Mass Effect Andromeda Skepticism thread

So it was a bug that caused all these mishaps in enemy AI?  BW has never been good with enemy AI in any ME game. They all ran right at the player, and we see that also in this video. They just rush in. I don't believe it's a bug. I think it's the programming of their AI period, because they're doing the same things they've done in the previous games. 

Ian talked about the Fiend, not the AI in general.

Some good points there, but also some unneeded criticizing. I think judging the AI right now is very premature... AI will always do stupid stuff, no matter what the game, but there are more than just that going on in firefights.

The one thing that I have not been able to get out of my mind is this: The Frostbite Engine. It is this new engine that gave us DAI. It's has been lauded for it's great graphics, and I believe it was chosen to allow combat to evolve to a faster, smoother experience, but DAI showed us it's limitations in the hands of Bioware.  Bioware seemed to think they could do so much more with the engine, yet they did so much less. They sacrificed combat depth, diversity and tactics, (and mostly player engagement) for speed.  I have been recently playing Kingdoms of Amalur again and I can tell you that the combat in that game is exponentially far superior to the combat in DAI. I personally believe it is some of the best designed speed type combat of ANY RPG I have ever played. It's fast, its fun and it has reasonable diversity. No it is not deeply strategic but man it's fun. They managed to give us speed (like DAI wanted to) while keeping it fun and interesting. Again not deep at all but well designed with good skill trees. The combat in that game does not get old and is the primary reason to bother playing it at all. It was built in HAVOK an older engine that can stand up against Frostbite tooth and nail. Maybe not as graphically "OMG!" but a great engine nonetheless. I use this example only very narrowly in regards to speed over deep tactics, in how it can be done in a way that does not sacrifice sheer combat fun and allows for a fair, effective trade off over deep strategy.  Now, I did not get tired of the combat in ME2 or ME3 it was fast and fun in a different way. It was built with Unreal 3. Then comes Frostbite and at least in the hands of Bioware, in DAI we get some of the most repetitive mind numbing combat I have ever been subject too, yeah combos are cool but they aren't enough to keep interest in that game for many of us, not all I understand. I am kinda of having a hard time articulating what I wish to get at, but the whole Frostbite thing and what Bioware did with it just feels like it bodes ill of ME:A. It's already clear that they are working hard to "streamline" combat. What they call streamline I call, having the game play itself rather than letting the player play the game. I WANT to set up combos! I want to do it. I don't want the game to do it for me! Do you? Am I in the minority here? If they can't make fast fun combat that can stand hours of game play like KOA, then they have to give us combat empowerment and choices.  They want to remove our ability to play the game, with each DA iteration more and more the game was playing itself and it's got more boring. Active Human engagement and interaction,  is what keeps it interesting. I understand that I am somewhat contradictory by using KOA as an example but again I limit that to strictly the ability to make fun, fast yet more passive combat not as a direct comparison to strategic play.. My verdict stays cautiously neutral until the product is at hand.

My only skepticism is that I'm so hyped that disappointent seems the only logical outcome.

Frostbite Engine is employed over Unreal 4 because Frostbite is an inhouse engine that EA owns. If I remember correctly, EA announced a few years ago that all future games would only use EA engines (Frostbite and whatever they have for their Sportsgames, I think). 

Regarding ME Andromeda AI and the video: It's kinda hard to judge how competent the AI is with these small trailers and not knowing what difficulty the game was recorded on. When you watch the Gameplay trailers of the older games, you won't see much of the AI at all (usually just enemies getting obliterated)

Regarding the Video Especially, he is incredibly nitpicky about some things and it makes me wonder what games he is playing? 

With Preferences and the meh tactic settings you can do actually more than you'd expect in DAI and the Squad AI isn't that stupid and I found that I could get away with less micromanaging than in DAO (which had horribly balanced combat). 

Isn't this a case of you wanting to have your cake and eat it to?  You have been wanting them to release gameplay and apparently more significant gameplay then what we have gotten, even as far as six months ago, and now you are telling us that we wouldn't/ shouldn't judge any trailer released six months ago because any of our opinions would have been premature? 

It's also more than likely they're playing on an easy difficulty to showcase the game. The enemy isn't doing much damage to Ryder's shields.

Also the AI in Horizon: Zero Dawn can be hilariously bad when you're fighting humans, and the game's fine apparently.

If someone doesn't say it, I will.

Come on....say it.

Saaaaay it 

Enemies everywhere! Go go go! Go go go! Enemies everwh-go go go! I will destroy you! I will I will destroy you! I will destr-go go go! Enemies everywhere!

Watch out.