Talon
N2
✜ Mako Thrill Driver
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
Origin: Sicklemower
PSN: TinTalon
Posts: 158 Likes: 368
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
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Post by Talon on Mar 19, 2017 16:15:48 GMT
Burned through my ten hours a lot faster than I like, and I'm really looking forward to continuing! Feedback-wise:
Liked: Environments. The planets that we've seen are gorgeous, the Tempest is amazing. I'm playing 21:9 1080p, and the graphics are impressive. Quests. The sidequests that I've encountered aren't just busywork, several have a feeling of importance to the success of the Initiative. Characters. I've had limited interaction with them, due to the early level of the story, but what I see, I like. I want to get to know them better, and that speaks for itself, as far as I'm concerned. Story. Again, early times, but I want to learn what secrets Andromeda's holding on to. What's behind that door? Voice Acting. Top-notch, as always. There have been a couple moments of meh, but that's always going to be the case. Performance. Smooth, didn't notice any problems with my system. Ultra, with a couple high. Running FX 8320 OC to 4.3 GHz, 16 GB of 1600 MHz RAM, GTX 1080 FTW, Win 10 Pro. I had one freeze that required a restart, but I'm not 100% sure that wasn't Win 10 shenanigans. Combat. So far, so good. Took some practice, but it's not so different from the OT (yet). I liked the new cover system, easier to get out and move to new cover.
Did Not Like So Much: Character Creator. You've heard this a lot, and you're going to hear it again. If you're not going to give players the option to customize individual features (eye shape, eye rotation, eyebrows, mouth shape, nose shape, ears, tattoo/scar placement), then you'd better provide a greater variety of facial scans. Nine isn't enough to provide a variety of characters. The same goes for the eleven available hairstyles. Also, haven't we learned that providing a player the chance to tweak their character once they see them in the game engine, is a GOOD thing? What looks good in cc, doesn't always translate fully to animated model, and it would be nice to tweak, rather than throw out the time already spent on a character. Especially when... SAVES!! I can't make a manual hard save during priority missions? Really? No quicksave, ever? Please fix this. A game like this should not leave us relying on checkpoints. Animations & Textures. This was relatively minor for me, I didn't have a lot of issues, but when they happen, they're jarring. Cora had a pretty nasty shoulder spasm while I was speaking to her, and both she and my fRyder had a weird neck thrust posture, where their necks went nearly 45 degrees from their shoulders. Ryder also seemed to thrust her lower jaw out rather more than I expected. Not always, but it was there, and it wasn't when I used the cc. The facial textures of some background NPCs make them look like potatoes. The weirdly staring, flat eyes of some NPCs. Squad Abilities. And the inability to give orders. It makes it feel like I'm playing alone, rather than heading a squad, when no orders other than, "Go there," can be issued. My only role seems to be to shoot things, and to revive squaddies. Feels tactically limiting. On the bright side, the AI seems fairly capable at Normal difficulty, can't judge Hard or Insanity, yet. GUI. I'm a KB & M player, and the endless backing out of menus is terrible. The hotkey that enters the menu should exit it as well. Lack of Tutorial. I never thought I'd say this, but there needs to be a tutorial for using the scanners (personal, planet, and mining). I finally figured them out, but it's not terribly intuitive, and is probably going to frustrate some.
Anyway, this is longer than I intended, and this is (hopefully!) constructive criticism. It's clear the team worked very hard on this game, it's absolutely Mass Effect, and I can't wait to play the rest! Thanks for giving us Andromeda.
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Pokemario
N3
First of the Dalish
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
XBL Gamertag: Pokemario
Posts: 311 Likes: 540
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Post by Pokemario on Mar 19, 2017 16:56:59 GMT
-...No eyebrow colour selection? This should be rectified IMO.
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kithsana
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by kithsana on Mar 19, 2017 17:29:33 GMT
I am enjoying the game thus far, due to time constraints I'm only 5 hours into my 10 but I've already had a couple of WOW moments. The environments are beautiful, I'm liking combat, I'm liking the objectives. Its not all perfect though, so here are my criticisms (PC version):
--SAVES. This is the #1 problem, and more glaring to me with the time limit. If I need to walk away from the computer for even a little while I'm logging out so as not to burn my hours, but in 5 hours of play I've yet to reach a point that allows me to save the game. EVERY TIME I need to log out of the game I lose progress. I may not remember minor things I did so I may miss doing them again the second time. This is enormously frustrating and NOT OK.
--Why can I not take screenshots with the game's UI? The install has a Screenshots folder in the same directory that DA:I did, but F11 does not capture anything like it did in DA:I. I have to use NVIDIA's screenshot capability if I want to take one, which is Alt-F1 so if I want to take a screen when the ALT camera zoom is also active its obnoxious. Wouldn't you like us to advertise your beautiful game for you with screen captures?
--Character Creation is just bad. I can't just chalk it up to the engine because PC modders did eventually come up with some good for DA:I which suffered from a similar crappy CC.
The good outweighs the bad, and I would still recommend the game, but given the trend of these same issues coming up in everyone's posts it would be awesome if they could be addressed with a patch!
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palker4
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Post by palker4 on Mar 19, 2017 18:13:45 GMT
I started playing the story mode to see the much maligned animations and i think that the uncanny valley is partly caused by the extreme close ups like characters face filling almost entire screen like you are looking at them from 2 inches away that is just weird.
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Post by UutIVvdPw7END0Ef on Mar 19, 2017 18:15:56 GMT
Would be helpful if we could see a preview in the character creator of how Alec would look like after customizing the siblings.
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Post by kmansp on Mar 19, 2017 18:22:23 GMT
I have been glued to opinion pieces and early reviews of the game since last week. A lot of it was disheartening, particularly when I read similar comparisons to DA:I which I thought was horrible.
Today I decided what the hell, I'll give it a try. I am so glad I did. The game is a BLAST. Going in, I thought based on other comments and early reviews I was going to see nothing but animation glitches. While I saw a few- and yes, they were cringe worthy- it was not nearly as overwhelming as what critics are making it out to be. I am now of the opinion that there are those who just want to hone in on the negatives no matter how small they are, and focus so much on it.
Yes, a lot of the commentary from NPC's and teammates is cheesy, but no more than the other mass effect games. While this is one of my biggest pet peaves, I never felt it was so bad that the game was doomed to failure.
The graphics are beautiful, and again going in I was worried about performance given what EA put out for recommended specs. I have a custom built PC, with a GTX 1060 6GB OC, and i5 6600 OC to 4.5 Ghz, 16 GB ram. The game ran incredibly smoothly, Framerates sticking around 55 to 78 most of the game. Even when it dipped, it was hardly noticeable. I think I noticed the worst dips when the in game cutscenes/character interactions occurred. Exploring out in the open was great.
I also read one critic who said the game was a slow start, and another that said it was unfortunate running in to hostile aliens as the first encounter. What this all tells me is, EA was damned if they do, damned if they don't. They can't make everyone happy. I felt the opening game was great, and again no differently paced than any other ME game. Encountering the first hostile aliens also felt fine, and gave the proper momentum. I have so many questions, and I enjoy interacting with each NPC I run in to, finding out as much as possible. This does NOT feel like DA:I (thank god). The combat so far is pretty fun- I share everyone else's comments in the jet pack and dash.
I started as the pre built Sarah Ryder character- I don't care all that much about building a custom character at the moment. Her interactions with other characters seemed spot on, and she came off as pretty interesting.
Bottom line, the game feels great so far. I am really excited to continue and find out how this story plays out. Which tells me this is going to be a great game!!
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Post by dragontartare on Mar 19, 2017 18:42:39 GMT
Can the nomad be patched to be steered by the mouse instead of with A/D? It's too clunky the way it is. I know I'm not the only one getting stuck on things.
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melbella
N7
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by melbella on Mar 19, 2017 18:47:18 GMT
Can the nomad be patched to be steered by the mouse instead of with A/D? It's too clunky the way it is. I know I'm not the only one getting stuck on things.
One thing I noticed that I didn't have time to try out.... when you approach one of the forward station things, there is a pop up on screen that says the Nomad can't be called there. Which makes me think it can be called elsewhere. So, you go to the edge of the settlement in the direction you want to go, and call the Nomad to your location? That would avoid the ridiculous difficulty of trying to maneuver manually inside the settlement area.
Has anyone tried this to see if it works/is doable?
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Pokemario
N3
First of the Dalish
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
XBL Gamertag: Pokemario
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Post by Pokemario on Mar 19, 2017 18:52:27 GMT
-I love being able to customize the twin!
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chugster
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In a galaxy far, far away.....
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by chugster on Mar 19, 2017 18:55:09 GMT
Things i noticed:
Facial animations, been talked to death, nothing to add. Lag in a few cutscenes. Lag in MP Some texture discrepancies, Sara seems to have very textured skin but Peebee doesnt (moest ME3 Asara had a subtle pebbly texture to their skin). A few physics/clipping issues with npc bodies. Not enough new guns in early missions...in ME3 on Mars you picked up at least 4 new guns...I didnt find any...I had to buy them when i got to the Nexus.
Everything else i loved and cant wait for the full game.
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by N7Mith on Mar 19, 2017 19:01:09 GMT
The sound is still horrible! Enemies on the other side of the map sound like they're in the spawn next to you.
And I've spend a total of 3 hours trying to connect to the servers. Bioware should break free of Enormous Assholes.
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Sondergaard
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR
Posts: 572 Likes: 975
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR
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Post by Sondergaard on Mar 19, 2017 19:11:42 GMT
Just finished the 10hr early access on Xbox One.
Facial animations- no surprise here, they can be very poor. However, one of the problems I've seen is not really the animations but default Sara's face. Her features are quite exagerated so any extreme reactions look ridiculous. On my Asian Ryder, with quite a small mouth, they looked OK.
Dialogue- some of it is outright bad (childish, hamfisted, exposition laden) but the rest is pretty bland. All options are varying versions of polite agreement. You can't even tell someone to shove it when you need to. You just stand there and take their shit. Really irritating. And auto dialogue is back. Not a huge problem but, again, irritating.
CC- I actually quite liked it despite expecting to hate it based on the descriptions I'd heard/read. It should probably remain as is but with a wider selection of pre-sets to fiddle with, say 20-30. Having said that, I got a really good Asian sisRyder that looked nothing like the pre-set I chose (except racially).
Atmosphere- everything on the Hyperion and Nexus is very quiet. Walking through the Hyperion, loads of npcs hanging around, in almost total silence. Very odd. And many of the npcs seem to share the same limited set of face options eg all asari look like the doctor. Modded Skyrim has more variety and a lot more background dialogue.
Tutorials- there aren't any. I got there in the end with mining but it was bloody irritating figuring it out. Also, after you've got the Nomad, how do you use it after the first Eos mission? You have to find one of the drop pod things and call it from there rather have it roll out the Tempest that is parked JUST BEHIND YOU! Bizarre design decision that wasted half an hour of my time.
UI- I'm still wondering how medigel works and suspect it's not there at all but can't be sure because of the god awful UI.
Text- Text is also really small and very difficult to read. I gave up on the codex and journal as I simply can't read them without standing two feet from my telly. My eyesight is far from perfect but I've never had to do this before with any other ME game (or any game at all for that matter). I wish there was a way to zoom in or have a text setting to enlarge it. Many of the UI problems could be solved by this.
Having said all of that I still enjoyed myself. Much of the grief BioWare and EA are getting is because of their appalling marketing. Emphasising combat above all in the trailers certainly put me off, and unnecessarily so now I've tried the early access.
I could go on but in a nutshell- I went into the early access a cynic expecting to be disappointed. I came out of it having enjoyed myself. The game needs polishing and should never have been released in this state. But the core of a good game is there and hopefully patches can fix some of the problems ESPECIALLY THE TEXT SIZE.
Unfortunately nothing can fix some of the bizarre marketing decisions.
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire
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Post by Space Cowboy on Mar 19, 2017 19:48:39 GMT
I thought of something else. On Eos the blue harvestable crystals are eas y to spot, thats great.. but once we harvest them they dont go away, or change, so coming back to an area I imagine it might be confusing, thinking you havent harvested something when you had?
This is really minor, but thought I'd share it.
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Cassandra
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion
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Post by Cassandra on Mar 19, 2017 19:52:02 GMT
Now that I've finished the trial. Time to offer my own thoughts. ProsCombat: A definite and noteworthy improvement to the rigid cover system the series is known for. While certainly not without it's hiccups (we'll get to that), the overall impressions are positive. Movement is incredibly fluid and fast paced, abilities are responsive and the game as a whole encourages you to pick up your feet instead of hugging the closer chest high wall. Squad (Story): I adore the current cast, albeit based solely on their respectively introductions. Although they do have a touch of familiarity in terms of arcs, each seems to branch away from who I suspect they're based upon. My initial concerns with PeeBee were surprisingly dashed. Whereas I thought she might be another Cloudcuckoolander for the sake of it (looking at you, Sera), she actually stood out. Vetra though... perfection.
Story: A tentative approval at the moment. The story has yet to gripe me however my interests are piqued. Perhaps the only complaint I have thus far is the info dump, though it's optional. Hopefully, pacing issues sort themselves out as we progress.
Quests Both side quests I picked up offered nice secondary depth and decent world building. Hard to say too much since I only finished the hacking one but a decent start all the same. On the fence Voice Acting: While the primary cast is up to par, secondary NPCs are... hit or miss. Kesh is a noticeable example-- being in stark contrast to the near universal gruff and monotone tone associated with Krogan. Tann suffers from odd delivery issues and of all people, Liara's recordings do. I assume it has to do with her VA attempting to sound younger but it's... awkward at best. Admittedly, I am mostly nitpicking here but it does stand out, and not entirely favorably. ConsCreator Character: Perhaps a broken record at this point; it nevertheless cannot be stated enough how abysmal this is. The presets border on hideous and customization is entirely limited. I honestly cannot think of a worse CC at the moment from a highly profiled game and there is no excuses for such poor quality. It's bad to the point I cannot help feel it's intentional so people will simply play default Ryder. Save: Checkpoint nonsense died a slow and thankful death years prior. Let us not resurrect it. I do not find it fun having to repeat decent sized portions of the game and/or listen to the same repeated dialogue because I died and the game didn't save. It's an anarchic system most games abandoned... with good reason. Squad: Oh boy. The A.I is both incompetent and suicidal-- a fantastic combination, especially on higher difficulties. Whenever ordered to engage a particular enemy, both squadmates comically rush ahead into clear enemy fire making any kind of tactical approach near impossible. It doesn't help they are incredibly squishy. Perhaps my biggest complaint though is our lack of control over them. Whereas before, players could at least make up for silly A.I. decisions by using their abilities. With Andromeda, we're at the mercy of whatever choices they make. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to sit with the game on Insanity and see just how well it functions. Speaking of... Difficulty: Insanity seems wholly unbalanced. The section with Remnant at the third Monolith is ridiculous. You literally cannot move or you'll be sniped dead within seconds. Multiple attempts altering my approach, tactics and even restocking supplies were met with laser death-- partly thanks to poor squad A.I. I eventually resorted to a cheese strategy I discovered by hiding out of the Observer's range and picking them off as they floated still. Character models: Simply put, what is going on with the aesthetic choices? Allison looks as though she took makeup tips from Barney the Dinosaur, people have hair colour better inspired from a hipster catalog than a military vessel and even basic blonde looks... overly washed out. None of this is helped by odd and exceptionally bright lighting. I appreciate BioWare wanting to branch out a little but these colour choices appear more like trying too hard to be different. Although a somewhat minor complaint, it remains jarring, especially when compared against the Nexus's clinical aesthetic. ----- I do feel the good outweighs the bad, and would recommend it. Although at the same time say, it might be best waiting for a price decline. There is a lot to still like about Andromeda. Nevertheless, it lacks polish on those finer details and cannot say whether mainstream audiences will feel near as invested. A good first impression, but not a great one sums up my overall impressions.
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Zatche
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Post by Zatche on Mar 19, 2017 20:18:31 GMT
Not sure if something like this has been mentioned: I was in a firefight with the Kett, and one of the Kett just stopped moving/fighting.
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Post by Sondergaard on Mar 19, 2017 20:36:14 GMT
Couple more things now I think about it-
I honestly couldn't tell the Hyperion and Nexus apart at times. I know they're both built by the same organisation but some individuality would be welcome, even just their names somewhere. Maybe I just missed them. Add that to the silent NPCs and it becomes pretty disorientating.
Saves- as has been said, at the very least have autosaves at the beginning of combat. Got killed a couple of times and had to redo what felt like 5 mins to get back on track (probably exaggerating but that's how it felt).
Bland characters- I was expecting a big showdown with Cora but she basically shrugged and got on with it. I was looking forward to some simmering resentment. And where's the angst? Nobody mentioned that the friends and family they left behind are all dead. I know they would have been prepared for it but still, facing the reality could give some extra drama. Anything would have been better than another 'we're all in this together' line.
I may be being harsh and these will be covered later but I thought the foundations could have been laid for some powerful character arcs.
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II So Close II
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I used to be a space adventurer like you, but then I took a Krysae sniper rifle shot to the knee.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by II So Close II on Mar 19, 2017 20:53:57 GMT
Have to say I agree with pretty much everything that Cassandra said, but I'll add a couple of own thoughts.
Having played about a gazillion hours in the ME trilogy (my favorite games of all time) and being, well, I used to be a solo Platinum MP player, I was looking forward a great deal to ME Andromeda. The ten hour trial hasn’t really put a damp on my moods, but I’m being somewhat cautious.
I’ll start with the good: -The overall graphics are, for the most part, beautiful. It’s a huge step up for the franchise. -The Tempest in general, and the option to actually see out of it in particular, is spectacular. -The movement is extremely fluid and smooth. -The voice acting, with a couple of notable exceptions, has been solid. -It’s still a Mass Effect game.
Moving onto the bad: -The AI is severely lacking both in terms of enemies and squad mates. Enemies will jump out of cover, then back again, then out of it, then back again etc. in continuous loops. Meanwhile, your team will randomly jump around with their jetpacks and fall down cracks. -The lack of pause/proper squad mechanic means the people you bring into a fight have less importance. Also, they die. All. The. Time. -The Multiplayer feels underdeveloped. Falling off the edge of a map is now a thing (not sure I agree with it, but whatever), but doesn’t kill you, only takes your shields off as you immediately respawn. Hmmkay? The sound is annoyingly inconsistent and with headphones can be downright confusing. Also, there are lag spikes, frame drops and disconnects despite me sitting on a 500 down/100+ up connection with pretty much perfect performance. -Anomaly/scanning is.. ..odd, although that may be my lack of understanding of it. I get told – ad nauseam – that there’s an anomaly. I go to the planet and can’t scan it. Not intuitive. -The two seconds of tram going through a tunnel as you travel around the Nexus? Just.. ..ugh.
Finally, the fugly: -The conversation animations are unacceptably bad at this level. The glass eyes, solid face, zero body language conversations would have been alright maybe 15-20 years ago. Today, they simply are not. I had one conversation with a person who had the same exact expression all the way through it, the rest of her body rigidly frozen except for three random shrugs. It simply will not do, Bioware. -CC is.. ..come on. -Writing is woeful at times. The protagonist’s reaction to what should be a life changing event is an emotionless “ok, moving on”. Mass Effect should be aimed at 18+ audiences expecting and receiving high quality, intelligent, writing brilliance. Not John Carter levels of stoic nonsense, clichés and immaturity. You have to think Michael Mann, not Michael Bay, Bioware. -The not being able to quicksave/whateversave during priority missions? You know this is an open world game, right?
TL;DR: Although I’m still very much looking forward to the game release, the ten first hours haven't exactly blown me away. There are so many great games out there that you compete with and with the ME trilogy the best ever created (in my eyes, but objectively also one of the standout franchises in history), your internal demands and standards have to be higher than this, Bioware. MEA needs to be more than this. Better than this. "Good enough" and "that'll do" is simply not good enough. I hope it will be as good as it could be. Right now, it feels.. ..rushed.
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Pokemario
N3
First of the Dalish
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Andromeda
XBL Gamertag: Pokemario
Posts: 311 Likes: 540
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Post by Pokemario on Mar 19, 2017 20:56:37 GMT
-I felt that Liara's recordings were very true to her ME1 character.
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Jan 29, 2017 22:34:20 GMT
January 2017
cassandra
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion
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Post by Cassandra on Mar 19, 2017 21:13:47 GMT
Something I forget to mention, is Profiles.
Conception wise, I like the on the fly prospect of rotating through multiple abilities at a whim. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a little to be desired. It's needlessly cumbersome I have to open a menu, select another menu to finally change profiles. Perhaps I'm missing a command prompt but this feels like it should be something we keybin; press numpad 1 or numpad 2 to change to those respective profiles sort of thing. Further on the subject, putting your new array of abilities on immediate cooldown restricts their effectiveness. Instead of a seamless transition from one set of abilities to another, Ryder is left sucking her thumb behind cover until everything is ready. A possible improvement here is to only put non synergized abilities on cooldown. Say you swap to Vanguard, Charge and Nova are available but Overload isn't as it's a tech ability.
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seems
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Mar 19, 2017 18:32:32 GMT
March 2017
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Post by seems on Mar 19, 2017 21:30:09 GMT
So, I made it through to the intro endpoint on Eeos with 15 minutes to spare. Really looking forward to continuing the adventure on Tuesday, despite a number of disappointments. But here are my positives and negatives:
Pros
Plot/Mood: I'm enjoying the sense of mystery, exploration, and discovery. Instead of the threat of invasion, we are the "invaders", or pioneers if you will, braving the unknown and setting a new course for humanity. Don't get me wrong, I loved the sense of impending doom in the MET, culminating in the reaper invasion, but so far MEA seems to offer a fresh, new direction rather than just rehashing old territory.
Characters: not as strong as MET, so far, but that's to be expected. Garrus, Tali, Mordin, etc. didn't become iconic characters in only 10 hours of gameplay - it took time to develop their stories and personalities. No one really stands out for me yet, but I like the introductions we've had so far. There have been hits and misses with the squad mates in every ME game, so I'm hopeful there will be at least a couple I gel with.
Graphics: overall, the scenery, Tempest, cut scenes, etc. look great (other than the Balrog in the ointment that everyone is discussing, more on that below)
Combat/Skills: so far it looks good. Combat definitely isn't my strong suit, so I like having options to focus on powers that offset my poor hand-eye coordination! Haven't come to terms with the jump jet and verticality in combat, but I love the addition.
Open World: unlike some others, I'm happy with the open world feel, and I wasn't disappointed with Eos. It's perhaps a little boring, compared with Habitat 7, but not every alien world can be weird and it seems sufficient to get us started. I am hoping future planets are a little "busier".
Cons (in order of concern)
Character Creator: sorry, it's just awful. How can you put so much time into developing the game and end up with a character creator that is worse than what we've used before, not even considering what other game franchises offer. The generic Ryders just look boring, and certainly don't do their face models justice, and the presets are simply atrocious. I love the commitment to including a wider range of ethnicity options, but they still look terrible. I honestly can't believe that's the best you all could come up with. Knowing how attached the fanbase is to "their" characters, it either looks rushed or simply lazy to pawn this off on us.
Facial Animations: not much to add, but I don't think it's as bad as the general uproar. Yes, there are simply too many instances of unnatural, cartoony animations that seem at odds with the emotion of the moment, e.g., eyes going in weird directions, odd smiles, something not quite right with characters walking, etc., but overall I can live with it.
UI: very frustrating - too many nested screens to wade through to get to what you want, no ability to easily back out of the screen with the right mouse button, no ability to jump straight back to the screen from the journal or map.
Saves: can't understand the lack of manual saves on priority missions (or is it just for the Habitat 7 mission?) and the lack of quick saves. At best it's just lazy, at worst it looks arrogant and uncaring towards the needs of your users.
Nomad: I sucked in the Mako and I suck in the Nomad. It's way too easy to get stuck and it still seems far too bouncy. Feels like I'm driving a toy car, not a real vehicle.
Ok, while there are more cons in the list than pros, I'm still thrilled to be playing ME again, and have high hopes for where the story and characters go after a far, far too short 10 hours! It could still fall flat on its face, but I'm hopeful it will continue to improve.
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Post by malanek on Mar 19, 2017 21:45:24 GMT
There are probably some other things but off the top of my head. The GoodSense of immersive progression in the story. It does feel like you are gradually making a difference in setting up a new home in a new galaxy against the odds. I like some of the writing. Combat looks engaging and feels good. Although progression is slow there look to be all sorts of different builds I want to try out Sprinting is a toggle. Jetpack opens up a lot of gameplay options. Just be careful not to over do the focus on it and ignore other elements. The badNo Biotic boom for combos Combat, which is one of the games strongest points, is now a quite low percentage of the amount of gameplay. I realise this is deliberate and everyone knows about it but still feel I should mention it. Doing things is confusing. Planet scanning, switching to 6 wheel drive, navigating the journal, mining, equipping your multiplayer character etc etc I virtually never had to look up how to do things in the original trilogy yet find myself looking up keybinds frequently to figure out how to do something. The GUI is non-intuitive and is asked to do more stuff. I don't really like the dialogue options, and therefore I don't really like the protagonist. They too often tend to give two options which are both unappealing. The UglyNavigation with the map is needlessly irritating. It needs to be seamless as most players will be using it a lot. Going out of the map needs to return you to the normal view, not jump into the main menu. The map probably needs a higher level of zoom and it should never default to the lowest level of zoom every time you open it. This should be a priority fix. Skip a dialogue line should be with a single keypress, not two. It should never skip more than the current line. Every cutscene should be skippable. Moving between planets. I didn't find the graphical "see where you travel" to be cool at all. Just slow and irritating. Would like this to be cut altogether. Multiplayer stability. Was this ever tested under any sort of latency? I never got into DAMP because it wasn't stable but I didn't really care as I didn't like the combat. However I will be very sad if MEA multiplayer netcode is not improved a lot. It seems to be bugridden at the moment although I only spent a very small amount of time in it. At the moment this feels rushed before it is ready to me. Planet scanning in general? Why add that in. I'm hoping that I can completely ignore it but am worried that it is important to finding clues for the main story (spoilers would be needed to explain more).
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blodstrupmoen
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Mar 19, 2017 17:12:48 GMT
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Post by blodstrupmoen on Mar 19, 2017 21:59:34 GMT
Hello. Overall i love the game! Combat, banter, dialogue etc is excellent. So i'll just address the bugs and things i miss.
Bugs: - On several occasions I experienced banter on the Tempest that included Pebee and Drack, even if they're not recruited yet. And I got an mail that talked about Jaal as if he was already on the ship (something about poker). - The guards aboard Nexus/Hyperion sometimes sits in the air, like the chair is missing, or bends down in a weird manner. It's like they're sitting by a fireplace or something, looks out of place. Shouldn't the guards just stand upright? With small movements like scratching, shifting grip on the gun and things like that.
Things i miss: - I was disappointed to see that you removed both armor and weapon customization on squadmates. This have always to some degree been a part of the ME franchise and I have no idea why you removed this? The satisfying feeling getting a really awesome weapon that you dont need yourself but is perfekt for your squadmate will be missed. And are all the squadmates going to have the same armor for the whole game? Are we not even gonna be able to change between some armors/colors like in ME 2 and 3? - Also, you removed the option to command your squad to use certain abilities. Why? Did anyone really request this? When setting up detonations it's really useful to be able to command your squadmates. But they're smarter now so that's good. - You should have quick save option/autosave, and be able to save at any time. I've heard about people loosing 20 minutes of gameplay because of not being able to save/no autosave. We're in 2017.
A little annoying: - The galaxy map was beautiful, and it's a nice touch driving around the tempest. But it's a bit slow, so please add a skip button. Sometimes I will have a good time just cruising around watching the good looking galaxy you've made. But when i'm just driving from planet to planet scanning for resources it's too time consuming and I just know it will get frustrating. So please add a skip button so we can fast forward/jump too the next planet. Please give us the option.
But that's it after playing through the early access, I really enjoyed the game and looks forward to release.
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ApocAlypsE
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda
Posts: 854 Likes: 946
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August 2016
apocalypse
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by ApocAlypsE on Mar 19, 2017 22:05:18 GMT
I'm downloading the early access now. Initially I've wanted to avoid it, but decided it will be the best for me to shell 4 Euro to test if the game runs well on my PC as my CPU is sub-par before I spend 60$ into oblivion. An upgrade for my PC is far off for me, I need to buy a new laptop for my upcoming PhD first with a strong Nvidia card, but it wont be for gaming.
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melbella
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Trouble-shooting Space Diva
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Origin: melbella
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melbella
Trouble-shooting Space Diva
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by melbella on Mar 19, 2017 22:28:02 GMT
I'm downloading the early access now. Initially I've wanted to avoid it, but decided it will be the best for me to shell 4 Euro to test if the game runs well on my PC as my CPU is sub-par before I spend 60$ into oblivion. An upgrade for my PC is far off for me, I need to buy a new laptop for my upcoming PhD first with a strong Nvidia card, but it wont be for gaming.
I am able to run the game with a below min spec CPU so hopefully you can too. You might have to set graphics to low/med though, but it's better than nothing.
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Post by xetykins on Mar 19, 2017 22:31:20 GMT
First 10 hrs? I am not feeling it specially with the companion's juvenile banters.
First, the character creation is horrible. As a brown skinned player I always like to play white skinned, blonde and blue eyes specially on a Bioware game but I am horrible with creating a character of my own, so I always pick from pre mades or mod it to hell, like in DA: Origins. But alas... ( frowns at the cc). Did they REALLY forget to make at least one caucasian female out of those 6 or 8 pre made toons??? So you could say from the get go, I am not feeling it. Thank god it was my friend's Origin Access I borrowed, so I did not loose any money.
Second. I could not get over the Pingu/Gormit effect when the characters talks. I just want to look at anywhere but my screen when I talk to someone because their lips distracts me to hell and take away any form of immersion. Now I cant even look at my little boy's favorite program without thinking about Andromeda.
Third. The combat felt weird. But if I can get over that part in the witcher 3, then Im sure I will learn to love this too.Not the game's failings but mine. I am not that bright in adopting gameplays.
Oh well, here is hoping that the stories will capture me later on in the game. After all, 10 ( or maybe 5 cuz I was afk half the time) hrs is nothing to what sounds like a really huge game.
I guess you could say that I remain cautiously optimistic. I have to because this is supposed to be THE game for me to get lost in until Cyberpunk.
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