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The Mass Effect Community Thread

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Z

zeroeffect

Member
AWizardDidIt said:
This is a tricky one to answer because apparently all the real sidequesting in the game is beyond what the 10 hour trial allows and reviewers are embargoed from talking about anything past that.

However reports from the youtubers that got to spend 18 hours with the game a few weeks ago have promising things to say about the sidequests. It sounds like there's a mix of meaty multi-part sidequests along with more mundane DA:I style fetch and collection quests.

Edit: One thing to add to this though that is worth considering is that even for the DA:I style tasks in the game, those seem to be more enjoyable by virtue of the fact that Andromeda is actually super fun to play. So even those filler side stuff is at least more engaging.
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I hope you're right. You would think Bioware learned from their mistakes. Now I hope they fix these animations somehow. I know Bioware always had this problem in the past but it sounds like this game has a far bigger problem there. Might be time to invest in some real mocap animations for their faces yikes.

I don't think the animations will be a problem for me as long as I don't see bizarre stuff in every cinematic. I don't know maybe Horizon spoiled me. That game looks amazing but even their animations aren't that great but ME:A sticks out to me. Never really had a problem where animations sucked me out of conversation in a game so I hope it doesn't start here. I think the body animations look fine when they're running around and combat though. I'm mainly just worried about bugs/glitches, side content design and the writing since their lead writer left in the middle of the project. I guess I could throw conversation animations in there because while it hasn't been a problem for me in the past...it's jarring at times what I've seen.
 
M

MadLaughter

Member
The thing I'm holding onto to keep my soul from shattering is that I haven't seen a person who has played 10+ hours that didn't seem to like it. Maybe I missed one, though.
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
MadLaughter said:
The thing I'm holding onto to keep my soul from shattering is that I haven't seen a person who has played 10+ hours that didn't seem to like it. Maybe I missed one, though.
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I can't help but notice this game has a plethora of negative gifs on it already. I mean anyone can take a bad/hilarious moment in a game, gif it, then it all popping up on the internet make the game seem like a bug riddled mess. I don't know. I've seen some minor stuff in videos but for the most part it looks clean outside the animations? Make you wonder if people just want to see this game fail at times. I don't even really care about reviews I'm just more interested in user impressions as I always am. However, this game seems to make me feel differently because I know they have a lot of people(this place is evidence...not this thread but GAF in general) for months already making their mind up this game is a failure. Can't help but wonder there if it has a lot to do with Bioware's stance on social issues and the mix of EA/Bioware hate for "new" Bioware plus the fiascos in the past with DAI/ME3, etc. Almost seems like unfair hate before given a chance.

Guess I'll find out for myself on Tuesday.
 
B

Bob Dobalina

Member
Metroidvania said:
Honestly my only major beef thus far aside from the subjective state of the eyes/animations (side note, I do think that adjusting the pupil size/eye shaders, as seen in one of the other threads, would help me overlook some other issues) is the amount of time it takes to manually 'fly' over to each point of interest on each solar system.

I don't want to take the 10-ish seconds to see myself fly over, have the camera zoom too close, and then magically reset itself....only to get 80 iron resources from a random asteroid.

And then I have to take another 10+ seconds to fly away to the next planet.

I get the transition time is probably hiding some form of loading, but I can see that getting tedious really fast.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this part looks absolutely dreadful and I have no idea how this passed usability testing. It's fine in the sense that they want to convey how vast space is, but there has to be a better way of combining the cool views and scale with a system that doesn't require me to wait ~1 minute just to find that some random anomaly gave me 10 iron. Also, the zoom into a planet, brief pause, and then minor zoom out + info loading looks really janky.
 
M

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
VenomousCoffee said:
Well that would be a sure-fire way to generate negative buzz.
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To be more clear, from what I played, the opening mission tries somewhat to echo Eden Prime, and does an okay job at introducing the situation, and Liam if you take the time to explore and get some dialogue with him. You're probably a little lost right at the end (similar to Shepard with the Prothan Artifact), but that's kind of the point.

It also sets up new mechanics like the jump jets and combat changes, and mostly does a good job at that aspect.

However, upon finishing that mission, there's that immediate 'rush' of you becoming the pathfinder in a whirlwind after getting shuttled off to the citadel nexus. This is, imo, kinda bland/just re-treads the citadel sequence again, which is amplified by stuff like Addison's 'my face is tired' line, etc...

(Side note, please, Bioware, make look at the pupil. I think it's one of the main contributors to the dead-eye stare, or at least the eyes being 'too large' in general - making them smaller in mockups has looked way better)

Then you're dumped into Eos Hinterlands-style, and the demo ends just before you get any actual sense of 'payoff' for having explored, done the quests, etc....

I mean, I get that the cutoff had to be somewhere, and that EA doesn't necessarily want people who don't have early access to get spoiled, but......yeah. Not the best place for a hard cut, especially when some people are really taking umbrage with other aspects like the animations and such.
 
V

ViciousDS

Banned
Metroidvania said:
To be more clear, from what I played, the opening mission tries somewhat to echo Eden Prime, and does an okay job at introducing the situation, and Liam if you take the time to explore and get some dialogue with him. You're probably a little lost right at the end (similar to Shepard with the Prothan Artifact), but that's kind of the point.

It also sets up new mechanics like the jump jets and combat changes, and mostly does a good job at that aspect.

However, upon finishing that mission, there's that immediate 'rush' of you becoming the pathfinder in a whirlwind after getting shuttled off to the citadel nexus. This is, imo, kinda bland/just re-treads the citadel sequence again, which is amplified by stuff like Addison's 'my face is tired' line, etc...

(Side note, please, Bioware, make look at the pupil. I think it's one of the main contributors to the dead-eye stare, or at least the eyes being 'too large' in general - making them smaller in mockups has looked way better)

Then you're dumped into Eos Hinterlands-style, and the demo ends just before you get any actual sense of 'payoff' for having explored, done the quests, etc....

I mean, I get that the cutoff had to be somewhere, and that EA doesn't necessarily want people who don't have early access to get spoiled, but......yeah. Not the best place for a hard cut, especially when some people are really taking umbrage with other aspects like the animations and such.
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The thing that can make or break a game hinterlands style though is the gameplay. We have a Sci-Fi action badass gameplay shooter RPG.....vs a strategic RPG on the grounds. Even if the first area is similar to the hinterlands I can tell I'm going to at least be sucked in by the awesome gameplay.

I was not a huge fan of Inquisitions gameplay....I even enjoyed DA2 over inquisition.
 
A

AWizardDidIt

Member
zeroeffect said:
I hope you're right. You would think Bioware learned from their mistakes. Now I hope they fix these animations somehow. I know Bioware always had this problem in the past but it sounds like this game has a far bigger problem there. Might be time to invest in some real mocap animations for their faces yikes.
Click to expand...

Apparently there's about 3 and a half hour of mocap in this game and you can actually see it during certain scenes. The quality between the mocap scenes and the non-mocaped scenes really stand out.

I'm not sure if they could mo-cap more though. It's really expensive resource-wise. They def need to figure out something though because it's true, the times where the animation are off is becoming way more apparent as the technology and graphics improve.
 
T

Tcab96

Member
Hey guys. Been lurking for awhile now. Thought I'd say hi.

Reizo Ryuu said:
MP is sooo good, I'll prolly be done with my remaining 6 hours today...
Vej2VfJ.gif
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Holy shit. I assume the single player plays the same. If so, I'm going to have some fun with this.
 
B

Bob Dobalina

Member
Are there any new objectives for the non-survival waves or did they literally just reuse the same 3 from ME3 MP without coming up with anything new?
 
VlaudTheImpaler

VlaudTheImpaler

tl;dr
Woah, I don't know why after all these years it never occurred to me to check out the community tab till I saw someone mention it in one of the ME threads... I feel real dumb right now. I never even knew these threads existed.

Is this the place that I can have actual meaningful conversations about games in other ways than just graphics?

Reizo Ryuu said:
MP is sooo good, I'll prolly be done with my remaining 6 hours today...
Vej2VfJ.gif
Click to expand...

0_0

wow
 
R

Ralemont

not me
BioWare fans are both the most positive and negative about BioWare games, so I thought I'd venture to the new BSN to see which mood ruled the day. Seems like near universal praise there which feels weird for that place, lol. Still, I consider myself more a fan than a critic so my spirits have definitely been lifted.
 
F

FrontalMonk

Banned
KingParappa said:
I love how people are getting on Ryder being "the one". Storywise it makes sense:
He's/She's the only Pathfinder to show up!
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Also knowing that Ryder gets Dad's ability to use profiles from the integration with SAM means that Ryder's "the one" isn't just for show. The bit with Alec wrecking shit on H7 and the squadmates commenting on his superhuman abilities was pretty great.
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
Ralemont said:
BioWare fans are both the most positive and negative about BioWare games, so I thought I'd venture to the new BSN to see which mood ruled the day. Seems like near universal praise there which feels weird for that place, lol. Still, I consider myself more a fan than a critic so my spirits have definitely been lifted.
Click to expand...

Where's the new BSN? I use to frequent the old BSN but didn't know they had a new forum. Link?
 
M

Man Called Aerodynamics

Member
FrontalMonk said:
Also knowing that Ryder gets Dad's ability to use profiles from the integration with SAM means that Ryder's "the one" isn't just for show. The bit with Alec wrecking shit on H7 and the squadmates commenting on his superhuman abilities was pretty great.
Click to expand...

I was actually surprised by what a strong impression Alec managed to make on me despite his brief presence. The scene you mention was indeed great. Also, Clancy Brown brings dat gravitas. :)
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
Reizo Ryuu said:
Glad my gif is turning some heads, y'all might have missed the greatness in ME3, but better not sleep on mp this time!
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Gosh ME3's MP was a huge surprise to me. Bioware did so much right for something so unbelievably simple. I think that's why I liked it. Never felt overwhelming like other MPs, it's not competitive and dang you just feel so overpowered when you finally get those gold rarity unlock class/races with unique mp-only abilities. I use to remember Cerberus Operatives. Lash was so overpowered just spamming that watching bodies fly everywhere. Never did I have so much fun with a mindless horde mode.

The fact they made all the ME3 DLC free was a very smart choice too because a big mistake games make is paid DLC divides your community up slowly killing off faster due to low player population to play with. I hope this game has free DLC since it will no doubt keep the MTs since it has the RNG boxes. That's another thing. The RNG boxes were not that bad at all either despite me hating RNG in RPGs.

Don't get me wrong, it had flaws to be sure but I think some of the problems it had added to the charm. Like for example, the balance issues it ran into with classes. I think that was a good thing because you just felt so overpowered and who cares when it's not competitive anyway? I hope it didn't lose that feeling at least.
 
Retrofluxed

Retrofluxed

Member
VlaudTheImpaler said:
Woah, I don't know why after all these years it never occurred to me to check out the community tab till I saw someone mention it in one of the ME threads... I feel real dumb right now. I never even knew these threads existed.
Click to expand...

Welcome Vlaud! I always saw you posting in the horrible gaming side ME threads and wondered why I never saw you posting here, lol.
 
D

Dany

Banned
AWizardDidIt said:
Apparently there's about 3 and a half hour of mocap in this game and you can actually see it during certain scenes. The quality between the mocap scenes and the non-mocaped scenes really stand out.

I'm not sure if they could mo-cap more though. It's really expensive resource-wise. They def need to figure out something though because it's true, the times where the animation are off is becoming way more apparent as the technology and graphics improve.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm curious about this. Compared to others RPG's ME:A really does seem like the outlier. Comparatively I think they mocapped every animation for Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn and the NPC's. But these two games have different ambitions.
 
SliChillax

SliChillax

Member
Game is starting to grow on me but the trial ended too soon. 10 hour trial and they lock single player progress after playing for 3 hours.
 
D

DeadlyParasite

Member
My trial ran out, I didn't even come close to finishing Eos. I dumped too much time talking to people and looking around the Nexus. Also, Insanity difficulty slows things down to a crawl.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
R

Reizo Ryuu

Member
Mindlog said:
I don't see the important question answered!
Can you roll cancel nova for i-frames?
Click to expand...
Tested, nope :(

zeroeffect said:
Gosh ME3's MP was a huge surprise to me. Bioware did so much right for something so unbelievably simple. I
Click to expand...
It really had no business being as good as it was.

JeffG said:
That is the one thing I never played was the MP. Played the SP probably 10 times, but never MP
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Well be sure not to try ignore it this time;)
FrontalMonk said:
Ugh. Why would you ever :(

I'll be in Bronze for a while. I got two games in with the MP last night, and both times I ended up getting eaten by the big Kett beastie in Wave 6 and my whole group died.
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Heh, better to stay in bronze until you feel like you're rolling it or get some rare+ weapons

Exploratory said:
That's a great GIF man much props. Instantly wiped away the reservations of like 4 friends of mine.
Click to expand...
Mission accomplished
 
prag16

prag16

Banned
VlaudTheImpaler said:
Is this the place that I can have actual meaningful conversations about games in other ways than just graphics?
Click to expand...

At your service.

And it's especially needed for this particular game right about now. The pathetic torrent of bandwagon jumping hot takes doesn't seem to be slowing down over in general gaming.. at least now some more positive hot takes are mixed in as well.
 
M

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
Exploratory said:
I need someone to explain this to me. Is this not the lead game designer saying Early Access DOESN'T have the day 1 patch? I'm trying to understand what patch is live and what patch is being worked on.

https://twitter.com/tibermoon/status/842476070905475074
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I could have sworn Shinobi said the trial does include the Day 1 patch (unless there's a new actual Day 1 patch?), but if it isn't, and it does address at least some of those animation concerns, I'm curious as to why Bioware hasn't said anything, even if only through proxies.
 
N

Nasbin

Member
For someone with the XB1 version, is it possible to change the audio language in the menus? It might help a lot with glossing over suspect VA and facial anim issues if you're just reading subtitles instead.
 
D

DeadlyParasite

Member
My only real outstanding complaints at the moment are the complete lack of noticable music outside of specific story cutscenes and combat, and the limited dialogue options when you don't want to act respectful to a character.
 
VlaudTheImpaler

VlaudTheImpaler

tl;dr
goat said:
Welcome Vlaud! I always saw you posting in the horrible gaming side ME threads and wondered why I never saw you posting here, lol.
Click to expand...

prag16 said:
At your service.

And it's especially needed for this particular game right about now. The pathetic torrent of bandwagon jumping hot takes doesn't seem to be slowing down over in general gaming.. at least now some more positive hot takes are mixed in as well.
Click to expand...

Man, I feel like I've found a new home. This is going to be fun.

Can't wait to play this for the first time when it releases. I want to play it really badly now but I try not to support game subscription services for moral reasons. I'm trying to stick to my guns here but it is killing me lol.
 
V

Vengal

Member
I'm not sure that I'm liking infiltrator/sniper on insanity. Feels like there are way too many enemies and you don't have the fire rate/power to make it work early on. Died quite abit at one point before I gave up trying to fight in that arena and retreated to a nearby ridge and sniped everything to death until I ran out of ammo, then ran to an ammo box and retreated back to my ledge.

I may start over again next week and wait till people get down and dirty with the character creator and upload them to the archive. Then also maybe play a sentinel, soldier or engineer instead.
 
D

Durrzerker

Banned
So do we know much about romance options yet? I'm trying to figure out my choices for Male Ryder. In spoilers since some might not wanna see:


WHO I CAN ROMANCE

Cora and PeeBee are obvious. I have no idea about the Turian crew lady? Not really into her like that anyways.



WHO I CAN'T

Dormer-Doctor Asari isn't interested, nor is Lexi, the science officer. I dunno if they're gay or just not romanceable.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Vengal said:
I'm not sure that I'm liking infiltrator/sniper on insanity. Feels like there are way too many enemies and you don't have the fire rate/power to make it work early on. Died quiet abit at one point before I gave up trying to fight in that arena and retreated to a nearby ridge and sniped everything to death until I ran out of ammo, then ran to an ammo box and retreated back to my ledge.

I may start over again next week and wait till people get down and dirty with the character creator and upload them to the archive. Then also maybe play a sentinel, soldier or engineer instead.
Click to expand...

Reading Mike Gamble's Twitter feed, it definitely sounds like an expanded character creator is on the horizon. However, no telling when that will drop.
 
D

Dineren

Banned
Despite the issues, I was enjoying myself in the trial, but I think I'll be holding off on playing the full game. I'm sure I'd ultimately enjoy it if I played it through on release, but waiting for patches can't hurt and there is a lot to play right now.
 
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