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[KyleOnTheRun]

8gbs isn't giving me any issues 1080p/60 ultra/high.

What's your GPU? I have 8gb and a GTX 970. My CPU is kinda obscure (a 4.0ghz dual-core from last year), but I could play TW3 at 1080p60

edit: double-post, whoops

 

[nOoblet16]

Question, are there cities in this like Illium?

Yes, so far I've come across two, the first one is much bigger than Illium, it has different aesthetic though. The 2nd one I haven't explored fully as I just arrived there but it is giving me Omega vibes.

 

[Compsiox]

I'm stuck at the last conduit vault door where the pillars appear when you're nearby.

I interacted with the door but its not opening.

 

[Lime]

1.04 patch notes
http://blog.bioware.com/2017/03/21/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-04-early-access-patch-notes/

"Improvements to many cinematics, conversations, and other character interactions"

Lots of other stuff too

one step closer to installation

 

[ironcreed]

I honestly don't feel most of the writing is any lesser than usual BioWare, including the trilogy.

I am exactly on the same page. Neither is the voice acting for the most part. It's all par for the course Mass Effect. I feel like I must be playing a different game than the one described in some of the reviews.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

1.04 patch notes
http://blog.bioware.com/2017/03/21/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-04-early-access-patch-notes/

"Improvements to many cinematics, conversations, and other character interactions"

Lots of other stuff too

Wait, what's the difference between 1.04 and the Early Access patch? And are these already available? I just went online with Origin (was offline due to VPN) and haven't received an update.

I am exactly on the same page. Neither is the voice acting for the most part. It's all par for the course Mass Effect. I feel like I must be playing a different game than the one described in some of the reviews.

My only concern with the voice acting (other than Addisoin) is that some of the female voices sound pretty similar to one another. I took Vekla and Cora onto Eos and there were times when I couldn't tell the difference between who was talking during some of the banters.

 

[yankeehater]

Why do so many people join MP and then never hit ready. Fuck they need to make it auto start after 3 people hit ready.

 

[MosquitoSmasher]

I honestly don't feel most of the writing is any lesser than usual BioWare, including the trilogy.

I haven't seen a whole lot yet but the conversations and everything so far on the Nexus is absolutely fine. Maybe I just forgot about it because it's been a while but all this indeed seems on par with the previous games. I'm really not seeing what's so shitty about this so far.

The game so far certainly doesn't appear to me like a game that has been made by "rookie" developers or anything. Not yet at least.

 

[Tsukumo]

O does anyone know why some systems say 70 or 80% complete even though I've visited every planet available? Do more planets pop up or do I have to search for hidden anomalies?

Spoiler

There are secret caches in every planet. Have you unlocked them?

This is a very good ten things I wish I knew about Andromeda from Forbes. There's a couple of spoilers here and there but they are mostly about the game design.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insert...i-started-mass-effect-andromeda/#7b85a5dc5e68

 

[yeehamuffins]

Yeah, in some ways I'm glad for all the negative buzz, in order to lower my expectations. Right now I've only gotten as far as the first few missions on Eos, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised. Did get one random NPC doing a T-pose on the Nexus, but otherwise no major animation glitches. It's definitely not enthralling me the way that the other ME games did, but I'm still early, so we'll see how it goes. But so far, I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Do we know who was on the writing staff for the game and how it compares to the staff from previous Bioware games? I know Mac Walters, of course, but I"m curious if any other series vets were involved.

 

[Lanf]

It attempts snarky way too often. Sometimes it hits ("Please don't embarrass me in front of my new friends.", I got a really good laugh on this one.) and often (more than it hits) it comes off as edgy, tired and trite ("I swear I will turn this car around...", and I visibly winced on this one).

But when they relax the snark, the writing is as good as usual ME. It tends to come and go.

Yeah, that was a good line Agree with your post in general. It's hard to take the whole thing seriously with all the snark. Or perhaps it is just the delivery I have issues with from time to time. Like FemRyder just sounding a bit too young.

But yeah, most of the time it's all fine. Not a big detractor.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Played up to the part where you get to Nexus. Other than the horrendous performance in base PS4 version (honestly, it felt like habitat 7 rarely hit 30 fps), everything else has been on par with my expectations.

 

[adamsapple]

Those last couple shots might be a bit deceiving, I'm not 100% sure but I think those blue lights that PC have only come on after the Ark has landed on the Nexus, the Pro shot was taken before this happens.

That is correct. I took mine right after the game starts before anything has been activated. Here are 2 more. These are from in-game cut scenes. They're not exactly 1:1 but I'm just eye balling them I don't have any sophisticated capture equipment.


And here's the same blue lit hall on Pro now.

PC

Pro

PC

Pro

PC

Pro

For the user asking for brief impressions earlier.

The game is definitely not a rock solid 30, it's either bad frame pacing or something but you can definitely feel a sense of jitter or hitching every now and then. Otherwise, I haven't encountered any notable drops in my time so far.

 

[firehawk12]

Yep, it sucks haha. Especially given the windup and slowdown on running animations, it can be really annoying to aim your character in the right spot during a frantic battle.

There should be a red arrow over the downed player (if they aren't fully dead), that icon will change to a circle with the appropriate button prompt when you're close enough to revive them. That's the icon you gotta keep on screen. Otherwise you'll just perform whatever action "Y" does (which I can't remember at the moment). Also keep in mind, if they don't have the red arrow that means they're dead and won't be revived till the end of the wave.

I'll keep an eye on that.

There's also another ME3 problem that I'm remembering - in public groups, no one is willing to use consumables. And I totally understand it - why bother using them if you don't know anyone else will? But I'm surprised they haven't fixed that problem by either making the consumables more plentiful or refunding them if you lose the match or something. It's basically a game of chicken to see who will break down and use a revive pack or grenade launcher first. lol

 

[JSoup]

That "wut" face was in response asking what caused the turbulence.

Yes, thank you, I'm aware of that. Didn't make it any less funny.

 

[nOoblet16]

I haven't seen a whole lot yet but the conversations and everything so far on the Nexus is absolutely fine. Maybe I just forgot about it because it's been a while but all this indeed seems on par with the previous games. I'm really not seeing what's so shitty about this so far.

The game so far certainly doesn't appear to me like a game that has been made by "rookie" developers or anything. Not yet at least.

Imo most of the bad stuff is quite front loaded in this game, NPCs that have poor animations and faces (Addison), shit dialogue (Addison again, and others). Then you run into stuff that's on par with previous Bioware efforts. The facial animations even are actually quite fine and I've been paying close attention to lip syncing which is working fine as well.

 

[d00d3n]

"Squad offense" or "Support" in the "Team Support" tree?

 

[george_us]

I honestly don't feel most of the writing is any lesser than usual BioWare, including the trilogy.

Same here to be honest. Andromeda seems to be fairly improved over the trilogy in some ways while it holds serve in others. I just think the main problem is, like I said before, the industry as a whole has arguably left Bioware behind a bit. In 2009 Mass Effect 2 was amazing in that it combined solid TPS mechanics with rich world you only found in RPGs. There really wasn't anything like it at the time and stood out among the sea of linear shooters. Now that damn near everything is an open world game with RPG elements, it feels a little less special.

 

[Lanf]

Game can be a looker though:

Aliens looking much better than humans, as been pointed out.

 

[ironcreed]

I am busy running around doing side missions on The Nexus and it is exactly the same types of things we did on The Citadel. Be it investigating some sort of sabotage or helping prove someone's innocence or guilt. I also am finding male Ryder's voice actor to be better than Shepherd's as well. I am sure that will be controversial, but that is where I am at. He is great.

 

[diaspora]

I am busy running around doing side missions on The Nexus and it is exactly the same types of things we did on The Citadel. Be it investigating some sort of sabotage or helping prove someone's innocence or guilt. I also am finding male Ryder's voice actor to be better than Shepherd's as well. I am sure that will be controversial, but that is where I am at. He is great.

I agree as far as ME1 and 2 vs Andromeda is concerned. But IMO Meer killed it in ME3.

 

[therealminime]

So... has anyone else noticed the very poorly placed """crowd""" audio on Eos? It is blatantly clear that it's just a few people speaking gibberish and the audio is just playing in the middle of empty areas of the Eos colony. It is so fucking weird and distracting and obvious.

 

[Starfield]

spoilers guys

 

[Poodlestrike]

HOLY SHIT did the Scorpion get a hell of a buff from ME3 or what? Shit is devastating.

 

[nOoblet16]

Sooo...they changed the disarming animation. She doesn't make the derp face now after disarming anymore, also she wears casual outfit instead of armour in this location. As for the disarming action, keep in mind that most of these animations last like a split second while in gifs they can last 10-20 times longer than that making it look really slow, in actual cutscene she does it really fast and points it away from her asap.

The video for comparison.
https://youtu.be/ulPsj5HYEV8

 

[razgriz417]

So this is a first, apparently the Deluxe Edition and the Steelbook are 2 separate things...Best buy shipped them separately, and now I'm sitting here with an empty steelbook waiting for Fedex to actually drop off the game lol

 

[Captain Tuttle]

I'm about 18 hours in and I think the best part of it, story wise, is the Tempest crew. Basically everyone on that ship is great and has a lot going on and the fact that they are always moving around after missions and talking to each other and have tons to say is really great. They've grown on me a ton. And the combat is amazing.

sounds like a Mass Effect game.

I'm probably 10 hours in, digging it so far

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Imo most of the bad stuff is quite front loaded in this game, NPCs that have poor animations and faces (Addison), shit dialogue (Addison again, and others). Then you run into stuff that's on par with previous Bioware efforts. The facial animations even are actually quite fine and I've been paying close attention to lip syncing which is working fine as well.

I honestly think that the beginning of the game must have been heavily reworked at the last minute. Everything after is so much better.

Wait, what's the difference between 1.04 and the Early Access patch? And are these already available?

Anyone?

So... has anyone else noticed the very poorly placed """crowd""" audio on Eos? It is blatantly clear that it's just a few people speaking gibberish and the audio is just playing in the middle of empty areas of the Eos colony. It is so fucking weird and distracting and obvious.

Yeah, I noticed it too. The sound mixing on ambient dialogue is also really poor and it can be very hard to hear over the background noise.

 

[Tukker]

Am I missing something or do a lot of the planets have nothing worth scanning for? I keep scanning everywhere but there is nothing on some planets?

 

[d00d3n]

Is it possible to save every team member you encounter during the intro?

Spoiler

Except the pathfinder I guess. The second one you meet seems to die really fast.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Am I missing something or do a lot of the planets have nothing worth scanning for? I keep scanning everywhere but there is nothing on some planets?

You should get alerted when there's something scannable.

 

[wesleyshark]

The Vanquisher sniper is obscene in MP. Whew.

 

[ironcreed]

I agree as far as ME1 and 2 vs Andromeda is concerned. But IMO Meer killed it in ME3.

Apples and oranges and all that. But the bottom line is that the more I play, the more I grin because I am playing Mass Effect, which is exactly what this game is. While that may seem dated to some, it still has that unmistakable DNA and I love it. Were it instead some heavy departure, no way would it be making me feel the same way the old games did. Dat VIBE.

 

[Tukker]

You should get alerted when there's something scannable.

Ok thanks, I was just getting worried because I had like 5 planets in a row with apparently nothing. I thought I was missing some mechanic.

 

[Shadow Broker]

Sooo...they changed the disarming animation. She doesn't make the derp face now after disarming anymore, also she wears casual outfit instead of armour in this location. As for the disarming action, keep in mind that most of these animations last like a split second while in gifs they can last 10-20 times longer than that making it look really slow, in actual cutscene she does it really fast and points it away from her asap.

Edit: I'll upload the video to compare

Turian: hey Sarah mind holding this gun for me?

Sara: Sure! Now I'm pointing the gun at you. Mind holding this L for me.

Random lady: get out.

Scene ends..

Bioware: yeah, Ryder is a badass.

I was trained to do that move Sara did and the Turian just let the gun go...

Eh... it's all dumb fun.

 

[SliChillax]

So disappointing that this music is not included in the soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOIzH6UcoW4
Talking about the music from the start of the video and the galaxy map part.

 

[Trickster]

So is it safe to say that the stuff under the additional tasks in the journal is all the most tedious grindy stuff that you only ever do if you have nothing else to do in the game?

Like, some task where I have to gather x plants, wont lead to something resembling an actual mission, right?

 

[Big Nikus]

It's the first game I play that runs so poorly on my PC. The weak point may be that my 970 has only 4gb of ram (actually more like 3.5, thanks nvidia), otherwise I've got 8gb on my PC. Thing is, it runs Star Wars Battlefront and The Division on High or Ultra at 60fps without any issue. At least no issue on High. But Andromeda is a stuttering mess for me, constantly dropping below 40 fps and coming back at 55/60. I'm not even sure locking at 30fps would fix it, sometimes it almost freezes completely. What are the settings that I should lower to get better performances ?

 

[xCobalt]

Seems like a silly choice to make entering and leaving the Mako different buttons.

 

[nOoblet16]

Turian: hey Sarah mind holding this gun for me?

Sara: Sure! Now I'm pointing the gun at you. Mind holding this L for me.

Random lady: get out.

Scene ends..

Bioware: yeah, Ryder is a badass.

I was trained to do that move Sara did and the Turian just let the gun go...

Eh... it's all dumb fun.

That scene can play out 3 different ways, the first time I did it there was no hostility at all. It's just one of those press RT for "renegade action" moments. If you don't press RT she just backs away. Alternatively if you approach the conversation a different manner you just walk out without causing any fuss. People have looked too deep into this thing honestly.

 

[SliChillax]

So is it safe to say that the stuff under the additional tasks in the journal is all the most tedious grindy stuff that you only ever do if you have nothing else to do in the game?

Like, some task where I have to gather x plants, wont lead to something resembling an actual mission, right?

Yeah, but weirdly enough I am enough most of them. I like exploring the map now that I've upgraded the Nomad so I don't mind having something to collect while exploring a new portion of the map.

 

[Trickster]

Seems like a silly choice to make entering and leaving the Mako different buttons.

It's the same for me, on pc.

Yeah, but weirdly enough I am enough most of them. I like exploring the map now that I've upgraded the Nomad so I don't mind having something to collect while exploring a new portion of the map.

Honestly, trying to do that stuff reminds me way too much of what I hated about DA:I, so ain't gonna spend my time on that

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I'm playing as Draco Malfoy fused with Nathan Fillion

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Performance on my rig is solid for the most part, though cut-scenes lag a bit when the camera changes for some reason which can be jarring. I'm not very far in the game at all (first mission) but man does the auto-save suck. Just auto-save before and after every fight please... I thought this shit got worked out a decade ago!

 

[Lashley]

Downloaded.

Releases 11PM in the UK tomorrow, think I'll just VPN though

 

[Mifune]

So is it safe to say that the stuff under the additional tasks in the journal is all the most tedious grindy stuff that you only ever do if you have nothing else to do in the game?

Like, some task where I have to gather x plants, wont lead to something resembling an actual mission, right?

You would think so but according to Kotaku that's not always the case:

Complicating things further is the ”Additional tasks" category, which, when compared to other types, make these quests sound like busywork. Paradoxically, the flavor text of non-priority missions still promised world-building and character studies, which are crucial to making the player care about anything. When a quest asks you to collect 10 plants, it doesn't sound worth your time, no? What about when it asks you to scan 10 pieces of salvage hailing from one of the key missing ships? That sounds like it could be important, right? Surprise, it's not. And that quest that you thought sounded like nothing, hey, it actually has a well-written character that ties the whole place together. You never know, and that's part of the problem.

 

[a916]

I'm playing as Draco Malfoy fused with Nathan Fillion

Wait 'til my father hears about this.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Is it possible to save every team member you encounter during the intro?

Spoiler

Except the pathfinder I guess. The second one you meet seems to die really fast.

I only lost the very first guy as I didn't shoot first. I save the others. You just have to engage and kill quickly. I recommend your initial shots on the one aiming at the team member.

 

[a916]

Apples and oranges and all that. But the bottom line is that the more I play, the more I grin because I am playing Mass Effect, which is exactly what this game is. While that may seem dated to some, it still has that unmistakable DNA and I love it. Were it instead some heavy departure, no way would it be making me feel the same way the old games did. Dat VIBE.

How's the music been? A few people have mentioned it's a bit subdued and no stand out "Vigil" type tracks