Blue Ninja
Member
If Jaal is bangable, we know why
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The Mass Effect Community Thread
- Thread starter shinobi602
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lucebuce12
Member
BrassDragon
Member
It's been real my friends. See you on the other side.
Guess you won't be playing Ghost Recon Wildlands after all. Have fun, mate - you sold me on this game.
Are you really?
To be honest, I'm kinda surprised some Bioware people even dare to reply to some GAF threads considering how people behave. Props to Aaryn especially.
Yeah that thread is nauseous to read. Unfortunate
lucebuce12
Member
After spending so much time in Community threads for my favourite series/games, it feels so JARRING going back to gaming sometimes, where there's just so much needless nitpicking and fanboyism going around.
Saw a guy once argue that Psycho Power and Hadokens are fine in Street Fighter, but Ice powers felt way too unrealistic :|
Saw a guy once argue that Psycho Power and Hadokens are fine in Street Fighter, but Ice powers felt way too unrealistic :|
SliChillax
Member
I'll take it
I'm still... cautious. I don't want to be negative, and I think the game will be great...
But I haven't pre-ordered yet, and I'm still struggling with that since I'm as big a Mass Effect fan as anyone. Hell, I loved ME3's ending (post-Extended Cut) and am okay with the Tali stock photo edit.
I bought all the Collector's Editions, all the DLC, all the comics, artbooks, figures, models, shirts... I have art of the game hanging on my wall. I played the mobile tie-ins. I've replayed all the games a half-dozen times or more.
And yet there are just enough little things, little issues, that have built up to give me pause. I'm sure I'll get the game, but I'm not sure I'll get the game at launch. I see enough bugs, glitches, and animation quirks in pre-release material to make me want to wait for a couple of patches to roll out and iron out the major issues.
Of course I want to play the game at launch, but I also want to play the best version of the game, and I'd be lying if I said there aren't a lot of officially-released material out there that paints a poor first impression, from backwards guns to exploding mouths to really rough animations.
Of course, it's not like the originals were glitch-free either, but I didn't typically see those issues in official material.
Don't think it ever got fixed either.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I think if you can stomach waiting and avoid spoilers, it's probably the best path to take. As I said early; with any massive RPG waiting will result in objectively the best build of the game when you play. Bugs are guaranteed. Witcher 3 today is leaps and bounds improved over the launch build in so many ways.
EDIT: I know this has been asked already, but do we have clarity on a pre-load date for early access? Or is it just live and go?
EDIT: I know this has been asked already, but do we have clarity on a pre-load date for early access? Or is it just live and go?
Heckler456
Banned
Then again, as someone who finished the game at launch on a PS4, the performance issues didn't really bother me.
I think that it's pretty evident that these little niggles are only as bad as you make them out to be. If you don't care, they don't actually bother you. And as someone who plays CRPG's, if I can immersive myself in a narrative largely based on text, I can definitely immerse myself in a narrative where the characters have some animation bugs, and I'm pretty sure anyone else can too.
Besides, in terms of performance, it seems that we're already in the clear given the impressions Shinobi has given us.
I think that it's pretty evident that these little niggles are only as bad as you make them out to be. If you don't care, they don't actually bother you. And as someone who plays CRPG's, if I can immersive myself in a narrative largely based on text, I can definitely immerse myself in a narrative where the characters have some animation bugs, and I'm pretty sure anyone else can too.
Besides, in terms of performance, it seems that we're already in the clear given the impressions Shinobi has given us.
shinobi602
Member
^@garlador
I think you're overestimating those little 'issues'. The game is solid. Only had a few hours last night but I'm not exaggerating, it's the most polished Bioware game I've played in terms of performance/glitches. Those little niggles like the backwards gun (already fixed in the next post launch patch) and a glitch here or there stand out because these videos are being hyper analyzed. They're being freeze framed and nitpicked to death and inconsequential to the overall experience.
You're a big ME fan, there's no reason for your hesitation man, it's damn good.
I double checked if I could and I'll be sharing my thoughts on what I've played so far when the previews go up later today from press.
I think you're overestimating those little 'issues'. The game is solid. Only had a few hours last night but I'm not exaggerating, it's the most polished Bioware game I've played in terms of performance/glitches. Those little niggles like the backwards gun (already fixed in the next post launch patch) and a glitch here or there stand out because these videos are being hyper analyzed. They're being freeze framed and nitpicked to death and inconsequential to the overall experience.
You're a big ME fan, there's no reason for your hesitation man, it's damn good.
I double checked if I could and I'll be sharing my thoughts on what I've played so far when the previews go up later today from press.
Was wondering about this aswell. Haven't found anything that suggests there will be a prelaod for EA access.
Nice to hear it seems to be polished.
Do you already have the day one patch or isn't that live yet?
Right, but it's an uncertainty that'll stay there until I play it myself, because I can only go off of what I've personally seen and have been shown.
I'm not even talking about hyper-critical NeoGAF here either. It's become almost a daily ritual now to watch Andromeda vids with my wife (she just beat the trilogy last month), and even she's going "what's wrong with their mouths?" and "their eyes are creeping me out" and "I don't remember ME3 characters moving so stiffly, and I just finished it."
And I can't exactly disagree. I fully understand Andromeda is more than the sum of its parts. And, hell, it could STILL be the glitchest game ever and be fantastic if it exceeds at what it sets out to do (Skyrim and Fallout aren't exactly "smooth" experiences either, but few will say they're bad games).
From what I've seen, the game looks great, but also looks undercooked. This is without question the "roughest" I've seen a Bioware game presented to the public right before launch, and I totally get that deadlines are immutable and the developers had to prioritize actual content over superficial bug fixes, saving that for Day 1 patches and post-launch patches. I just don't think the critics are being "nitpicky" when I've seen really rough spots - beyond what we expect - in nearly every trailer or video.
I don't WANT to wait, but I am feeling a FF15 launch-vibe where the game can clearly benefit from substantial post-launch tweaking and support. I mean, I've put aside FF15 until Square Enix patches in the rest of the story content and fully upgrades the game. Still was a fun experience, but playing it I knew it wasn't quite "there" yet.
I'm just weighing the pros and cons of waiting. I've almost never been able to avoid spoilers in big games like this, and I do want pre-order bonuses and a pet pyjak, but I also simply do not know how solid and smooth the game is in its launch-day state, not without a lot more impressions to go off of.
iirc it's getting Ansel support
prag16
Banned
TLDR: "I don't believe you."
Which is your prerogative of course, but I can't quite reconcile your stance with how massive a fan you claim to be.
Yeah. I can understand that. Spend too much time on Neogaf and it seems it may be forgotten that games are mainly about playing what you enjoy.
Hrmph.
I didn't say I don't believe him. He said there's a day-one patch. Of course it'll fix stuff. What patches don't?
But that's a very narrow view of how people can be fans of something, yet still be critical of perceived flaws. After all, not everyone gets the exact same experience. People experience different glitches that others may not ever see. "Well, MY copy of the game hasn't crashed yet," I read all the time, implying that the problems others see or experience somehow don't exist. To counter shinobi (who has been very helpful and we've spoken at length over this before), there are other impressions out there that have been less positive and experienced some major jank. I don't selectively ignore one for the other.
It's a GOOD fan that wants the final product to be as good as it can be, and to be honest with their criticisms. Not negative or nitpicky for the sake of it, but constructive because they see how much potential a game like Andromeda has to not just be good, but utterly genre-defining and trend-setting with enough care and talent behind it.
And, as a Mass Effect fan (and I will gladly document my small Mass Effect shrine if you want), I really want the best Mass Effect experience I can get, while acknowledging that things like glitchy mouths and rough animations and legit gameplay concerns are things that can sour my impression of even my most favorite of franchises.
Just because Zelda is my favorite series doesn't mean I blindly love Tri-Force Heroes. Just because I adore Silent Hill doesn't mean I give Homecoming a pass. Just because I adore Mass Effect doesn't mean I don't see more than a few areas of the game in previews that I was shocked to see make it by the testers.
And, as I said, I expect most - if not all - of the major issues to be addressed at some point. That's the point of my post, whether I want to wait for "that some point" or go in, knowing that it'll have some rough areas that bother me more than they might bother you.
Man Called Aerodynamics
Member
Yeah, I don't know dude. Revisiting Mass Effect 3 in 2017, it's pretty rough. Textures, animations, lip syncing, etc., even for the time it was not great in those areas. When you think back to the earlier games what you remember is your investment in the story and your connection to the characters, which we can't form with Andromeda until we actually play it.
If it helps anyway, there's already been 3 patches before the game has even launched. (They're up to version 1.03). So they're definitely putting in the work to get it as polished as possible before launch.
DarkChronic
Member
Rooting for this game so hard. One more week to go..
Looking forward to reading your impressions later today, Shinobi.
Looking forward to reading your impressions later today, Shinobi.
True, but as I said, I was watching my wife play through ME3 just last month, so it's not some nostalgia goggles I was wearing. I'm not saying it was totally realistic, but ME3 still holds up quite well.
I was never really a believer of "Bioware jank". I always thought they had some of the better animations of last gen, though there were some CLEAR issues with some of them, of course.
prag16
Banned
I hear ya, and in many respects you're certainly not wrong. It's just weird to see you giving no benefit of the doubt in light of your fandom.
And sign me for the "Huh?" list when it comes to ME3. I know you said your wife just played it recently, but eh. I played half of ME2 recently when it became free on Origin and it's still a great game, but many of the technical aspects really don't hold up all that well compared to the latest games.
And I feel obligated to take some offense at the "got by the testers" comment. I work in (non-gaming) QA and the perception that the testers should invariably get the highest percentage of the blame for things that make into the final (let alone prerelease) product is bullshit. I'm a little off topic now, and I went off on somebody in another topic on this for an "uhhh, that's what QA is for" type of comment and I don't want to do it again, but I'll just say that the "throw it over the wall" mentality with regard to this is highly toxic and only serves to make EVERYBODY on the team's job harder in the end. Quality is the responsibility of everyone at every link in the chain. And that's not even accounting for things that WERE found by QA that management decides to ship with anyway for various reasons.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I feel sorry for people who feel the need to nitpick games to death.
I really do.
"Oh my god, the framerate dropped to 59fps. Devs promised 60! Broken game!"
Not saying you're doing that, but it's annoying to see that.
Seriously, that is annoying.
Maybe I am just lucky and can ignore imperfections as long as the game is mostly playable.
Been there, done that. I'm part of the industry too, so I know how hard it is to test anything and everything.
I guess a more fair assessment would be "which MARKETER" thought the rough footage should be the first impression many ever saw of the game. They were in charge of which clips to use, and some of them were still clearly unfinished.
And I do give Bioware the "benefit of the doubt", but I'm not ignorant. They have had issues in the past, ones that weren't large enough to sour me from the series, but I'm still burned from a lot of launch-day issues and glitches that never, ever got fixed in the previous games, as well as legit issues with Dragon Age over the past few games. I'm a fan, but not a blind fanboy. I know what problems the previous games had.
As I said earlier, this is the roughest looking game I've seen from them in marketing material pre-launch yet. The final game could (and I expect will) be great, but I've also read plenty of other impressions from journalists and critics calling out issues with the copies they're playing, issues that I observed at first glance in the trailers with my own two eyes.
This is nothing game-breaking, but just a budding section of annoyances that on their own are minor but just stand out more when bundled together.
A "true fan" doesn't just give a game "the benefit of the doubt" just because they liked what came before. I'm an analytical person. I base my opinion on experience, analysis, observation, and feedback - and I discount the pointless negativity for negativity's sake stuff. I don't hate Bioware. I love Bioware. I don't want Mass Effect to fail; it's one of my favorite franchises!
And I don't think Andromeda is going to suck either. I'll repeat what I said earlier; it looks great... but undercooked. That's from what I've seen and read. All it'll take to bump it to utterly amazing is to finish "cooking" it, but to deny that the game has had pre-release issues that even other journalists playing the game are still pointing out is selective bias, not just from NeoGAF's negative Nancys.
Games are big time and money commitments these days. I have to make educated decisions when it comes time for sacrifices like that. That's not a knock against the franchise.
And I'm not saying I won't change my mind before release. But I'm not there yet.
FrontalMonk
Banned
Um, what? If you're not saying that, then what the hell are you saying? I'm usually blind to imperfections unless it's some blatantly bad stuff myself, but this is some "I'm not racist, but.." level of discourse. Live and let live, yo.
AWizardDidIt
Member
On the upside, come Thursday we'll know for absolute certain the quality of the animations or if the game is buggy or not.
TBH I'm mostly just excited to move on from all this speculation. If I never hear the phrase "red flag" again I'll die happy.
TBH I'm mostly just excited to move on from all this speculation. If I never hear the phrase "red flag" again I'll die happy.
prag16
Banned
I've read most of the coverage. Maybe I'm wearing blinders, but almost all the coverage I've seen has been overwhelmingly positive.
Agree to disagree on the benefit of the doubt thing, especially after dismissing shinobi's feedback out of hand. You're well within your rights not to give it, and not to buy day one. I guess we'll know a lot more in a few days.
Indeed.
The Lamonster
Member
I've always wondered this as well. Good to know!
We're glad to have you around shinobi, hope you're enjoying the game so far.
DOWN
Banned
If you can't see how Andromeda meets and exceeds the standards of ME3 than I don't know what to sayTrue, but as I said, I was watching my wife play through ME3 just last month, so it's not some nostalgia goggles I was wearing. I'm not saying it was totally realistic, but ME3 still holds up quite well.
I was never really a believer of "Bioware jank". I always thought they had some of the better animations of last gen, though there were some CLEAR issues with some of them, of course.
prag16
Banned
That's why the "I AM giving the benefit of the doubt!" comment seems dubious, and it makes the rest seem like concern trolling. If this was gamefaqs I'd be CERTAIN it was concern trolling. I guess we all build perceptions of things differently though. It is what it is.
The embargo was 11 AM Pacific, 2 PM Eastern. Polygon gonna Polygon though. Here's a live stream.
https://twitter.com/Polygon/status/841666569767919616
https://www.facebook.com/polygon/videos/1491473064198650/
https://twitter.com/Polygon/status/841666569767919616
https://www.facebook.com/polygon/videos/1491473064198650/
Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
prag16 said:
Ooooorrrrrr he's just acknowledging the fact that opinions differ for everyone, and even with Shinobi posting good impressions (as has been the general slant outside of technical issues from other previews - of which said tech issues are reportedly mostly addressed with the day one patch), he, or any other poster, might view Andromeda differently.
This 'If you were a REAL fan you wouldn't be giving the 'small issues' so much weight' feels like a rather disingenuous way to dismiss alternate opinions.
I'm getting ME:A - barring something like impressions along the line of 'never touch this game with a 10 foot pole, it shits on everything you ever loved about Mass Effect', I was always going to pick it up.
But, subjective as the present 'issues' noted out may be for some people like yourself, they're going to affect others differently, and arguing that they're 'not a real fan' is just....lol.
Fuck me sideways...the lip-sync/animations are awful.
Man Called Aerodynamics
Member
I love Mass Effect 3 too. But hold it up next to what we've seen in Andromeda and the difference in technical quality and general polish is huge. Nobody's mistaking BioWare for Naughty Dog when it comes to character animation, and there certainly have been graphical glitches in the footage we've seen, but if you can't see the stark improvement over ME3 and you don't attribute that to nostalgia goggles then I just don't know what else to tell you. I hope come release day that you really love the game despite your doubts.
prag16
Banned
Never said he's not a real fan. Was just scratching my head trying to figure out his stance. He explained his logic, and I still don't think his stance is reasonable given everything we know. Agree to disagree. No harm done. Not trying to be hostile. My apologies to him if it came across that way..
what system are they playing on? Looks like Playstation 4 but is it base or pro?
prag16
Banned
Meh, seems okay. What I'm more surprised by is some of the aggressive texture pop-in. Hoping this isn't the PC version, and that this aspect is better there.
Eurogamer preview of what you can expect of the EA acess trial sounds very positive
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-14-mass-effect-andromeda-gets-off-to-a-promising-start
Looks like PS4(?)
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-14-mass-effect-andromeda-gets-off-to-a-promising-start
Looks like PS4(?)
Jonesing for Andromeda in a bad way after PAX East, being told we were among the first members of the public to play the multiplayer was something. Absolutely can't wait for the trial to start, gonna burn through those ten hours like it's nothing.
Also, it was fun gushing about my love for Krogans to the devs.
Also, it was fun gushing about my love for Krogans to the devs.
Foxhound286
Member
Heckler456
Banned
You've made me look, damnit. And I was going so strong on my blackout. At least I've got sound off.
Anyway, after recently finally finishing my run 120 hour run through The Witcher 3 and its DLC, the dialogue sequences already seem far more dynamic than that game. And in terms of combat, no contest. Even Horizon fell prey to the "chest shot with people randomly gesticulating" thing, and I'm not seeing that here.
Mind you, I don't find those things bothersome in either of those games, because I know what I can expect from an RPG.
Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
Word, s'all good. Disagreeing amicably is where it's at, apologies if I came across a bit strong as well.
On the plus note, either I'm crazy or the lighting is way better in a 'natural' game environment for Sara. Not even from a 'beauty' standpoint or anything, but her skin tone looks less plastick-y and the like in the menu screen.
edit: Aaaand there goes the stream.
Heckler456
Banned
Mind you, all we've seen are youtube videos. Compression is a real detail killer.
Already my fav
prag16
Banned
Looks like an hour's worth of footage is up there now: https://www.facebook.com/polygon/videos/vb.340327135979921/1491473064198650/?type=2&theater
For those interested, we finally get to see the character creator.. (though not a whole lot of it).
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