I was stupid for falling for the hype.
Gaming Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
- Thread starter Shane88
- Start date
Well this has been a huge disappointment.
Cant you cancel it? PSN offers refund if you cancel it before launch.
There's no such thing as BioWare anymore
Casey Hudson is gone, David Gaider is gone, Chris Wynn and Chris Schlerf are gone, Drew Karpyshyn isn't working on this game. Basically everyone who could have made sure this game was not shit have either left Bioware or working on other projects.
On the subject of Chris Wynn, he left at the end of December 2015 and was the director. I can only speculate, but how much are you betting that all of the big "why" questions about the game (why are they in another galaxy anyway? why is there a big black hole in the center of the universe?) were all part of a bigger story which got watered down when a new director came in - the same new director who wrote Mass Effect 3 as well as the Foundation comics which are light on backstory and game world history.
I can, and I probably will tonight.
The good news is that the price is certain to drop within a month or two. Regardless of how bad it is, I'm sure it will be worth about 20 quid or so.
Origin says game launches in 5 hours. So i will play it a bit. If it doesnt click then I plan it refund it under origin great game guarantee.
Doesn't matter if it's half life 3, don't pre-order ever!
Until we stop promising money up front, they'll continue to take the piss with half arsed efforts like this.
Nope - what a bunch of cnuts EA are.
All the best staff from Bioware have been steadily trickling away ever since EA took them over.
Also - this is not the same team who made the Bioware trilogy. The team who made ME:A 'just' worked on a bunch of DLC for ME3
Yep. I think that Casey Hudson leaving, followed by Chriss Wynn might have made the game worse than it would have been. That meant that Mac Walters instead of getting fired for the shit he created in Mass Effect 3, got promoted to the main man in this game. And the result is clear.There's no such thing as BioWare anymore
Casey Hudson is gone, David Gaider is gone, Chris Wynn and Chris Schlerf are gone, Drew Karpyshyn isn't working on this game. Basically everyone who could have made sure this game was not shit have either left Bioware or working on other projects.
On the subject of Chris Wynn, he left at the end of December 2015 and was the director. I can only speculate, but how much are you betting that all of the big "why" questions about the game (why are they in another galaxy anyway? why is there a big black hole in the center of the universe?) were all part of a bigger story which got watered down when a new director came in - the same new director who wrote Mass Effect 3 as well as the Foundation comics which are light on backstory and game world history.
The only way the franchise can be saved is if Karpyshyn rejoins Mass Effect for the next game.
That guy is ridiculous though, he's been insanely overly-negative about the game throughout.
Disclaimer; I'm being irrational and ranting but here we go...
You know what my biggest problem with what I've seen of the game so far? Everything is a little too "neat", and I'm not talking about the quality of the animations. The story reads like fan fiction in a similar way to the Twilight books. For those of you who weren't cool and didn't read about sparkly vampies; Twilight is about this girl who, because of her negative attitude to life and general loss of enthusiasm, should by all accounts alienate herself from everyone around her. Instead; everyone loves her. She's horrible to her family yet they always support her, guys are throwing themselves at her even though she treats them like dirt, and even though she's the new kid at school and comes across as very insular, she manages to become besties with the cool kids immediately. It's a fantasy written by someone who doesn't want to address the actual cause and effect of real life actions and instead prefers to ignore reality in order to make their story easier for them to write.
To me; Andromeda does the same thing even when you're only an hour into it. You're a kid with very little experience, yet all of a sudden you become the "Pathfinder" - a title that even makes decorated soldiers and scientists treat you like a demi-god. You, even though anyone can do what you're doing, are suddenly humanity's only hope of survival. There is nothing to suggest that you are special and the only person worthy of the title - hell, another character even tells you that they were intended to take the job until it was given to you at the last minute for no real reason. One of two things should happen; people should either treat you like you have to prove yourself (which only one character does, but they make her come across less like she's being logical and more like she's just being a buzzkill who's trying to ruin your fun space romp - sort of like when you're a kid and some grumpy old adult tells you that the toy gun you're playing with isn't actually real), or your character should start questioning why everyone is entrusting them to save them all ("why are they treating me like I'm awesome? I haven't actually done anything!").
Instead; everyone says that you're awesome and you think that you're awesome. Now, go and have fun blowing stuff up because you're awesome and everyone loves you and you're besties with all the cool kids at school now.
In doesn't just stop there though, there's also a set of N7 armour that you can craft and wear. You; someone who has never completed the N7 training, can wear the armor that people such as your father and Shepard gave blood and sweat to gain. And nobody questions this because you're awesome and everyone loves you. It might be an overreaction on my part, but it's just another instance to me that shows how very little care and detail the writers put into making the characters. Everyone in the previous series had a backstory that showed and told you WHY they deserved to be taken seriously, in this game a bunch of kids just show up and expect to be treated with respect.
TLDR: There's very little "struggle" in this game, everything turns out quite positive for you and similar to what you'd already be used to as a human in the Milky Way, considering this is meant to be a journey into the unknown.
You know what my biggest problem with what I've seen of the game so far? Everything is a little too "neat", and I'm not talking about the quality of the animations. The story reads like fan fiction in a similar way to the Twilight books. For those of you who weren't cool and didn't read about sparkly vampies; Twilight is about this girl who, because of her negative attitude to life and general loss of enthusiasm, should by all accounts alienate herself from everyone around her. Instead; everyone loves her. She's horrible to her family yet they always support her, guys are throwing themselves at her even though she treats them like dirt, and even though she's the new kid at school and comes across as very insular, she manages to become besties with the cool kids immediately. It's a fantasy written by someone who doesn't want to address the actual cause and effect of real life actions and instead prefers to ignore reality in order to make their story easier for them to write.
To me; Andromeda does the same thing even when you're only an hour into it. You're a kid with very little experience, yet all of a sudden you become the "Pathfinder" - a title that even makes decorated soldiers and scientists treat you like a demi-god. You, even though anyone can do what you're doing, are suddenly humanity's only hope of survival. There is nothing to suggest that you are special and the only person worthy of the title - hell, another character even tells you that they were intended to take the job until it was given to you at the last minute for no real reason. One of two things should happen; people should either treat you like you have to prove yourself (which only one character does, but they make her come across less like she's being logical and more like she's just being a buzzkill who's trying to ruin your fun space romp - sort of like when you're a kid and some grumpy old adult tells you that the toy gun you're playing with isn't actually real), or your character should start questioning why everyone is entrusting them to save them all ("why are they treating me like I'm awesome? I haven't actually done anything!").
Instead; everyone says that you're awesome and you think that you're awesome. Now, go and have fun blowing stuff up because you're awesome and everyone loves you and you're besties with all the cool kids at school now.
In doesn't just stop there though, there's also a set of N7 armour that you can craft and wear. You; someone who has never completed the N7 training, can wear the armor that people such as your father and Shepard gave blood and sweat to gain. And nobody questions this because you're awesome and everyone loves you. It might be an overreaction on my part, but it's just another instance to me that shows how very little care and detail the writers put into making the characters. Everyone in the previous series had a backstory that showed and told you WHY they deserved to be taken seriously, in this game a bunch of kids just show up and expect to be treated with respect.
TLDR: There's very little "struggle" in this game, everything turns out quite positive for you and similar to what you'd already be used to as a human in the Milky Way, considering this is meant to be a journey into the unknown.
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From the gamespot documentary above, it does seem like a lot of the devs/writers on this are people who were massive fans of the original trilogy and were never actually involved on it, so it does make sense that it'd almost come across as fanfare to the first three games, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of it. It's supposed to be a brand new game that bears no relevance to the originals.
I can't help but think that there wasn't enough management of the story - people should have been picking up on all of the blue-sky daydreaming rubbish and told the writers to go back and fix it. If most of the writers are young and inexperienced then where were the seniors guiding them through everything?
Looks to be even worse than I thought it would be.
I'm confused. I saw some clips a few weeks ago of it in 4k and it looked absolutely stunning. Where they just a specially tarted up clips and the real gameplay graphics are nothing more than a slapper in the dark?
The Mass Effect series is imo pretty famous for Shepard's underdevelopment in the original trilogy. By the time they properly tried to address questions like the pressure of having the world on your shoulders, the horrific realities of war (lol dream sequences), his own motivations in the synthetic vs organic debate and loss it was too late, too contrived and too clumsy. The cynic in me saw that coming, but I agree that it's a massive hindrance to immersion and unacceptable for a developer of this calibre.
To be fair, there's praise for the world design and textures, just not the awkward animations.
I don't think it was ever the character animations that I played the game for. I loved the storey and gameplay. It captures the imagination for some reason. If they improved that side of it (don't see how they allowed it to be that poor) it would be up there with the GOAT games imo
That's very true, I remember finding it funny in the second game when you'd see people and they'd say "oh, you're that guy who saved us all but then died, and yet you're standing in front of me...... anyway.....". I sort of forgave it at the time because it actually made me feel more grounded - I might have saved the Citadel but in the end I was just a soldier doing a job and I wasn't in it for the glory, plus other people had their own lives to deal with.
To go from that, no matter how flawed it was, to the direct-to-DVD sequel (thanks to Giant Bomb for that one) where things just happen because the story needs it to rather than because they should, is unacceptable. The gunplay does look fun though so I'll probably end up picking it up at some point, but it won't be right away. The best part about this being a completely separate story is that I don't feel emotionally invested enough to have that affect my desire to play it.
74 on metacritic. A lot worse than I expected
I was hoping it would get a decent score as I wanted to get it but I think I'll just wait till it's really cheap and buy something decent instead. Going to order Horizon I think
I read somewhere that this was made by their b studio
I was hoping it would get a decent score as I wanted to get it but I think I'll just wait till it's really cheap and buy something decent instead. Going to order Horizon I think
I read somewhere that this was made by their b studio
To be fair - 74 is still 'decent'. I mean it isn't even 50 which is an average game
I get your point though. And yes - a b studio sort of.74 for a AAA game is shit, it is not decent. Playing some indie game with 74 is alright, but an AAA game? Nope. At least not until it costs under 10 euros, which likely will be within a year.
Would help if you quoted me
Check out call of duty:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare
That got 'only' 77 which is also shit for an AAA game as you put it - however still sold plenty. The kids don't care about reviews. I completely agree that ME:A has bombed review wise. From the 90's to 74? That's shocking. But it will still sell bucket loads. Hover over the 74 rating on metacratic. By metacratic very own formula the game still has 'generally favourable reviews'.
Too many people seem to think any game not over 8/10 is shit. That's not the case when we have a 10 point system - even 5/10 is average and not shit...
Would help if you quoted me
Check out call of duty:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare
That got 'only' 77 which is also shit for an AAA game as you put it - however still sold plenty. The kids don't care about reviews. I completely agree that ME:A has bombed review wise. From the 90's to 74? That's shocking. But it will still sell bucket loads. Hover over the 74 rating on metacratic. By metacratic very own formula the game still has 'generally favourable reviews'.
Too many people seem to think any game not over 8/10 is shit. That's not the case when we have a 10 point system - even 5/10 is average and not shit...
Not how reviews work these days. Since we are a hype community, everyone is throwing 10's around for everything, thus making 7,5 the average. Would you seriously consider playing a 5? I wouldn't because I know what this means.
We have stopped using that system correctly ages ago.
Disagree that reviewers throw around 10's too easily now - I would so they are rarer. Far less chance of getting into the 90's on metacratic now. 85 is the new outstanding game. Anyway, we digress.
Looks like this is where all the animation money went:
(spoiler - love scene between Ryder and Cora)
That's far better than the animation in the rest of the game!
(spoiler - love scene between Ryder and Cora)
That's far better than the animation in the rest of the game!
Feck I pre-ordered it
Mass Effect sales are nowhere comparable with Call of Duty. At times I wonder why people make still RPGs (despite being by far my favorite games) considering that bar Elder Scrolls (and maybe Fallout) they get consistently outsold by shooters of the same caliber. Even The Witcher 3 which was the best RPG in a long time and sold exceptionally well (over 10m copies) still was nowhere comparable with giant games of other genres.Would help if you quoted me
Check out call of duty:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare
That got 'only' 77 which is also shit for an AAA game as you put it - however still sold plenty. The kids don't care about reviews. I completely agree that ME:A has bombed review wise. From the 90's to 74? That's shocking. But it will still sell bucket loads. Hover over the 74 rating on metacratic. By metacratic very own formula the game still has 'generally favourable reviews'.
Too many people seem to think any game not over 8/10 is shit. That's not the case when we have a 10 point system - even 5/10 is average and not shit...
Anyway, ME:A has bombed on reviews and I think that this will hurt them. For most part, these games are not sold to kids, like Call of Duty. The average player is a bit more mature than just wanting to shoot something. Likely, the reviews will harm the sale. Which might have been the reason why they embargoed the reviews until the launch day.
Lets see what happens, but it might well harm BioWare. Even the universally hated Dragon Age 2 got better reviews.
DA2 was panned - so it resulted in DA: Inquisition which was a far superior game (although dwarfed by the witcher when that came out!) so I hope this is a wake up call to EA / Bioware and the next mass effect is a big improvement. I think the reviews will harm sales too, don't get me wrong. Just not as much as people might expect. Pew pew pie's video will also harm sales
I wouldn't describe Mass effect as an RPG anymore though sadly. That died off after the first game. They can call it one if they like - but this is not an RPG.
The scale doesn't really get used like that by reviewers. Any big game below 70 is most likely going to really rubbish not average.To be fair - 74 is still 'decent'. I mean it isn't even 50 which is an average game
Edit - I liked DA2 a lot. Had good characters and a good story if I remember right. I did get it for like £5 so expectations were low
Ignoring the seemingly awful script and the glitches, the thing that's most disappointing is the amount of padding. From the dialogue options to the fetch quests there doesn't seem to be a lot of structure or thought put into streamlining the story into a cohesive package like the original trilogy. Although exploring planets seems to be a highlight from reading a few reviews.
Indeed. However my point still stands - games have been steadily coming down in metacratic score:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1332658
Looks like I'll be giving this one a miss. Mainly down to the multiple reports of poor writing in both story and dialogue.
Ill give you a fiver for it!
I'll buy it when it goes on sale. I adored the trilogy and there will probably be enough in this to enjoy but not at €70.
Shame though, I really wanted it to be amazing but it looks like the reaction to it is "Eh, it's alright."
Still only about 30% through Horizon though so I got that going for me.
Shame though, I really wanted it to be amazing but it looks like the reaction to it is "Eh, it's alright."
Still only about 30% through Horizon though so I got that going for me.
This game is awfully dull.
how are you playing it so early? EA trial still?
No, from the Giant Bomb Quick Look and their stream last week. I have heard and seen everything I need to know that this game is pretty shite. Awful story, poor voice acting, boring worlds to explore and shoddy gunplay.
It's a bit of a stinker by the looks of things.