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[Grisby]

Gonna have to go through the family thread to get some good male faces. I always tried to do it on my own in the trilogy and I never could get a decent looking guy.

On another note, I decided that this weekend, the one before Andromeda releases, to take a trip down trailer lane and watch a bunch of ME1-3 media.

Some big dreams and some nice memories.

edit- Good thread brogans.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

Huh.

Browsing the ME reddit trying to find some good custom Sara faces, and it unless there are shenanigans going on with someone editing a supposed 'livestream' capture, the French 'default' Sara looks different when selecting quick start?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect..._ryder_corrected_face_leaked/#bottom-comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qG2T0FUlZU&feature=youtu.be&t=14m54s

I think that face lacks any of the personality of default Sara.

 

[Big Nikus]

I finished the trial, and... it honestly exceed my expectations. I thought I had seen too much with the trailers, the Initiative videos etc... But nope, it felt both familiar and fresh, when I arrived on the Nexus and talked to some people there I just knew : I'm gonna love this game. Also, as someone who have always liked the most controversial aspects of Mass Effect, namely : the Mako, the scanning (with moderation), and the combat, this has the potential to be my favorite Mass Effect, period. Just need to know more characters and where the plot is going but for know I like the game a lot. I hope the music as a whole is good, I still don't really know what to think about it... it seems serviceable, but I need to hear more.
I felt overwhelmed by the menus though : so much stuff (too much ?). All this equipement, scraps to re-sell, dozens and dozens of skills, I felt a bit lost, but it may be because I felt the pressure of the time limit. I'm ready to play more two hundred hours if needs be
And if the early sidequests are representative of the latter ones, it should be good.

As for the other thread in general gaming, well damn, I was bracing myself for some bullshit on GAF come release, but holy shit this is on another level. Might be the worst shitpiling I've seen on GAF and I was there around DA2 and ME3 releases. Just disappointing. I'm glad this thread is here and I like reading the criticisms from the people here, like EatChildren. I'm not looking for universal praise, but just, idk, normal/level-headed people talking.

It was nice to read the positive impressions from DeadlyParasite, who was the most negative about the game before the trial

Between the single player and the possibility to jump into the MP anytime from there, I think my first playthrough is gonna be really long.
I'll have to fight with my fiancée to play but hey, what can you do. We're gonna play with the "same" characters, like, she will have my Scott as her twin and I'll have her Sara as sister, should be cool. Everytime she saw my MaleShep she was like, "meh, that's not Shepard". With the twins, problem solved. GG BioWare, you saved my relationship.

 

[EatChildren]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

 

[GenericBadGuy]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

I didn't go far in single player and didn't make any bad decisions skill-wise so I'm going to stay put. I'll certainly be running through it more than once though, especially on PC where mods are a thing.

 

[Big Nikus]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Yep, gonna start from scratch, create my perfect custom Scott, and spend more time reading the Codex entries and talking to everyone. I'll also try to not get my ass kicked as much during the first encounters. I was surprised (played on Hardcore).

 

[Xanathus]

Multiplayer weapons datamined https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xQXPp08uRH3eWK52_YXJr7UniPfkyNDi8OmHVN6-qjc/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/601gjz/mea_all_weapon_data_spreadsheet_extracted_from/

tl;dr snipers and pistols are OP

 

[orichalcos]

Oh shit, that looks awesome, it's seriously giving me those pre-nerf Krysae vibes. What rarity is that gun?

Naladen 1. Ultra rare.

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/oriic/video/28403272

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Yep, definitely - I also have CC regret since I left my Sara default, and then proceeded to make a brother/father that look nothing like her; full fresh start confirmed!

Anyone else have a moment when the combat just finally clicked....it is such a smooth and fast set of mechanics, blows the Trilogy combat out of the water, and I can actually see why they went the route of directing squadmates with the basic commands.

I just wish they would die less, that's all (Hardcore difficulty). Insanity is going to be legit a 1 man show for a lot of the fights by the feel, lol.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Wow, we got a new thread.

 

[EatChildren]

Aaand that's basically a wrap for me. 15 minutes or so left in the trial, still stuff to do, but I'm tapping out until the full release where I fully intend to restart afresh.

Interesting experience. As a whole positive and excited to play at launch, knowing I will lose myself in the galaxy and story and likely comb over every bit of content it has to offer. Definitely a slow burn, finding myself more drawn to the premise and design towards the tail end of the trail compared to the early hours. I put this down half due to preconceptions and assumed baggage from my love and experience with the trilogy, given Andromeda shamelessly casts it all aside for what is now abundantly clear a soft reboot. It feels like Mass Effect, but a very different, new template Mass Effect. And in part due to surprising technical and production deficiencies, particularly in cutscene animation and general jank, which is not a game killer to me, but surprisingly consistent on the average-to-poor spectrum. Something clearly didn't work out there.

I'm expecting a bunch of bugs and quirks at release and the following months. That is par for course for literally every game of this scope and calibre, no matter the developers. I just hope they're not too significant. I feel, like Wild Hunt, it'll be an even better game 6 - 12 months from now with QOL patches and bug crunching, but I'm not interested in waiting. I hope the narrative and cast hold their own throughout. I don't buy the vague "It's just like Inquisition!" criticism, which rings hollow to me; exploring Eos and uncovering what happened through scanning and ambient dialogue had me intrigued and I look forward to more of that. I think ultimately much of the cast and narrative just need time to prove themselves. They've got huge shoes to fill, unfairly maybe. Getting to know and develop an entire game's worth of completely new stuff is hard to put up against characters developed over three games. But we'll see.

Multiplayer needs massive patches or at least regional filtering. It feels really good to play but it's busted as fuck in latency and audio positioning. Very disappointed there. And if Andromeda cant hold the longevity and fan legacy that ME3 had, the multiplayer will be dead pretty quickly and that'll just make me more disappointed. Big gamble there, but hoping stuff gets ironed out ASAP. Filter, BioWare. Please please please. Let met matchmake locally. Please.

My prediction is that despite the franchise legacy and huge scope of what I do feel is a good game, it'll be somewhat divisive in reviews. I'm expecting a low 80s metacritic average. Which doesn't really mean shit to me, but you know, for the sake of speculating regarding a AAA mass market game, that's where I'm going. I think fan reception will be hugely divided too. And ultimately I feel the response from across the board will have a significant impact in an Andromeda 2, much in the same way as Mass Effect transitioned to its sequel, should we ever actually see it. Worse case scenario; divisive reviews and a cynical buzz surrounding the title seriously dampen the overall sales, launching decently but having poor legs. Price gets dropped low early. EA is generally unhappy and puts the franchise on the backburner for awhile, shifting emphasis back to the next Dragon Age, a Star Wars game from BioWare, and Edmonton's Destiny.

Nevertheless; I am excited and keen to play, eager to yet again lose countless hours of myself in the franchise that just keeps abusing me. I hope it doesn't fall to pieces as the adventure goes on. I hope the multiplayer gets fixed, and is sufficiently supported. I hope patches and updates smooth out bugs and rougher content quickly. I hope the inevitable DLC is appealing and rich. And I hope EA and BioWare don't drop the series, but take lessons on storytelling, design, and technology forward to a successor.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Aaand that's basically a wrap for me. 15 minutes or so left in the trial, still stuff to do, but I'm tapping out until the full release where I fully intend to restart afresh.

Interesting experience. As a whole positive and excited to play at launch, knowing I will lose myself in the galaxy and story and likely comb over every bit of content it has to offer. Definitely a slow burn, finding myself more drawn to the premise and design towards the tail end of the trail compared to the early hours. I put this down half due to preconceptions and assumed baggage from my love and experience with the trilogy, given Andromeda shamelessly casts it all aside for what is now abundantly clear a soft reboot. It feels like Mass Effect, but a very different, new template Mass Effect. And in part due to surprising technical and production deficiencies, particularly in cutscene animation and general jank, which is not a game killer to me, but surprisingly consistent on the average-to-poor spectrum. Something clearly didn't work out there.

I'm expecting a bunch of bugs and quirks at release and the following months. That is par for course for literally every game of this scope and calibre, no matter the developers. I just hope they're not too significant. I feel, like Wild Hunt, it'll be an even better game 6 - 12 months from now with QOL patches and bug crunching, but I'm not interested in waiting. I hope the narrative and cast hold their own throughout. I don't buy the vague "It's just like Inquisition!" criticism, which rings hollow to me; exploring Eos and uncovering what happened through scanning and ambient dialogue had me intrigued and I look forward to more of that. I think ultimately much of the cast and narrative just need time to prove themselves. They've got huge shoes to fill, unfairly maybe. Getting to know and develop an entire game's worth of completely new stuff is hard to put up against characters developed over three games. But we'll see.

Multiplayer needs massive patches or at least regional filtering. It feels really good to play but it's busted as fuck in latency and audio positioning. Very disappointed there. And if Andromeda cant hold the longevity and fan legacy that ME3 had, the multiplayer will be dead pretty quickly and that'll just make me more disappointed. Big gamble there, but hoping stuff gets ironed out ASAP. Filter, BioWare. Please please please. Let met matchmake locally. Please.

My prediction is that despite the franchise legacy and huge scope of what I do feel is a good game, it'll be somewhat divisive in reviews. I'm expecting a low 80s metacritic average. Which doesn't really mean shit to me, but you know, for the sake of speculating regarding a AAA mass market game, that's where I'm going. I think fan reception will be hugely divided too. And ultimately I feel the response from across the board will have a significant impact in an Andromeda 2, much in the same way as Mass Effect transitioned to its sequel, should we ever actually see it. Worse case scenario; divisive reviews and a cynical buzz surrounding the title seriously dampen the overall sales, launching decently but having poor legs. Price gets dropped low early. EA is generally unhappy and puts the franchise on the backburner for awhile, shifting emphasis back to the next Dragon Age, a Star Wars game from BioWare, and Edmonton's Destiny.

Nevertheless; I am excited and keen to play, eager to yet again lose countless hours of myself in the franchise that just keeps abusing me. I hope it doesn't fall to pieces as the adventure goes on. I hope the multiplayer gets fixed, and is sufficiently supported. I hope patches and updates smooth out bugs and rougher content quickly. I hope the inevitable DLC is appealing and rich. And I hope EA and BioWare don't drop the series, but take lessons on storytelling, design, and technology forward to a successor.

https://abload.de/img/1fvxr7.png[/ig]
[img]https://abload.de/img/2mbak1.png[/mg]
[img]https://abload.de/img/3zyz0m.png[/ig][/QUOTE]

Well said! I agree whole-heartedly.

 

[Plasma]

Huh.

Browsing the ME reddit trying to find some good custom Sara faces, and it unless there are shenanigans going on with someone editing a supposed 'livestream' capture, the French 'default' Sara looks different when selecting quick start?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect..._ryder_corrected_face_leaked/#bottom-comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qG2T0FUlZU&feature=youtu.be&t=14m54s

It looks kind of like Mass Effect 1 where you picked the default FemShep and then hit edit and although it was mostly the same there were slight differences from the default.

For those that have played the trial I've seen all the gifs around but are the animations really that distracting when you're playing the game? I'm hoping it's just something I can get used to and ignore everything else I've seen of the game like the combat and exploration looks great.

 

[Heckler456]

I purposely paid attention to the animations, and they never bothered me whatsoever. In fact, what I did notice is how much more dynamic they were than something like The Witcher 3 or Horizon, in that they were more "dynamic". You know, people moving around and doing stuff instead of 80% just standing around while having a conversation with a chest framed shot reverse shot.

 

[Dandy Lyin]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Definitely. I only made it to the Tempest, but I still have about 5 hours left. Other than trying some multiplayer, I am done with the trial and plan to restart on launch. I plan to scour every area and read all the Codex entries as I go, which I didn't do initially because of the trial clock ticking.

I purposely paid attention to the animations, and they never bothered me whatsoever. In fact, what I did notice is how much more dynamic they were than something like The Witcher 3 or Horizon, in that they were more "dynamic". You know, people moving around and doing stuff instead of 80% just standing around while having a conversation with a chest framed shot reverse shot.

The animations didn't bother me that much either, though the lip syncing wasn't great. Oddly, what I found most jarring were the NPCs wandering around... Sometimes they just looked awful, especially if they had light hair colors... It looked like the had dipped their heads in a vat of MS Paint. I think it grabbed my attention so much because everything else looked so great around them.

 

[Tigersprite]

I purposely paid attention to the animations, and they never bothered me whatsoever. In fact, what I did notice is how much more dynamic they were than something like The Witcher 3 or Horizon, in that they were more "dynamic". You know, people moving around and doing stuff instead of 80% just standing around while having a conversation with a chest framed shot reverse shot.

I really liked the trial, and I'm still confident in the game, but I certainly wouldn't say they were as dynamic as the conversation animations in Witcher 3 (haven't played Horizon). The animations need work; female NPCs like Suvi and Lexi have an awful walking animation in particular which looks like a robot marching. And in the conversations, 80% of the time people were standing around with little movement while they spoke. However, Liam, male Ryder and Vetra have some really good animations - wish it was consistent across the board.

I'm still quietly hyped for the combat, feel, story and characters from what I've played, but (and no disrespect meant!) I do feel it's not quite fair to say the animations are better than a couple other games generally known for good animations. But I don't want to argue on a fresh OT-2 or bring piles of negativity into this thread; the threads in gaming are still way overboard - happy to agree to disagree.

 

[Ovek]

Huh.

Browsing the ME reddit trying to find some good custom Sara faces, and it unless there are shenanigans going on with someone editing a supposed 'livestream' capture, the French 'default' Sara looks different when selecting quick start?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect..._ryder_corrected_face_leaked/#bottom-comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qG2T0FUlZU&feature=youtu.be&t=14m54s

It's interesting but I doubt that it's a "fixed" version of Sara, more perhaps a peek in to Sara's default appearance development. If it is a beta head and messing around in the menus somehow got it to load, it really begs the question why it's still in the games files.

 

[BrassDragon]

Anyone else have a moment when the combat just finally clicked....it is such a smooth and fast set of mechanics, blows the Trilogy combat out of the water, and I can actually see why they went the route of directing squadmates with the basic commands.

I just wish they would die less, that's all (Hardcore difficulty). Insanity is going to be legit a 1 man show for a lot of the fights by the feel, lol.

I had the exact same experience - combat really is fun once you have some combos and weapon mods going. I'm still not 100% sold on the auto-cover though. I heard all the arguments that it's supposed to make combat more fluid and dynamic but the only issue with the old system was the 'stickiness' - just let me snap to cover with a button press and immediately pull away from it if needed instead of keeping me glued to the cover, you'd get the same effect in a far more predictable and interactive manner.

I'm expecting great things from the boss fights since they can do clever things with the environment and your expanded ability to dodge things and flank.

Wish the story grabbed me more (love the premise but the clunky exposition isn't doing it for me.) Still the gameplay loop is going to pull me through.

 

[sagat2036]

Has anyone noticed no equipment drops are coming out of the packs?

Saw a streamer drop 100 on Apoints and not one single shield booster or adaptive war amp from the 10000/300 packs.

Whats the reason for removing over cover grabs?

 

[Bombless]

I had the exact same experience - combat really is fun once you have some combos and weapon mods going. I'm still not 100% sold on the auto-cover though. I heard all the arguments that it's supposed to make combat more fluid and dynamic but the only issue with the old system was the 'stickiness' - just let me snap to cover with a button press and immediately pull away from it if needed instead of keeping me glued to the cover, you'd get the same effect in a far more predictable and interactive manner.

I'm expecting great things from the boss fights since they can do clever things with the environment and your expanded ability to dodge things and flank.

Wish the story grabbed me more (love the premise but the clunky exposition isn't doing it for me.) Still the gameplay loop is going to pull me through.

If you want to get used to the cover system play Multiplayer. You'll quickly grow to love the fact you can easily peel off cover to run away or advance your position. Adding an extra button press would break the rythm imo. I'm glad it's gone.

Has anyone noticed no equipment drops are coming out of the packs?

Saw a streamer drop 100 on Apoints and not one single shield booster or adaptive war amp from the 10000/300 packs.

Whats the reason for removing over cover grabs?

Consumables are lower priority than unlockables in the higher packs. As long as you have stuff to unlock it's always going to come up more than the rest.

 

[SoSolaris]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Yep. I'm going to spend more time in the character creator attempting to build a suitable Ryder, and play the beginning of the game at my own pace, reading all the datapads, exploring more, talking to more characters, etc.

 

[BrassDragon]

If you want to get used to the cover system play Multiplayer. You'll quickly grow to love the fact you can easily peel off cover to run away or advance your position. Adding an extra button press would break the rythm imo. I'm glad it's gone.

I have poured some hours into MP and I agree that it works better there but I think that's because they're closed arenas and there is never any confusion where the cover is. In the single player campaign, you're on open terrain a lot and sometimes Ryder hides behind a random rock and sometimes she doesn't. So yeah, it works better in combat arenas but not feeling it in the open world context... still, it's just a small QOL issue, I can run with it as is.

 

[Kurumi]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

I'll be doing this for sure.

 

[-Amon-]

Aaand that's basically a wrap for me. 15 minutes or so left in the trial, still stuff to do, but I'm tapping out until the full release where I fully intend to restart afresh.

Interesting experience. As a whole positive and excited to play at launch, knowing I will lose myself in the galaxy and story and likely comb over every bit of content it has to offer. Definitely a slow burn, finding myself more drawn to the premise and design towards the tail end of the trail compared to the early hours. I put this down half due to preconceptions and assumed baggage from my love and experience with the trilogy, given Andromeda shamelessly casts it all aside for what is now abundantly clear a soft reboot. It feels like Mass Effect, but a very different, new template Mass Effect. And in part due to surprising technical and production deficiencies, particularly in cutscene animation and general jank, which is not a game killer to me, but surprisingly consistent on the average-to-poor spectrum. Something clearly didn't work out there.

I'm expecting a bunch of bugs and quirks at release and the following months. That is par for course for literally every game of this scope and calibre, no matter the developers. I just hope they're not too significant. I feel, like Wild Hunt, it'll be an even better game 6 - 12 months from now with QOL patches and bug crunching, but I'm not interested in waiting. I hope the narrative and cast hold their own throughout. I don't buy the vague "It's just like Inquisition!" criticism, which rings hollow to me; exploring Eos and uncovering what happened through scanning and ambient dialogue had me intrigued and I look forward to more of that. I think ultimately much of the cast and narrative just need time to prove themselves. They've got huge shoes to fill, unfairly maybe. Getting to know and develop an entire game's worth of completely new stuff is hard to put up against characters developed over three games. But we'll see.

Multiplayer needs massive patches or at least regional filtering. It feels really good to play but it's busted as fuck in latency and audio positioning. Very disappointed there. And if Andromeda cant hold the longevity and fan legacy that ME3 had, the multiplayer will be dead pretty quickly and that'll just make me more disappointed. Big gamble there, but hoping stuff gets ironed out ASAP. Filter, BioWare. Please please please. Let met matchmake locally. Please.

My prediction is that despite the franchise legacy and huge scope of what I do feel is a good game, it'll be somewhat divisive in reviews. I'm expecting a low 80s metacritic average. Which doesn't really mean shit to me, but you know, for the sake of speculating regarding a AAA mass market game, that's where I'm going. I think fan reception will be hugely divided too. And ultimately I feel the response from across the board will have a significant impact in an Andromeda 2, much in the same way as Mass Effect transitioned to its sequel, should we ever actually see it. Worse case scenario; divisive reviews and a cynical buzz surrounding the title seriously dampen the overall sales, launching decently but having poor legs. Price gets dropped low early. EA is generally unhappy and puts the franchise on the backburner for awhile, shifting emphasis back to the next Dragon Age, a Star Wars game from BioWare, and Edmonton's Destiny.

Nevertheless; I am excited and keen to play, eager to yet again lose countless hours of myself in the franchise that just keeps abusing me. I hope it doesn't fall to pieces as the adventure goes on. I hope the multiplayer gets fixed, and is sufficiently supported. I hope patches and updates smooth out bugs and rougher content quickly. I hope the inevitable DLC is appealing and rich. And I hope EA and BioWare don't drop the series, but take lessons on storytelling, design, and technology forward to a successor

Thank you for your impressions.

I immensely enjoyed the first trilogy and quite liked DA inquisition. I must say that I'm quite sad from what I read about Andromeda. Electronic Arts sold this like a full AAA experience. The game looked really interesting, but to me it looks it did not get the attention and developer time it deserved.

Definitely not a day one purchase. Need more impressions.

 

[Blue Ninja]

Just had an MP match where one of those levitiating kett guys took two rockets to the face and still didn't die. i'm assuming it glitched out?

 

[EatChildren]

Thank you for your impressions.

I immensely enjoyed the first trilogy and quite liked DA inquisition. I must say that I'm quite sad from what I read about Andromeda. Electronic Arts sold this like a full AAA experience. The game looked really interesting, but to me it looks it did not get the attention and developer time it deserved.

Definitely not a day one purchase. Need more impressions.

If it's any consolation, I feel a lot more work has gone into the open world narrative chaining side quests together in a way that is really appealing to me, both visually and conceptually. Every open world supposedly has a core theme or story that ties plot threads together, at the very least in a way to keep them relevant.

I'll use the very first planet you land on post prologue as an example, with a spoilered side quest.

Spoiler

Eos' story is that of being one of the initiative's first planets, but the early colonisation efforts have all fallen silent. You're sent to investigate. Though the first main quest hook is landing at the main abandoned site, a very nearby side quest involves exploring a research centre.

You can scan the bodies laying around the site, find out how they died, and Ryder and co will comment, documenting the information to be passed on to families. You learn that the site, like most others on Eos, was overrun by Kett. You also learn that they were researching something there. Moving through the buildings, scanning data pads and listening to audio logs, it culminates in a direct attack by the Kett.

Defeating them sends you on an errand to collect the missing components of whatever they were researching. This takes you to a crashed shuttle of iconic Mass Effect design, and Kett facility. In the latter, you can find the body of another human they seemingly took back for research, listen to a short audio recording, and be introduced to a new character. In the end you return the research material and are rewarded with a new schematic to research for new gear.

It's very simple, and lives and dies on the narrative, but I loved that there seemed to be context for where you were going, why things were where they are, and a sense of uncovering events that happened before you arrived. I don't think it's quite as good as The Witcher 3's similar work, but it was so much more contextually sensible than Inquisition's tendency to just lump random shit together on the map.

 

[Tenacious-D]

For the people who've played the trial, how hand-holdy is it?

I'm finishing my ME3 playthrough, and I never realized that the OT really never bombarded you with HUD elements and map markers. From the vids I've seen of Andromeda, it likes to overuse the compass mechanic. Can you turn this off, or not really?

 

[Heckler456]

It's not any more hand-holdy than some like Horizon or The Witcher ever was.

 

[-Amon-]

If it's any consolation, I feel a lot more work has gone into the open world narrative chaining side quests together in a way that is really appealing to me, both visually and conceptually. Every open world supposedly has a core theme or story that ties plot threads together, at the very least in a way to keep them relevant.

I'll use the very first planet you land on post prologue as an example, with a spoilered side quest.....

.....It's very simple, and lives and dies on the narrative, but I loved that there seemed to be context for where you were going, why things were where they are, and a sense of uncovering events that happened before you arrived. I don't think it's quite as good as The Witcher 3's similar work, but it was so much more contextually sensible than Inquisition's tendency to just lump random shit together on the map.

I can understand your point of view, it looks like they had to choose where to put their efforts on , and went the way you described.

Maybe I was expecting too much ? Don't know, I was expecting something on Horizon and witcher 3 levels for sure. That's the level of effort mass effect deserves for me.

 

[Bombless]

Jesus Christ, I'm starting to see tweets from people seemingly GG/Alt right targeting the Lead Facial Animator of Andromeda because she has a pretty face and is listed as model/cosplayer.

 

[diaspora]

I can understand your point of view, it looks like they had to choose where to put their efforts on , and went the way you described.

Maybe I was expecting too much ? Don't know, I was expecting something on Horizon and witcher 3 levels for sure. That's the level of effort mass effect deserves for me.

Face animations are on par with Horizon for me, both are extremely poor compared to Witcher 3 and even Inquisition which honestly puzzles me.

 

[Pheace]

It's not any more hand-holdy than some like Horizon or The Witcher ever was.

Isn' t The Witcher 3 exactly one of the examples of holding your hand with the quest markers? I assume that's exactly what he doesn't want so comparing it to that isn't a plus.

 

[Sai]

Multiplayer weapons datamined https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xQXPp08uRH3eWK52_YXJr7UniPfkyNDi8OmHVN6-qjc/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/601gjz/mea_all_weapon_data_spreadsheet_extracted_from/

tl;dr snipers and pistols are OP

Maaannn, they really took the M-99 Saber out. Now I'm bawlin'.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

Jesus Christ, I'm starting to see tweets from people seemingly GG/Alt right targeting the Lead Facial Animator of Andromeda because she has a pretty face and is listed as model/cosplayer.

Please no, this is getting out of hand. How much of an entitled manchild can some people be?

I HATE this trend of people who actively enjoying trashing things.

 

[lucebuce12]

Jesus Christ, I'm starting to see tweets from people seemingly GG/Alt right targeting the Lead Facial Animator of Andromeda because she has a pretty face and is listed as model/cosplayer.

Goddamn it, not those misogynist assholes again.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

I really like Mass Effect: Andromeda.

There's something about the way the story is presented that makes me yearn to know more: much like in ME1 I find myself wanting to uncover the secrets behind everything, with the Andromeda Initiative being a dark and mysterious presence...hidden in plain view. There are some fairly major flaws on display here, with performance issues clouding my 10 hour trial (multiple crashes to desktop, hard freezes) which far outweighed any of the much deplored face and body animation issues on display (there are quite a few). This is potentially a flawed masterpiece that needs a bit of TLC before it can truly shine: but all of the things that matter are present: Story, Characters, Atmosphere, Music and Voice work are all very well done with the odd exception (Tired Face et al). Music and story are, to me, extremely well presented and the way it's unfolding as a mystery plot set amidst a tale of pure survival makes me crazy intrigued...this wait till release day is going to be some hardcore cold turkey indeed.

Things I like:

* Combat is sublime, no two ways about it, it's the best the series has seen and movement in general is amazing, top stuff.
* Character Development - Amazing use of skill trees, abilities and customisation: this is how you do an ARPG progression system.
* Music - This is my favourite soundtrack in the series, I'm being serious here: it's very emotive and is only rivaled by ME2's OST.
* Story - Far more mysterious than I first gave it credit for, there are big things about to go down and I can't wait to see it unravel.
* Characters - It's early days, but my early favourite is Liam: his banter and blossoming friendship with Ryder are great to witness.
* Exploration - There's a real sense of exploring that I haven't felt since... *cue Darth Vadar turn*...ME1. The scanner is actually fun too, surprisingly.
* Environmental Storytelling - Lots of little details around, easter eggs and audio logs: great for lore hounds and ME nerds like me.
* The Visuals - Absolutely stunning in 4K upscaled / 60fps with HDR running... it's a stunning, stunning space adventure for sure.
* The Voicework - Ryder, Alec and the main crew are all really well done: the NPCs are a bit hit or miss, but overall it's really good.
* Art Direction - The vibrant worlds and contrasting Remnant technology make for an explosion of enticement for your Retinas.
* The Difficulty - Playing on Hardcore, and man...it's pretty freaking hard! I would liken it to Insanity in the ME:T, Enemy AI is better than I first thought.
* Atmosphere - Ambient chatter and sound, music on missions and quest design all contribute to a mysterious yet light hearted vibe: hard to describe..but it's good.

Things I don't like:

* Performance - Now, it runs amazingly well with a near steady 60fps on a 980 even: but CTD/Freezes have happened a few times, not a fan.
* Squad Customisation - I get they are doing their own thing, but not customising your squad's weapons/armor feels off.
* Facial Animations - These didn't bother me after about 30 minutes, but they deserve to be mentioned: they are no better (or worse) than ME1, weird.
* NPC Conversation System - Sometimes you're talking to NPCs backs and they don't turn to you, it's quite a scene, man.
* Save System - BioWare are looking at patching this already, but not being able to save on Priority missions is just dumb, dumb as bro.
* The Difficulty - Double edged sword, as much as I like it being quite hard, your squadmates are very squishy.
* Loot Acquirement System - Opening containers pauses the game and takes you out of the world for a moment: somewhat immersion breaking.

I've also dabbled in the Strike Team multiplayer and I have to say, it's frakking excellent this time around: feels like ME3MP with a lot more love and attention paid to the little things, along with top-notch presentation to boot. Verticality adds a whole new dimension to the MP game here, with tactics such as drawing fire, tactical retreat and killzoning already becoming apparent in teamwork even without comms: so much fun! The BioWare Montreal team specialise in MP, and you can tell: everything feels super polished and the fun factor is very high: it's intense though, holy shit...even Bronze is pretty hardcore this time around (or I'm a newb with my controller on PC, hard to say haha).

Overall, I can't wait to jump back into this adventure: it feels like Mass Effect in every way that counts, and with some spit and polish, should achieve Spectre status.

Scott "Ivory Samoan" Ryder - Still eating vat grown KFC all these years in the future.

 

[moustascheman]

Multiplayer weapons datamined https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xQXPp08uRH3eWK52_YXJr7UniPfkyNDi8OmHVN6-qjc/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/601gjz/mea_all_weapon_data_spreadsheet_extracted_from/

tl;dr snipers and pistols are OP

Oh man, the phalanx got buffed a lot, from being garbage to actually being good. On the other hand, it seems the hurricane went from one of the best weapons to just a great weapon.

 

[Exploratory]

Shepard.

Ryder.

 

[EatChildren]

I can understand your point of view, it looks like they had to choose where to put their efforts on , and went the way you described.

Maybe I was expecting too much ? Don't know, I was expecting something on Horizon and witcher 3 levels for sure. That's the level of effort mass effect deserves for me.

Oh I don't mean to excuse the production deficiencies, more that my initially befuddled impressions eroded once the game opened up a bit. So if you liked Inquisition, and are a fan of Mass Effect, I think this will succeed as a far better version of the former based on the latter.

But yeah, the facial animations are...really goddamn questionable at times. I think it's the nuanced mannerisms that get me. I can easily forgive jank, clumsy animations, off lip syncing, and so forth especially in games like this. But man they just sometimes animate so weirdly, like blinking when they shouldn't be, lacking expression, the dead stare. They're too frequently devoid of that nuanced behaviour and natural expressiveness that really sells emotions and delivery.

And even though they were certainly janky in their own right, it's where I feel the last three games did a much better job. Jank is okay if the expressions are still on point. Here sometimes they just seem totally off all across the board.

 

[Heckler456]

Jesus Christ, I'm starting to see tweets from people seemingly GG/Alt right targeting the Lead Facial Animator of Andromeda because she has a pretty face and is listed as model/cosplayer.

That's what you get when the kind of shit we've been seeing in the past couple of weeks is generally accepted behavior. No empathy all-around, going from the people who actually revel in making fun of other people's work, to these fuck-ups harassing the actual developers involved. Real fucking sad.

 

[wesleyshark]

Huh.

Browsing the ME reddit trying to find some good custom Sara faces, and it unless there are shenanigans going on with someone editing a supposed 'livestream' capture, the French 'default' Sara looks different when selecting quick start?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect..._ryder_corrected_face_leaked/#bottom-comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qG2T0FUlZU&feature=youtu.be&t=14m54s

19:40 timestamp to skip directly.

Sheesh, that default Ryder looks twenty times better.

 

[wesleyshark]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

I haven't decided yet, but leaning towards yes. I'll probably make that call on launch day,though. I like how my character turned out but I spent a lot of time fumbling around and learning everything, so a fresh start might be a smoother experience (and I can reverse some dialogue options that I wish I didn't pick). Hmm.

 

[X-Frame]

What is the difference between a MP Character I vs. Character X now? Is it just customization options?

 

[wesleyshark]

From the Family Ryder thread

Quick start default rider?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect...rs_sara_ryder_corrected_face_leaked/?sort=new

Huge improvement in every way.

 

[Systolique]

Doesn't Scott have blue eyes too? I like the changes but I don't understand the eye color change

 

[Xando]

From the Family Ryder thread



Huge improvement in every way.

So wait the femryder we have now is not the correct model because of some bug?

 

[wesleyshark]

Doesn't Scott have blue eyes too? I like the changes but I don't understand the eye color change

I see a few people saying this is a bug of some kind, possibly that it may have merged the default Ryder with one of the preset heads? 🤔

So wait the femryder we have now is not the correct model because of some bug?

No the one in the French video is the bugged one, in theory.

 

[Tarahiro]

Anybody else planning to reset once the full build unlocks? I had full intention of doing this. I'm just going to start again, especially now I'm accustomed to the new controls.

Yeah i've been playing a throwaway Sara. In these games I always read everything, talk to everyone, explore etc... but since it's a timed trial I just blitzed through. So once full game is out I will be starting over again and playing it properly.

 

[Xando]

No the one in the French video is the bugged one, in theory.

How do you have a bugged model look better than your original model

 

[Phamit]

The other face looks like a random NPC