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[Durrzerker]

I definitely feel a lean towards the unusually bad animations camp, even considering the circumstances and BioWare's previous work. It's not universal; some of the animation jank is standard for for not just BioWare but these gigantic open ARPGs in general. Previously cited games like Wild Hunt are guilty of rough animations and assets too, sometimes to the point of hilarity. What strikes me as unusual with Andromeda is the frequency of heavily stilted, robotic facial expressions with some NPCs. In cases like this it's less of a case of intended animation implemented yet lacking polish, and more like certain exchanges are entirely missing expressions, giving a sense of being unfinished.

I'm still hugely convinced something has happened during development that has snagged the team up in animations and cutscenes, and I'm still leaning towards Frostbite 3's tools being kinda shitty compared to BioWare's experience with UE3. It's the little things, from the way FB3's asset pop and streaming limitations, the weird audio mixing, rigid stutter when the camera sometimes changes perspective. BioWare make their games in a very particular way; a vast majority of cutscenes rendered in real time, lots of camera cuts, a fairly large assortment of animation cycles and dynamic choice making, transitioning between playable sequences to dialogue and cutscenes and doing so quite frequently, etc. I can't think of a single Frostbite 3 game that attempts this technical feat outside of BioWare. DICE's projects tend to balance cutscenes between short, linear, heavily scripted real time stuff, and pre-rendered content. And rarely if ever is it interactive. Almost all of Catalyst's storytelling, for example, is pre-rendered.

The actual play animations are almost totally fine to me, though. In motion it feels good to play, and animates fine. I actually think the character movement and navigation is the best looking and animated a BioWare game has been, with a great sense of weight to footsteps and movement with believable feedback with changing terrain and speed. The rigid movement states are gone and it looks so much better. Loving the reload and combat animations too.

And I honestly don't feel any of the animations will be massively fixed in patches. They aren't bugs.

Honestly to me it's as simple as the fact that it's Bioware Montreal. They did ME3's multiplayer but have little experience doing conversations/facial animation. That's why combat looks and feels great, while conversations...don't.

 

[Retrofluxed]

And things like the crab walk downstairs hasn't happened to me. Since the animations are janky, different people are going to experience different glitches. The overuse and widespread proliferation of those gifs give the impression that everyone will see it.

 

[Bob Dobalina]

I definitely feel a lean towards the unusually bad animations camp, even considering the circumstances and BioWare's previous work. It's not universal; some of the animation jank is standard for for not just BioWare but these gigantic open ARPGs in general. Previously cited games like Wild Hunt are guilty of rough animations and assets too, sometimes to the point of hilarity. What strikes me as unusual with Andromeda is the frequency of heavily stilted, robotic facial expressions with some NPCs. In cases like this it's less of a case of intended animation implemented yet lacking polish, and more like certain exchanges are entirely missing expressions, giving a sense of being unfinished.

I'm still hugely convinced something has happened during development that has snagged the team up in animations and cutscenes, and I'm still leaning towards Frostbite 3's tools being kinda shitty compared to BioWare's experience with UE3. It's the little things, from the way FB3's asset pop and streaming limitations, the weird audio mixing, rigid stutter when the camera sometimes changes perspective. BioWare make their games in a very particular way; a vast majority of cutscenes rendered in real time, lots of camera cuts, a fairly large assortment of animation cycles and dynamic choice making, transitioning between playable sequences to dialogue and cutscenes and doing so quite frequently, etc. I can't think of a single Frostbite 3 game that attempts this technical feat outside of BioWare. DICE's projects tend to balance cutscenes between short, linear, heavily scripted real time stuff, and pre-rendered content. And rarely if ever is it interactive. Almost all of Catalyst's storytelling, for example, is pre-rendered.

The actual play animations are almost totally fine to me, though. In motion it feels good to play, and animates fine. I actually think the character movement and navigation is the best looking and animated a BioWare game has been, with a great sense of weight to footsteps and movement with believable feedback with changing terrain and speed. The rigid movement states are gone and it looks so much better. Loving the reload and combat animations too.

And I honestly don't feel any of the animations will be massively fixed in patches. They aren't bugs.

Seems likely at this point, and I kinda wonder what kind of state this game was in last E3.

 

[Metroidvania]

Honestly to me it's as simple as the fact that it's Bioware Montreal. They did ME3's multiplayer but have little experience doing conversations/facial animation. That's why combat looks and feels great, while conversations...don't.

I'm honestly thinking it's a mix of both frostbite technical issues and Montreal inexperience in sculpting/generating expressions/conversations and the like.

Take stuff like the multiplayer character faces - by and large (IMO) they look better than the non 'primary' defaults for Scott and Sara. But they also don't require nearly as much, if any animation work in the multiplayer arenas due to the helmet wearing and no real close ups for conversations.

 

[Patryn]

The one thing that confuses me is that I feel that DAI had perfectly cromulent animations, so I would have thought they'd have gotten some guidance from that team.

At the same time, this game is clearly going for some more ambitious scene settings, for instance (early, early tiny spoiler)

Spoiler

the shuttle ride down to Habitat 7 is pretty cool, IMO

.

Having had a chance to play a bit more (I'm still on Habitat 7), I have officially decided that I like the game. I'm starting to understand the cover system a little better, I'm enjoying some of the banter, and the voice actor for MaleRyder is doing a nice job (although holy shit does he sound like Nolan North to me at times...)

I also have to say that on my PC, where I have almost all the settings at High, the game often looks pretty damn good. It's clear that they spent some time on design for the planets, and I think the lighting looks really great.

 

[zeroeffect]

I definitely feel a lean towards the unusually bad animations camp, even considering the circumstances and BioWare's previous work. It's not universal; some of the animation jank is standard for for not just BioWare but these gigantic open ARPGs in general. Previously cited games like Wild Hunt are guilty of rough animations and assets too, sometimes to the point of hilarity. What strikes me as unusual with Andromeda is the frequency of heavily stilted, robotic facial expressions with some NPCs. In cases like this it's less of a case of intended animation implemented yet lacking polish, and more like certain exchanges are entirely missing expressions, giving a sense of being unfinished.

I'm still hugely convinced something has happened during development that has snagged the team up in animations and cutscenes, and I'm still leaning towards Frostbite 3's tools being kinda shitty compared to BioWare's experience with UE3. It's the little things, from the way FB3's asset pop and streaming limitations, the weird audio mixing, rigid stutter when the camera sometimes changes perspective. BioWare make their games in a very particular way; a vast majority of cutscenes rendered in real time, lots of camera cuts, a fairly large assortment of animation cycles and dynamic choice making, transitioning between playable sequences to dialogue and cutscenes and doing so quite frequently, etc. I can't think of a single Frostbite 3 game that attempts this technical feat outside of BioWare. DICE's projects tend to balance cutscenes between short, linear, heavily scripted real time stuff, and pre-rendered content. And rarely if ever is it interactive. Almost all of Catalyst's storytelling, for example, is pre-rendered.

The actual play animations are almost totally fine to me, though. In motion it feels good to play, and animates fine. I actually think the character movement and navigation is the best looking and animated a BioWare game has been, with a great sense of weight to footsteps and movement with believable feedback with changing terrain and speed. The rigid movement states are gone and it looks so much better. Loving the reload and combat animations too.

And I honestly don't feel any of the animations will be massively fixed in patches. They aren't bugs.

I actually agree with you on most of this. The movement animations and combat especially I actually think arguably look great. I've seen a lot of people say they don't like the momentum you show when you move or stop leaning over. I love that personally because as you said it looks like they have a little weight in their movement. It just makes you wonder what's up with the face animations. No way was this overlooked in development. It has to be something that they just couldn't seem to fix properly for whatever reason. Lead designer on twitter wouldn't even outright admit these would even be tampered with post release. He said they'll decide what to put in future patches later on. I'm thinking they can touch them up a little more with patches but what see is basically what you're going to get because their hands might be tied down.

But then again, DAI was on Frostbite too and the animations in that game already look way better? What the heck happened I wonder?

 

[Papercuts]

The one thing that confuses me is that I feel that DAI had perfectly cromulent animations, so I would have thought they'd have gotten some guidance from that team.

At the same time, this game is clearly going for some more ambitious scene settings, for instance (early, early tiny spoiler)

Spoiler

the shuttle ride down to Habitat 7 is pretty cool, IMO

.

Having had a chance to play a bit more (I'm still on Habitat 7), I have officially decided that I like the game. I'm starting to understand the cover system a little better, I'm enjoying some of the banter, and the voice actor for MaleRyder is doing a nice job (although holy shit does he sound like Nolan North to me at times...)

I also have to say that on my PC, where I have almost all the settings at High, the game often looks pretty damn good. It's clear that they spent some time on design for the planets, and I think the lighting looks really great.

I thought I was going crazy. I am on Eos and still can't tell if Ryder is voiced by Nolan North or not. He sounds JUST like him on certain lines.

 

[Lt-47]

The one thing that confuses me is that I feel that DAI had perfectly cromulent animations, so I would have thought they'd have gotten some guidance from that team.

I don't have much experience in animation and scene scripting. But I think you need more than guidance when you have dozen of hours of cinematic dialogue to animate. I have never played the Omega dlc but I remember Arrival feeling a bit rough compared to Edmonton work.

And things like the crab walk downstairs hasn't happened to me. Since the animations are janky, different people are going to experience different glitches. The overuse and widespread proliferation of those gifs give the impression that everyone will see it.

The weird walk bug only happen if you mash your keyboard insanely fast. The fact that it can only be done on purpose pretty much make it a none issue in my eyes

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

This raises the question of why didn't the other offices of Bioware help them. The driving was done by the Need for Speed team, for example.

 

[XAL]

Is there a better roast video for the animations than this?

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

I haven't seen one that was this good.

 

[xZoneHunter]

Alright so i did some exploring and if anybody is curious what the edge of the planet looks like;

Spoiler

And for those who can't play but want to see the how big the map is;

Spoiler

Also, the only part available to you to explore, atleast in the trial, is the area in the blue circle (excuse my paint skills) Anything outside of it has a 'dangerous hazard level' and will drain your life. Although the Nomad can endure quite a few punches on normal.

 

[emag]

ME:A single player feels like a F2P grind, but I'm buying a premium product. Well, trite as it is to say, preorder canceled.

I thought the earliest portion of the game was fine (although the dialog and characterization are both weak, and I can tolerate the janky faces/hair and animations), but it just goes downhill from the Nexus. So much walking between map markers for no good reason. Then you get to the Tempest and Eos and it's even worse, plus there's mining crap, junk loot (which you can't even pick up with one button press, but requires going through a menu -- just like flipping switches in this game), and crafting shit. And on top of that, the Nomad takes damage over time (and requires switching between modes to go up inclines) in this absolutely massive, largely empty area (much worse than DA:I's Hinterlands). I suppose I should have known from the PR hyping up the size of the worlds that ME:A wouldn't deliver the tightly crafted experience I was craving, like ME2 or ME1's main planets.

Maybe the UI will be reworked (like CDPR has done with Witcher games in the past) and mining will be de-emphasized (as Bioware itself did with patches in ME2). I'll give the game some time to be patched and try it again when it's in the Origin Access vault or the GOTY edition is available at a deep discount. I'm not going to buy/play a game that doesn't respect my time.

 

[Renekton]

I'm still hugely convinced something has happened during development that has snagged the team up in animations and cutscenes, and I'm still leaning towards Frostbite 3's tools being kinda shitty compared to BioWare's experience with UE3. It's the little things, from the way FB3's asset pop and streaming limitations, the weird audio mixing, rigid stutter when the camera sometimes changes perspective. BioWare make their games in a very particular way; a vast majority of cutscenes rendered in real time, lots of camera cuts, a fairly large assortment of animation cycles and dynamic choice making, transitioning between playable sequences to dialogue and cutscenes and doing so quite frequently, etc. I can't think of a single Frostbite 3 game that attempts this technical feat outside of BioWare. DICE's projects tend to balance cutscenes between short, linear, heavily scripted real time stuff, and pre-rendered content. And rarely if ever is it interactive. Almost all of Catalyst's storytelling, for example, is pre-rendered.

And I honestly don't feel any of the animations will be massively fixed in patches. They aren't bugs.

Unproven team, engine change, UE3 asset porting, deadlines, etc. I hope Kotaku can sniff out some inside bits.

At least one artist opines that the face issues can be patched:

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/5zqe3e/no_spoilers_here_is_why_the_eyes_look_wrong_in/

 

[Dave_6]

MP is fun as I expected but I've yet to play the SP since it crashes during the first cutscene every time.

 

[DevilDog]

I don't know what to think, all of this is so amusing.

Also, I've said this before but fuck the frostbite engine. I may not have concrete evidence, but I feel like EA is pushing it onto studios so they don't have to pay fees for other, superior, more suitable engines.



That being said, I think I will like the game. We'll see soon enough.

Is the multiplayer good?

 

[Bombless]

Is it me, or is the UI (merchant, comparing weapons, journal, etc.) terrible? Playing with M&K

The ui on PC is shit because it's the console one. Again. If you navigate it using only WASD and Space/Esc you can get through it more easily than trying with the mouse.

 

[emag]

The ui on PC is shit because it's the console one. Again. If you navigate it using only WASD and Space/Esc you can get through it more easily than trying with the mouse.

The UI is shit for gamepad usage as well. Don't blame this on consoles.

 

[Renekton]

Also, I've said this before but fuck the frostbite engine. I may not have concrete evidence, but I feel like EA is pushing it onto studios so they don't have to pay fees for other, superior, more suitable engines.

UE4 has been awful except for games made by Epic themselves.

Street Fighter 5, ARK, Return to Arkham, ABZU, Tekken 7 (alleged downgrade), etc.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

I don't mean to stifle conversation or anything, but there's a whole thread if you want to post these GIFs. I kind of appreciate that this thread seems to be steering clear of them.

I think you can simply mention the animation problems and people will understand what you're talking about. And that's definitely a topic for conversation, but posting endless amounts of them isn't really moving the conversation along.

But I'm just one guy.

I'm with you on that Patryn, the GIF thread is a better place for them.

In other news, Multiplayer for me has been going great, so maybe not netcode but some form of problem with the initial server handshake for some?

 

[zeroeffect]

I'm with you on that Patryn, the GIF thread is a better place for them.

In other news, Multiplayer for me has been going great, so maybe not netcode but some form of problem with the initial server handshake for some?

Probably getting hammered by all the people who were on early access. Seemed like earlier today it was fine then when people got off work boom all of sudden MP got weird.

 

[moustascheman]

Seeing as the cooldowns seem to be longer than me3, I've gotta ask, how do the adepts play in the MP? Are they as combo/power focused as 3, or is there a bit more cooldown management involved this time around?

 

[Bombless]

Seeing as the cooldowns seem to be longer than me3, I've gotta ask, how do the adepts play in the MP? Are they as combo/power focused as 3, or is there a bit more cooldown management involved this time around?

Your cooldowns will get faster with the skill and passive upgrades but you will still have to juggle 3 of them. Not all classes have primers and detonators but the Adept does so you will just need a weapon to deal with shield/armour.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I definitely feel a lean towards the unusually bad animations camp, even considering the circumstances and BioWare's previous work. It's not universal; some of the animation jank is standard for for not just BioWare but these gigantic open ARPGs in general. Previously cited games like Wild Hunt are guilty of rough animations and assets too, sometimes to the point of hilarity. What strikes me as unusual with Andromeda is the frequency of heavily stilted, robotic facial expressions with some NPCs. In cases like this it's less of a case of intended animation implemented yet lacking polish, and more like certain exchanges are entirely missing expressions, giving a sense of being unfinished.

I'm still hugely convinced something has happened during development that has snagged the team up in animations and cutscenes, and I'm still leaning towards Frostbite 3's tools being kinda shitty compared to BioWare's experience with UE3. It's the little things, from the way FB3's asset pop and streaming limitations, the weird audio mixing, rigid stutter when the camera sometimes changes perspective. BioWare make their games in a very particular way; a vast majority of cutscenes rendered in real time, lots of camera cuts, a fairly large assortment of animation cycles and dynamic choice making, transitioning between playable sequences to dialogue and cutscenes and doing so quite frequently, etc. I can't think of a single Frostbite 3 game that attempts this technical feat outside of BioWare. DICE's projects tend to balance cutscenes between short, linear, heavily scripted real time stuff, and pre-rendered content. And rarely if ever is it interactive. Almost all of Catalyst's storytelling, for example, is pre-rendered.

The actual play animations are almost totally fine to me, though. In motion it feels good to play, and animates fine. I actually think the character movement and navigation is the best looking and animated a BioWare game has been, with a great sense of weight to footsteps and movement with believable feedback with changing terrain and speed. The rigid movement states are gone and it looks so much better. Loving the reload and combat animations too.

And I honestly don't feel any of the animations will be massively fixed in patches. They aren't bugs.

I will agree that I think FB3 is a major part of this. Inquisition maybe wasn't quite as bad but still looked off to me all the time. Montreal being somewhat inexperienced as somebody suggested would be another part of the puzzle, but I do think it falls heavily on engine.

 

[Bob Dobalina]

I really hope prag wasn't banned at the top of this page? He was clearly making a joke related to the sentiment I've seen being posted by users in the gaming discussion threads.

 

[therealminime]

There's a nice little gravitational lensing effect when looking at the black hole during galaxy map stuff. I appreciate this greatly.

Edit: also seeing stuff through the windows will not get old any time soon.

 

[Bombless]

Finished my trial a bit earlier. I won't be buying this game for now.

I never imagined I would say this about Andromeda.

Sigh.

 

[Kwansu Dudes]

So is this game actually bad to play or is it mostly aesthetic/graphical deficiencies?

Edit: Thanks!

 

[Renekton]

Finished my trial a bit earlier. I won't be buying this game for now.

I never imagined I would say this about Andromeda.

Sigh.

Other than the animations, anything in particular that wasn't good? 😓

 

[robotrock]

So is this game actually bad to play or is it mostly aesthetic/graphical deficiencies?

the combat plays really well so far IMO. not really digging the mako exploration stuff.

it feels kind of wonky walking around the ship as well

 

[Madness]

So is this game actually bad to play or is it mostly aesthetic/graphical deficiencies?

People seem to really like the combat mechanics itself. It is the traversal, exploration, scanning that people don't really like. I was watching a stream and it was so redundant what someone had to do to go from the planet back to the Nexus. Like 5 different cinematics and presses etc. Have to see more though. But I definitely think 5+ yeas of development and a series like Mass Effect deserves better.

 

[EatChildren]

So is this game actually bad to play or is it mostly aesthetic/graphical deficiencies?

Edit: Thanks!

Divisive across the board, and hard to gauge as a whole when the vertical slice available is still very much early game.

In game play animations are mostly wonderful, but cutscene/dialogue animations are a very mixed bag that can range from okay to terrible.
Combat and character movement feels pretty wonderful, though some are struggling with the auto cover system, and the return of ME1 style weapon proficiency skills probably means shooting doesn't feel quite as great as it will after a few upgrades.
Exploration is divisive. Some are enjoying the appeal and mystery, others likening it to boring fetch quests and Inquisition quest structure.
Performance is mixed across all platforms.
Technology and assets are mixed. Gorgeous aliens and environments. Very rough human models. Frostbite 3 lighting is a mixed bag.
Writing/dialogue is mixed. Some abrupt, some long winded. Interest is going to vary widely between player to player.

If I were to gather a general consensus from posters on GAF, it's that thoughts are decidedly mixed in the most varied ways. While the negativity is obviously the loudest platform (as always), there's a lot of people really enjoying what Andromeda is offering, and many who fall in the middle with unsure thoughts. Some of the negativity is deeply fixated on various things, while others are less fussed about these discrepancies. One person's enjoyment is another person's disdain.

 

[Heckler456]

So is this game actually bad to play or is it mostly aesthetic/graphical deficiencies?

Edit: Thanks!

It's not bad to play, no. After about 5 hours of playing so far, I personally wasn't ever bothered by the animation at all, really. At the end of the day, I play games without facial animation or voice acting. I've even played games where there is animation, and it's absolutely terrible by today's standards. And I liked those games just fine.

Edit: Man, why'd Prag get banned? For calling out the circle jerk? That's some bullshit.

 

[Son Of Sparda]

I think fixing the eyes would go a long way.

Edit: Not my pic.

 

[Metroidvania]

Good Analysis

Echoing off of this, personally, the main 'faults', for me, lie in the dialogue/conversation aspect of the Mass Effect 'Trio' of exploration, combat, and conversation. The facial animations are a part of it, but some of it also lies in the dialogue, though lighter in tone, has at times felt odd with the new conversation system's methodology of selecting what to say thus far not having any real impact (which is admittedly a limitation of the trial cutoff)

There's some minor quibbles with the exploration, but that's more the time it takes to move from world to world while in the Tempest and scan things out in space. The nomad is fine (and reportedly gets even better in later planets), though it certainly doesn't have the most health and running people over doesn't seem as satisfying as the Mako so far, as it apparently doesn't start with shields. (?)

Combat is at the very least good (the only gripe is that I keep jumping into the air when I try to stick to combat), and for me, has been pretty enjoyable thus far even at low levels with limited skills. The AI isn't great so far, but haven't died every single encounter or anything.

But the conversations/dialogue is such a big part of ME for me that I'm finding it tough to connect (on some level, at least) with the new setting and cast with the at-times rough camera angle choices, and how they highlight the issues of dead eyes and/or awkward facial animations during said conversations.

But if you play the EA Access, or have watched some previews and decided the animation issue doesn't bother you, then you're likely fine.

 

[aravuus]

I think fixing the eyes would go a long way.

Edit: Not my pic.

It's nuts how much better it looks with a relatively small fix like that.

I'm very excited to jump in next week, but probably for all the wrong reasons lol. Early Nexus gameplay was honestly... Kind of hilarious. Hopefully the game surprises me, but at least I won't be disappointed when my expectations are this low.

 

[Maledict]

Divisive across the board, and hard to gauge as a whole when the vertical slice available is still very much early game.

In game play animations are mostly wonderful, but cutscene/dialogue animations are a very mixed bag that can range from okay to terrible.
Combat and character movement feels pretty wonderful, though some are struggling with the auto cover system, and the return of ME1 style weapon proficiency skills probably means shooting doesn't feel quite as great as it will after a few upgrades.
Exploration is divisive. Some are enjoying the appeal and mystery, others likening it to boring fetch quests and Inquisition quest structure.
Performance is mixed across all platforms.
Technology and assets are mixed. Gorgeous aliens and environments. Very rough human models. Frostbite 3 lighting is a mixed bag.
Writing/dialogue is mixed. Some abrupt, some long winded. Interest is going to vary widely between player to player.

If I were to gather a general consensus from posters on GAF, it's that thoughts are decidedly mixed in the most varied ways. While the negativity is obviously the loudest platform (as always), there's a lot of people really enjoying what Andromeda is offering, and many who fall in the middle with unsure thoughts. Some of the negativity is deeply fixated on various things, while others are less fussed about these discrepancies. One person's enjoyment is another person's disdain.

Sorry, just to clarify re weapon proficiencies. Are you saying they brought back the ME1 system where your accuracy with a weapon was partly determined by your skill in the weapon rather than your actual accuracy?

I'm really hoping not, because that was awful in ME1 and removing it was one of the best improvements they made to the series,

 

[Blue Ninja]

Divisive across the board, and hard to gauge as a whole when the vertical slice available is still very much early game.

In game play animations are mostly wonderful, but cutscene/dialogue animations are a very mixed bag that can range from okay to terrible.
Combat and character movement feels pretty wonderful, though some are struggling with the auto cover system, and the return of ME1 style weapon proficiency skills probably means shooting doesn't feel quite as great as it will after a few upgrades.
Exploration is divisive. Some are enjoying the appeal and mystery, others likening it to boring fetch quests and Inquisition quest structure.
Performance is mixed across all platforms.
Technology and assets are mixed. Gorgeous aliens and environments. Very rough human models. Frostbite 3 lighting is a mixed bag.
Writing/dialogue is mixed. Some abrupt, some long winded. Interest is going to vary widely between player to player.

If I were to gather a general consensus from posters on GAF, it's that thoughts are decidedly mixed in the most varied ways. While the negativity is obviously the loudest platform (as always), there's a lot of people really enjoying what Andromeda is offering, and many who fall in the middle with unsure thoughts. Some of the negativity is deeply fixated on various things, while others are less fussed about these discrepancies. One person's enjoyment is another person's disdain.

EatChildren speaking the truth.

I feel bad for the people at BioWare Montreal. Their first big game and it gets the worst marketing possible. Couple that with an undoubtedly rushed release schedule (this game clearly should've been a fall 2017 or early 2018 title) and now an onslaught of people reposting the same crappy animation .gifs and you've probably got a lot of people there scratching their heads, wondering what happened.

Rarely have I seen so much go wrong for a big-budget AAA release. I know I'll still have fun with it, but I also know the damage is done. The public opinion was never fully positive to begin with, but has gone completely toxic over the past week. I've seen tweets of people saying they're really enjoying thrashing this game.

The developers must've known their animations would get mentioned in reviews, but I doubt they anticipated it'd blow up the way it did. I'm interested to see how it'll do, sales-wise.

 

[Dany]

Divisive across the board, and hard to gauge as a whole when the vertical slice available is still very much early game.

In game play animations are mostly wonderful, but cutscene/dialogue animations are a very mixed bag that can range from okay to terrible.
Combat and character movement feels pretty wonderful, though some are struggling with the auto cover system, and the return of ME1 style weapon proficiency skills probably means shooting doesn't feel quite as great as it will after a few upgrades.
Exploration is divisive. Some are enjoying the appeal and mystery, others likening it to boring fetch quests and Inquisition quest structure.
Performance is mixed across all platforms.
Technology and assets are mixed. Gorgeous aliens and environments. Very rough human models. Frostbite 3 lighting is a mixed bag.
Writing/dialogue is mixed. Some abrupt, some long winded. Interest is going to vary widely between player to player.

Someone compared this to Omega and Arrival Dlc, is that an apt comparison for comparing story/dialogue ?

 

[Bisnic]

There is some weird ugly distortion effect when things are out of focus in dialogue scenes, anyone know how to get rid of it?(PC)

 

[Deleted member 98878]

The ui on PC is shit because it's the console one. Again. If you navigate it using only WASD and Space/Esc you can get through it more easily than trying with the mouse.

Something that is really bugging me: buying/selling

1. Select an item (space)
2. buy/sell (enter)
3. confirm (space)

It's just illogical

 

[Tony Redgrave]

I think fixing the eyes would go a long way.

Edit: Not my pic.

Aaaand here it is, the root of the problem, mostly.

Left, mannequin, right, human being.

The jank would be much more tolerable if at least the faces created the illusion of being talking to real humans. I don't use twitter much but if someone somehow made this reach the devs it might do some good.

 

[ViciousDS]

Aaaand here it is, the root of the problem, mostly.

Left, mannequin, right, human being.

The jank would be much more tolerable if at least the faces created the illusion of being talking to real humans. I don't use twitter much but if someone somehow made this reach the devs it might do some good.

Eyes on the left could be for androids if they exist and right for humans.......but it's everyone that has the ones on the left. That would fix almost all my issues.


Also maybe shinobi can answer this. Does EA force the use of frostbite because it's an internal engine? Wouldn't this team have been better off using UE4 since they are well versed in UE3?

 

[Lime]

Also maybe shinobi can answer this. Does EA force the use of frostbite because it's an internal engine? Wouldn't this team have been better off using UE4 since they are well versed in UE3?

Frostbite is their own engine, if they went with UE4 they'd have to pay royalties to Epic. If you have a capable engineering team able to provide support for multiple studios that work in different genres (sports = Fifa, FPS = DICE, RPG = Bioware), then you make your own engine and toolsets to avoid costs and the reliance on another engine that may not fit what the studio is aiming for.

EA is one of the few publishers with enough money and personnell to be able to develop their own engine that can be used across a variety of studios and genres (for good and bad).

EDIT: Eatchildren explained it in more detail below by accounting for both the financial aspect *and* the production flexibility and in-house support

 

[EatChildren]

Someone compared this to Omega and Arrival Dlc, is that an apt comparison for comparing story/dialogue ?

I don't know if I'd use that comparison.

Also maybe shinobi can answer this. Does EA force the use of frostbite because it's an internal engine? Wouldn't this team have been better off using UE4 since they are well versed in UE3?

A lot of studios now emphasise a universal engine as, in theory, it speeds up production, reduces production costs, and allows for more hands to be involved in production.

One of the biggest struggles of the 360/PS3 generation was the insane explosion of production requirements in manpower, time, and thus money. Engines became more complex, and assets required more detail. Thus publishers looked towards engines that had strong tech support, thorough documentation, and useful tools. Unreal Engine 3 was popularised that generation for those reasons. Epic's support and toolset work was really incredible.

Towards the tail end of that generation and moving into the current, a lot of publishers realised the importance of reliable tools and production flexibility, and started looking into unified internal engines that could be reused and evolved across at the very least a single franchise and ideally more. With EA it was Frostbite 3. Eliminates expensive royalties, and in theory allows for production flexibility and supports as essentially everyone working at every studio you own has experience with the engine.

 

[Systolique]

So yeah, I've got a little less than 3 hours left on my trial.
I've done everything that was possible story-wise, the only thing I didn't get to experience yet is the MP.

The game is fantastic, I couldn't care less about animations and what so ; the ME games has never been famous for it and it's not bothering me more than it did before, the UI is completely fine - we've all played games with questionable UI design, and this is clearly not one of them -, even early sidequests are completely fine (please make toxicGAF fuck off to the end of another galaxy with the DA:I quests comparisons)

Playing the game I've felt the same feeling I had when I first played Mass Effect 1, and to me this could be shaping up to be the best Mass Effect yet.

P.S. I hope someday some posters will learn that exactly 0% of people care about them cancelling pre-orders or not

 

[B00TE]

Probably gonna run out the trial time on my Xbox version today. PC one depending on how free friends are tomorrow. Gonna be a long weekend, I need this now.

 

[Bisnic]

I really need to start taking the trial more seriously, I think I'm up to to 7-8 hours left and I've recreated my character like 3 times after just 5-10 mins of playing them and haven't touched multiplayer yet.

Think I'll do the same as everyone from that Ryder family thread and just create an asian girl Ryder lol. At least I know she'll look good no matter the scene. And once they've updated the CC, maybe I'll be able to make a bro Ryder that's interesting to me.

By the way, what kind of straight relationship can a sis Ryder have? Surely there is more than Liam for a male relationship? I can't seriously expect Ryder to romance Drack lol. Is there some male crewmate from the Tempest or something?

 

[Militaratus]

*sigh* I just posted a rant about Alien (Kett, Angaran, Remnant) research projects being visible right from the start instead of being hidden like the Remnant Tech skill, and how it made no sense from a lore standpoint.

I must have been reading too much let's hate on Andromeda threads and soaked up some of its bile.

I did enjoy my limited 10 hour time with the demo, and counting the days till the game is actually released. As of this post, 3 days and 16 hours away.

 

[Renekton]

By the way, what kind of staight relationship can a sis Ryder have? Surely there is more than Liam for a male relationship? I can't seriously expect Ryder to romance Drack lol. Is there some male crewmate from the Tempest or something?

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/5zp2wa/mea_spoilers_datamining_romance_options_semi/

*sigh* I just posted a rant about Alien (Kett, Angaran, Remnant) research projects being visible right from the start instead of being hidden like the Remnant Tech skill, and how it made no sense from a lore standpoint.

I must have been reading too much let's hate on Andromeda threads and soaked up some of its bile.

No worries, negative impressions are fine.

Even EatChildren looks about to explode and start really eating children.

 

[Systolique]

I've made the mistake of stepping out of the community thread again to check some on the other ones, I've never seen so much toxicity prior to a game launch that it's making me really sad, I hope this doesn't become such a trend for future games.

What a petty generation of manchilds this decade has been graced with...