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[Drillary Clinton]

Dead Space FIFA.

Resident Necromorph Luis Suarez on the cover. I can see it now.


Can't say that metacritic score itself will kill the franchise but sales definitely will. And I see it selling maybe a 4th of what 3 sold considering the reception and how stacked Q1 and Q2 are. Honestly, if the reception so far is true, they should have just left Mass Effect as a relic of last gen. Seems like EA was just banking on the name.

 

[Obliterator]

Is this going to kill the IP? This is a staggering drop in critical reception from previous entries and I cannot imagine it's going to sell all that well outside of the first week or two. And beyond that, this game's reputation will likely cripple any follow-up's chances of success.

Too early to say it's a franchise killer. We've gotta see what sales look like over the next few months and what consumers think about it.

But given how long and obviously troubled the production was on this, and the fact Bioware has moved onto a new IP, things could get shaky.

If Andromeda has bad word of mouth and doesn't meet sales goals it's something to keep an eye on.

 

[Auto_aim1]

You put the real development team on a totally untested new IP and casually tossed away Bioware's most valuable franchise with a shrug. I don't know if the market will reward you for it. I hope they don't.

Actually I hope the new IP is great, but the way they treated this game really sucks.

 

[Arulan]

The codex review is going to be brutal...

It will be brutal, but so were they, and arguably right, with Dragon Age II, Mass Effect 3, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

I suppose what I find interesting about Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't that it continues that trend, but what about this game makes even mainstream critics think poorly of it, in comparison to the three previously mentioned games.

 

[Nightfall]

I was so excited for MEA. Loved the original trilogy and couldn't wait to get back into this universe.
But after the negative reactions to the 10 hour preview I already cancelled my preorder. And it seems it was no wrong decision.
Damn...

I was worried I wouldn't have time for it since I'm still occupied with Horizon and Persona 5 is at hand. But still... that shouldn't be a consolation...

 

[Pixieking]

Am I the only one who actually liked Dragon Age 2? Seriously?

Slightly off-topic, but I thought it was okay. Compared to Dragon Age: Origins, it was a bad game, but viewed on its own it was okay. The annoying thing was the switch to ARPG style rather than tactical real-time-with-pause.

Oh, and the fact that the DLC is over-and-above the main-game in terms of quality.

 

[A-V-B]

Anyway, this is all really sad because supposedly Bioware's new IP is a multiplayer-centered experience so this might be the last gasp of big single player RPGs from them.

DA:I did well critically so that could see a sequel?

 

[AlexFlame116]

Just an observation after reading years of supposed critics and reviewers.

Kinda knew they had it in for mass effect and they pile in for clicks, yet some games get a pass.

I always wondered if they all meet in some private lobby and agree their crap lol.

Anyway, I trust DF as they give numbers to performance issues and dont spout rubbish.

Okay now I firmly believe you're joking. There's no way that you're serious.

If Framerate holds 30 on pro I will buy, if it dips below 25 for anytime then I am out - cant play that in 2017

Now that's just sad in my opinion.

 

[Mifec]

With Drakengard 3 it's not really a musou, more of a bog-standard beat-em-up game with massive performance issues that I'm fairly certain very few reviewers actually finished.

With Nier I think the sub-70 score is just because a lot of reviewers didn't play past the A route. Which may have been true for Drakengard 3 too. I got a good chuckle out of the message from "Square Enix PR" that comes up after clearing ending A in Automata that says that you aren't done with the game yet.

With Mass Effect though I don't think there can really be any justifications for a 70-ish score other than "the game is just 'pretty good' at best".

I was specifically talking bout Drakengard 1 on it's own though, never played 3 because I can't stand bad framerate and well Drakengard 1 is a pretty meh game from a gameplay standpoint every way you look at it. I love it because Yoko Taro's storytelling is great.

Also yah I loved it when I saw someone finish route A in Nier that it does the popup to keep playing. Pretty good.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

In a post Witcher III, Horizon and Breath of the Wild world, maybe subpar RPG experiences are no longer tolerated?

 

[xrnzaaas]

It's a shame that the reviewers didn't have a wake up call when they were reviewing Fallout 4 in 2015. Looks like a similar situation right here of a "lazy developer" living in a bubble. ;p

 

[oti]

Just an observation after reading years of supposed critics and reviewers.

Kinda knew they had it in for mass effect and they pile in for clicks, yet some games get a pass.

I always wondered if they all meet in some private lobby and agree their crap lol.

Anyway, I trust DF as they give numbers to performance issues and dont spout rubbish.

 

[Lifejumper]

2 new races in an entire new galaxy? Wth?

 

[DecoReturns]

Just an observation after reading years of supposed critics and reviewers.

Kinda knew they had it in for mass effect and they pile in for clicks, yet some games get a pass.

I always wondered if they all meet in some private lobby and agree their crap lol.

Anyway, I trust DF as they give numbers to performance issues and dont spout rubbish.

If Framerate holds 30 on pro I will buy, if it dips below 25 for anytime then I am out - cant play that in 2017

Hmm? Which games are getting a pass?

 

[Mifune]

DA:I did well critically so that could see a sequel?

Let's hope.

 

[Intheflorsh]

Am I the only one who actually liked Dragon Age 2? Seriously?

Nope. My favorite Dragon Age game.

 

[Tranqueris]

I wonder if EA will be caught by surprise by these reviews. They put a trial of the game up on EA Access. They seemed to give YouTubers and reviewers a lot of time to show off the flaws in the game and gave people review copies and didn't just pull a Bethesda and say review it the day it comes out.

Am I the only one who actually liked Dragon Age 2? Seriously?

Eh, I liked it once I made peace with the flaws in that game. I think the fact that I went directly from Origins to DA2 helped me like it more. I really liked Origins but after putting a ton of hours into it I was sort of happy to see how simplified DA2 was. The fact that it wasn't crashing all the time on me also helped.

 

[ironcreed]

But this is more like having an honour roll student who got straight A's in the 9th year, straight A's in the 10th year, straight A's in the 11th year, and now in the 12th year is bringing home D's, C's, and B's. Sure a 73% percent is a still a good score. But for a high achiever, it's a massive down swing. To the point where if you were the head mistress at the school, you'd be requesting a sit down with the parents to figure out what changed at home.

"Why is our star pupil underachieving?"

No arguing that at all. It's Mass Effect and it deserves better than what appears to be a mixed bag of unfinished quality after five years of development. I still think I will find some good in it, but yeah, it is what it is.

 

[RK9039]

Oh wow... didn't expect that.

 

[Snakey125]

So glad I canceled my CDKeys preorder now. I just don't want to reward EA for this. They didn't care about this franchise or its fans. They gave it to the b-team who had only ever made multiplayer content and one mediocre DLC, and it showed. They signed their name to a mediocre product and devalued the brand, because they just don't give enough of a damn to insist on quality. So congratulations EA. You put the real development team on a totally untested new IP and casually tossed away Bioware's most valuable franchise with a shrug. I don't know if the market will reward you for it. I hope they don't.

I don't blame you. I've been a huge fan of the series since the first game and I have little to no hype for this game at all. They had a chance of pulling something big, but fluked. My question right now is where the hell did that 40 million go to?

 

[Slaythe]

i think, all things considered, these are good scores. i'm not disappointed at all

Literally you.

Also, small glimmer of hope : The localization (at least french and german) fixed the awful writing so, in theory, the game is gonna receive some good EU reviews (that might be utterly deceiving if you're playing in english tho ).

 

[JehutyRunner]

Is it actually developed by the B team tho? What is the main team working on? New dragon age?

There's two teams on the go at BioWare Edmonton. There's the Dragon Age team as you mentioned and they're likely to be working on Inquisition's follow up right now. The other is the OG Mass Effect Trilogy team Casey Hudson worked with and on their new IP before he left for Microsoft.

The new IP from the OG ME team is due by the end of the next fiscal year, so by the end of March 2018.

 

[Ulong]

The gameplay was so mind numbingly boring in DA2 that I never got to find out if the story was good or bad, I quit. Take a really cool tactical RPG and make it a really generic ARPG, except with none of the actual skill or timing elements that can make an ARPG fun.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Anyway, this is all really sad because supposedly Bioware's new IP is a multiplayer-centered experience so this might be the last gasp of big single player RPGs from them.

There's another Dragon Age on the horizon.

 

[TI82]

It's weird when you read a review like this and then see the score.
http://attackofthefanboy.com/reviews/mass-effect-andromeda-review/

Yeah, the verdict:

Mass Effect: Andromeda held a lot of promise for the series. Taking the action to a whole new galaxy, there were endless possibilities. What we ended up with was a passable main quest, a forgettable new enemy, some enjoyable but not standout characters, and the same quality gameplay we've come to expect from the series. It's got some big problems, but I still put well over 30 hours into it without ever getting truly bored. There's plenty to explore and discover, it's just not all as interesting as what you might expect.

Doesn't read like a 4/5 game.

Yes indeed. This is BioWare Montreal's first game. I can't believe they just handed the series over like that.

Yeah, seems like it might be the end of the series as well this is bad and I can't see it selling as well with so many hot titles out right now.

 

[Chumley]

Is this going to kill the IP? This is a staggering drop in critical reception from previous entries and I cannot imagine it's going to sell all that well outside of the first week or two. And beyond that, this game's reputation will likely cripple any follow-up's chances of success.

Depends on the sales.

Shit sales + shit critical reception will either kill the franchise or get Bioware to actually sit down and figure out what they did wrong and restart the whole thing again.

 

[thumb]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/20/mass-effect-andromeda-review/#more-436013

Not good. Paints a picture of a dreary and uninspired mess.

 

[sirap]

Glad to read that the game-play remains tight. At least we have that.

After finishing #10/10! #Nintendo'sgifttohumanity Zelda BOTW I think I can get used to ME:A's lackluster performance and story

 

[jurgen]

I bet you Street Fighter 4 to 5 is pretty damn close

SF4 to SF5 doesn't seem to be close though. SF5 is maligned more for design choices than technical failures. It seems ME:A has both in spades.

 

[Neolombax]

Is this going to kill the IP? This is a staggering drop in critical reception from previous entries and I cannot imagine it's going to sell all that well outside of the first week or two. And beyond that, this game's reception will likely cripple any follow-up's chances of success.

I sincerely hope not. We don't have any other Space/Sci-fi RPG's at the moment...at least on the PS4.

 

[Lunafreya Nox Fleuret]

Fuck, I really wanted it to be good.. I really did. This is not looking great for a highly critically acclaimed franchise. I'm still going to buy it if the story is good... because what's ME without a good story? Are the characters remotely likeable? That's the stuff I'm concerned with.

 

[Lanrutcon]

In a post Witcher III, Horizon and Breath of the Wild world, maybe subpar RPG experiences are no longer tolerated?

This man has a point. It will be an interesting year.

 

[Slaythe]

So glad I canceled my CDKeys preorder now. I just don't want to reward EA for this. They didn't care about this franchise or its fans. They gave it to the b-team who had only ever made multiplayer content and one mediocre DLC, and it showed. They signed their name to a mediocre product and devalued the brand, because they just don't give enough of a damn to insist on quality. So congratulations EA. You put the real development team on a totally untested new IP and casually tossed away Bioware's most valuable franchise with a shrug. I don't know if the market will reward you for it. I hope they don't.

I had preordered this on a site that doesn't do refund, managed to get one anyway before the reviews hit, I could smell it.

Got lucky... Bought KH2ps4 instead (buggy too but they'll patch it ).

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

Its hard to watch people post rationalizations on why they want this game despite the scorching reviews.

 

[LastMinuteHero]

But this is more like having an honour roll student who got straight A's in the 9th year, straight A's in the 10th year, straight A's in the 11th year, and now in the 12th year is bringing home D's, C's, and B's. Sure a 73% percent is a still a good score. But for a high achiever, it's a massive down swing. To the point where if you were the head mistress at the school, you'd be requesting a sit down with the parents to figure out what changed at home.

"Why is our star pupil underachieving?"

Yeah that's a good way to put it

 

[Drillary Clinton]

There's two teams on the go at BioWare Edmonton. There's the Dragon Age team as you mentioned and they're likely to be working on Inquisition's follow up right now. The other is the OG Mass Effect Trilogy team Casey Hudson worked with and on their new IP before he left for Microsoft.

The new IP from the OG ME team is due by the end of the next fiscal year, so by the end of March 2018.

Yeah that's brutal so they likely just threw this game to a bunch of newer devs that probably had a nightmare with frostbite. Bummer.

 

[sueil]

I think this is a good summary of the writing problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBhR4QcBtE

 

[Ulong]

Yeah, the verdict:



Doesn't read like a 4/5 game.

If we're living in the world where a 3/5 (60%) is considered a bad game, than yeah, that review totally reads like a 4/5. He says he had problems with the game but never truly felt bored and the core gameplay was still fun.

 

[Femto.]

Is it actually developed by the B team tho? What is the main team working on? New dragon age?

No, I was just going along with the scenario with the quote I replied to.

 

[sehui]

Sounds like with a couple rounds of patches this could be a good videogame. Keeping it on my radar.

I doubt it man..for performance problems like that its very hard to patch (Look at Dishonored 2 and FF15).

The animations will never be fixed because its like part of the infrastructure of their animation engine, they'd have to redo mocap; not worth the money investment.

Story and dialogue won't change either unless they get people to come back to studio and revise and rerecord new lines.

 

[hidys]

After watching that Giant Bomb preview I'm not at all surprised by these scores. This game has some serious problems.

Anyone who talks shit about KotoR 2 should be shunned and ostracized by civilised society

Damn straight. One of the greatest RPGs ever made.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Indeed this is the thing.

A 70 Meta isn't that bad really by itself. However for franchise norms it's a horrendous drop in quality for the franchise and I can't imagine EA is remotely happy with this.

EA should not have forced it out then. They said they would delay if need be and they clearly lied about that.

 

[Mysterious Stranger]

I doubt it man..for performance problems like that its very hard to patch (Look at Dishonored 2 and FF15).

The animations will never be fixed because its like part of the infrastructure of their animation engine, they'd have to redo mocap; not worth the money investment.

Story and dialogue won't change either unless they get people to come back to studio and revise and rerecord new lines.

PATCH EVERYTHING!

 

[TheSadRanger]

So wait, from what I'm reading in some reviews Andromeda went the exact opposite direction of Inquisition in that instead of having too many areas it has too few?

Can anyone back this up?

 

[kurahador]

Yes indeed. This is BioWare Montreal's first game. I can't believe they just handed the series over like that.

It's a shame really as they are so good at with the third person shooter elements. You'd think EA would make the original team lend them a hand with the RPG elements, not a total hand-off.

 

[oti]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/20/mass-effect-andromeda-review/#more-436013

Not good. Paints a picture of a dreary and uninspired mess.

Exactly this:

Mass Effect Andromeda feels like a game that exists because there needed to be a new Mass Effect game.

is what I want to read in reviews. If all a game needs to do is offer the same thing over and over again to be considered good or great, we might as well stop reviewing games all together.

 

[Bunga]

Glad I cancelled my pre-order a few days ago. I'm not giving money over to Bioware/EA for a mess of a product. I'm sure the game has it's good parts, which the reviews allude to, but sadly the lack of polish for a game that has been in development for 5 years is inexcusable in my opinion. I will wait and see what happens with patches but, for now, this game is reserved for when it's reduced in price a lot or on sale.

Now to try and figure out what I'm gonna play...Horizon?!

 

[UberLevi]

Sounds like they should have just let this team make something of their own while letting the ME franchise die. I get that companies think familiar names will sell more copies but a great, new IP from Bioware would have done well too. Maybe if this team was able to create their own vision we'd be seeing a better overall result.

Mass Effect 1 is a buggy mess here and there that satisfied people in spite of all it's jankiness. And they managed to pull together a sequel that really built on the core aspects of the franchise.

Who's to say Andromeda can't be the same? And that this new team didn't just need a bumpy start and some constructive criticism to really understand what kind of game they need to make to satisfy more Mass Effect fans down the line? With the knowledge of how to build a full Mass Effect in the Frostbite engine, and discussion from fans and critics, they can absolutely bounce back and deliver another Mass Effect that's more universally praised.

 

[AlexFlame116]

Slightly off-topic, but I thought it was okay. Compared to Dragon Age: Origins, it was a bad game, but viewed on its own it was okay. The annoying thing was the switch to ARPG style rather than tactical real-time-with-pause.

Oh, and the fact that the DLC is over-and-above the main-game in terms of quality.

Eh, I liked it once I made peace with the flaws in that game. I think the fact that I went directly from Origins to DA2 helped me like it more. I really liked Origins but after putting a ton of hours into it I was sort of happy to see how simplified DA2 was. The fact that it wasn't crashing all the time on me also helped.

The gameplay was so mind numbingly boring in DA2 that I never got to find out if the story was good or bad, I quit. Take a really cool tactical RPG and make it a really generic ARPG, except with none of the actual skill or timing elements that can make an ARPG fun.

I like ARPGs as well as the simplified approach that they made in this game.. Maybe I'm part of the problem here.

Nope. My favorite Dragon Age game.

Thank you!!!

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Personal guess is low 80s metacritic score. With the exception of being blindsided by Ghost Recon, I've generally had a good handle on review and sales trends, so lets see how accurate I am this round.

Guess I'll have to eat crow on this. Even if there are a host of highly positive reviews, I don't think they'll be enough to pull it into the 80s