn't mean it's accepted now. Further, a 70 doesn't meant a game is a disaster. It means it's flawed but there's still some good points in it and that sounds like an accurate description of Andromeda.

This is a list of all games released on PS4 this year so far.

ME:A should not be around those trashy games.

And standards dont change in a couple of years. you cant rate say DA:I is GOTY and then two years later trash ME:A. You cant give No Mans Sky a 71 and 8 months later give ME a lower score.

Again I have no problems with people giving this game a 7 if they rate other games accordingly. Let's stop going gaga over the story and characters in Witcher 3 and Uncharted 4 and rate the game on the GAME part of it. Otherwise, we are all just here talking about how the game made us feel inside. Instead of obectively discussing each game's shortcomings.

 

[mbpm1]

The revelation that the Kett were

Spoiler

turning Angara into Kett

really wasn't surprising

It's Mass effect, so I pretty much expect that stuff now

 

[Mediking]

When witcher 3 does side quests well it's great, that's as rare as the mass Effect loyalty missions and main missions are. The majority of witcher 3s quests involve following a glowy line to a spot, hearing some sob story about a swamp creature eating a baby or something, following a line again, fighting the same monster for the 20th time and then finding out the baby is the monster or some little twist like that. The combat isn't even that great.

At least ME has a wide variety of abilities with large battles you can tackle in different ways. I am not giving ME side quests a pass I am saying the better gameplay makes them better. I don't care about the tiny sub story you get with each quest in witcher, I care that all I do is follow a line and fight a boring monster. At least in ME I have fun battles in between the good story moments.

Choosing the Heir in Skellige is a OPTIONAL side quest in Witcher 3 and it's freaking amazing and it's not some damn following a glowing line to a spot and hearing a sob story.

Call me when Mass Effect has a side story like that.

No offense to ME but damn.

 

[Caboose]

You nailed it. So true.

You can say the same thing about this game and the scanner/SAM.

 

[mbpm1]

This is a list of all games released on PS4 this year so far.

ME:A should not be around those trashy games.

And standards dont change in a couple of years. you cant rate say DA:I is GOTY and then two years later trash ME:A. You cant give No Mans Sky a 71 and 8 months later give ME a lower score.

Again I have no problems with people giving this game a 7 if they rate other games accordingly. Let's stop going gaga over the story and characters in Witcher 3 and Uncharted 4 and rate the game on the GAME part of it. Otherwise, we are all just here talking about how the game made us feel inside. Instead of obectively discussing each game's shortcomings.

You're talking different approahces.

Surprisingly, most people aren't objective. Most people also have shit taste.

Nothing you can do about that.

 

[SirPinkyNose]

Choosing the Heir in Skellige is a OPTIONAL side quest in Witcher 3 and it's freaking amazing and it's not some damn following a glowing line to a spot and hearing a sob story.

Call me when Mass Effect has a side story like that.

No offense to ME but damn.

Will the decision carry over to Witcher 4?

 

[SlimySnake]

You can say the same thing about this game and the scanner/SAM.

thats the point. both games have the same boring side quests and yet one received a million GOTY awards and the other game with better combat was penalized for every little bug in the game.

 

[Mediking]

Will the decision carry over to Witcher 4?

Maybe? Who knows? Will Witcher 4 even be the next game after Cyberpunk 2077? They've teased that they might do it someday so who really knows?

Does tying that decision to a future installment make it better or worse? What's your point?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

[...] hearing some sob story about a swamp creature eating a baby or something, following a line again, [...]then finding out the baby is the monster or some little twist like that.

You nailed it. So true.

Every storyline in every medium can be summed up in trite and unflattering ways. Those stories didn't resonate with you, and that's fine. We each have our own tastes.

But quests like Fyke Isle's Towerful of Mice can be described in such a way, and yet when people pieced together what absolutely happened, it caused an emotional reaction for many. Same thing with Ciri's lover. And dozens of other quests. Those little "twists" that you cast aside without a thought are huge selling points considering not many games have been able to achieve that, including ME:A. Ironically, Bioware loved Witcher 3 sidequests and wanted to emulate that style of storytelling. They said they wanted to have 'meaningful sidequests akin to The Witcher'

I would have enjoyed ME:A's side quests a lot more if they did.

 

[obeast]

thats the point. both games have the same boring side quests and yet one received a million GOTY awards and the other game with better combat was penalized for every little bug in the game.

Come on man, they do not have "the same boring side quests." They simply don't. You didn't play enough of the game to make a statement this broad, and even if you had I would scratch my head and wonder what game you played. TW3 is not a perfect game. It has problems. Boring side quests a la ME:A or DA:I is not one of those problems. At absolute minimum, perhaps you could argue that TW3's quests are boring for different reasons, although I would struggle to think of what those could be, beyond "the whole game sucks, and sidequests are part of the game." I think it's essentially impossible to argue that they're flawed in similar ways to Bioware's last two efforts, though.

 

[olag]

And standards dont change in a couple of years. you cant rate say DA:I is GOTY and then two years later trash ME:A. You cant give No Mans Sky a 71 and 8 months later give ME a lower score.

Again I have no problems with people giving this game a 7 if they rate other games accordingly. Let's stop going gaga over the story and characters in Witcher 3 and Uncharted 4 and rate the game on the GAME part of it. Otherwise, we are all just here talking about how the game made us feel inside. Instead of obectively discussing each game's shortcomings.

But standards do change.You cant expect/demand stagnation for the sole purpose of consistency.Just like how the release of skyrim changed the face and standards of open world games (For better or for worse) so too did the witcher 3's release.

And yes W3 is not perfect, CD Project are not infallible gods. However what they better than Bioware should not be understated nor should what they accomplished be ignored by Bioware.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

That's the thing: it received exactly the scores it deserved. Having an excellent 20-hour game hidden underneath 60 hours of useless content is just not very good. I say that as someone who loves the series and this game.

A 20-hour game hidden in a 60-hour game is the perfect way to describe this in my opinion. Just tons of bloat.

Still enjoying it though! Definitely has a lot to like.

 

[Madness]

This is a list of all games released on PS4 this year so far.

ME:A should not be around those trashy games.

And standards dont change in a couple of years. you cant rate say DA:I is GOTY and then two years later trash ME:A. You cant give No Mans Sky a 71 and 8 months later give ME a lower score.

Again I have no problems with people giving this game a 7 if they rate other games accordingly. Let's stop going gaga over the story and characters in Witcher 3 and Uncharted 4 and rate the game on the GAME part of it. Otherwise, we are all just here talking about how the game made us feel inside. Instead of obectively discussing each game's shortcomings.

We get it you hate Witcher 3 and Uncharted and love ME:A but please stop. This game is an easy 7/10. That is the way it is. Breath of the Wild got 10/10 and a lot of sidequests were similar to these and games like Assasins Creed and Red Dead got a fraction of the praise for having the same things Breath of the Wild does. 'Oh 10 more eagle towers, this game is boring to have to climb so many to open the map 8/10, oh a Sheikah tower and it's raining and I have to waste time cooking stamina food climbing up 10/10'.

Witcher 3 from everything I have seen was made with a smaller team with a smaller budget in a shorter amount of time and does a lot of things well. It may be hard to wrap your head around people not liking something you really like but it happens. I judge ME:A harshly because they promised us something and under delivered. A good game full of tons of crap and so many bugs and glitches. It has been years since I have played such a glitchy game. A random jump and being stuck under the stairs and forced to restart. Dropping to under 10 frames a second on the Nexus or Tempest is inexcusable. It feels sub-par and second rate. Rewarding this game with anything more than 8.5 would be generous and not true. It is 100 hours with 70 hours full of filler and junk.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

A 20-hour game hidden in a 60-hour game is the perfect way to describe this in my opinion. Just tons of bloat.

Still enjoying it though! Definitely has a lot to like.

And I absolutely agree with this. I'm still playing through ME:A but i'm enjoying it. It's fun. But there was something about the other Mass Effects that made me beat them multiple times. I played through ME1 5 times, ME2 6 times, and well... ME3 once (I was a big indoctrination theory believer back on the social.bioware forums)

The gameplay in ME:A is the best yet. But many things that I valued in the older ME games took a step or two back. That is not a net positive for me. I'll beat it, but its nothing to write home about. A 75 is the most accurate score i've seen.

 

[thepenguin55]

The combat in this game is objectively better than Dragon Age and Witcher 3. This is not a subjective thing where you can hey it's just your opinion man.

Except for the part where it's still a subjective thing. I would rather engage with Andromeda's combat over those two games but if I've learned anything in life it's that whatever opinions you have about something there will always be someone who has opposite or at least very different opinions from you.

If the industry was this harsh on every game then i'd be perfectly fine with a 70 average but right now they are saying it's basically a little bit better than Ryse and the order and frankly that's insulting. Same genre or not, ME: Andromeda was held to a different standard and its pros were all but ignored when comparing it to other RPGs this gen.

Fine. Then rate everything accordingly. Uncharted 4 has maybe 4-5 hours of combat, the rest of the 15 hour campaign is mind numbingly boring and full mundane platforming with some really bad puzzles thrown in between. So why is Uncharted 4 sitting at 93 while this game was penalized for boring side content?

The only way comparing review scores makes any sense is when the two games are of a similar style or genre. What's expected of a game like Ryse is going to be different from what's expected from Mass Effect: Andromeda. Having said that, there still isn't really anything quite like Mass Effect. I like Andromeda but there's no arguing that not only have other games done what Andromeda does but better, other Mass Effect games have done what Andromeda does but better.

I'm with you on Uncharted but I would extend that to the whole series. I'm not alone in that feeling but also a lot of people feel way differently about that stuff. I don't get it but it's fine.

Like I said above, they need to be consistent. Dont go and give DA:I pretty much all GOTY awards and then turn around and shit on ME for following the same mission and open world structure.

People's tastes change. That's why you see so much negativity surrounding discussions about DA:I now despite it winning a bunch of awards. Also the bar was raised by other games that came out after DA:I's release. I've had that happen to me before but I've also had the opposite happen to me. I hated Bayonetta when it originally came out but I gave it another shot on WiiU and fell in love with it and it's sequel.

 

[b0bbyJ03]

just came to add that I agree about the score. The internet is definitely a hive mind. I decided to give this game a chance because I missed out on the originals and I've only recently gotten into playing RPGs (last two years or so) but I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. I'm about 20 hours in and I think it's great. I will admit, I haven't really run into any glitches (only 1 quest glitch and 1 graphical) so that may also add to my positive opinion but I think the combat is fantastic, and I'm enjoying the locations and the graphics.

 

[Staf]

I put Mass effect: Andromedas combat on par with Witcher 3, might be my bias against shooters though. Never really enjoyed either of them but it feels like there was less of it in Witcher 3 so it has that going for it.

I like DA:I's combat over both, despite it's flaws it's enjoyable at higher difficulties.

 

[SirPinkyNose]

Maybe? Who knows? Will Witcher 4 even be the next game after Cyberpunk 2077? They've teased that they might do it someday so who really knows?

Does tying that decision to a future installment make it better or worse? What's your point?

It makes the decision to actually matter or not.
If it doesn't, then it's just a glorified cutscene.

 

[SirPinkyNose]

Witcher 3 from everything I have seen was made with a smaller team with a smaller budget in a shorter amount of time and does a lot of things well

No.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/this-is-how-much-the-witcher-3-cost-to-make/1100-6430409/

 

[Luxorek]

It makes the decision to actually matter or not.
If it doesn't, then it's just a glorified cutscene.

Straw man