Panic at BioWare Montreal?

My guess would be very low odds for panic. The only constant criticisms so far have been the CC, facial animations and the save system, while story, characters, visuals, music and combat have gotten praise. So for now it looks likely, that the game will be good.

Also, I fucking hate to defend TW. I'd rather be arguing in BW's favor, like, I played TW3 once and barely remember that scene but after rewatching I have to. So here we go.

Geralt's face expression was not the focus on the scene. The music, ambiance and lighting helped set the mood, they were <i>well utilized</i> tools to enhance the player empathy to what was happening inside Geralt. The perceived loss of his daughter. From him, they used <i>nuanced</i> expressions on his face, lower corner of mouth and eyebrows, that weren't over animated. Then they utilize his body as form of expression, touching her, shaking. A well executed scene, not the best of the world but well done nonetheless.

Don't take from them what they do right. Just don't.

I doubt they're panicking. They probably have at least good enough initial sales (pre-orders and projections).

But I hope they're very concerned about support for the future. I think its a bigger deal if they don't get sales for SP DLC, active players and buyers for MP. This may cut off support for more content and updates, and at worst, cut off any bigger future for the Mass Effect series. It seems clear that there are intentions to do 1+ more games in a larger 'arc' of sorts, but if people aren't buying the idea (even if liking much of the initial product), the pursestrings at EA may not as well.

They need to turn something around. But panic? No.. I don't see that as likely.

oh..woe is us at Bioware, nothing we will fo will be enough to please the fanbase


It is a bullshit excuse if you ask me

While I've been avoiding too many spoilers* and too many reviews**, what HAS been getting slammed has actually made me happy. I can get over the CC being dumb. I can deal with shitty facial animations -- I'm a veteran of ME1's ANGRY FACE WRINKES***. The save system sounds like an actual problem, but I guess I'll just have to try really hard to not die or pick a dumb dialogue option. The stuff that isn't getting yelled at, or is in some cases getting praised, are the things I do care about.

So I'm not regretting my preorder, and I hope many fine people (including yours truly) purchase and enjoy Mass Effect: Andromeda. And there's no panic over at Montreal and everyone's happy including the fans...  And we all get ice cream, or gelato, or whatever the hell vegans sub in the place of ice cream if needed.

*They cause cavities!

**I have come to suspect that most reviewers don't have the same tastes as I do after Skyrim, which I tried REALLY hard to like but couldn't even bring myself to care about remotely

*** Though I really hope the most offensive animations/modelling gets cleaned up, cause... I mean, yeah, that's vexing for a visual art form.

First of all, the DA 2 reviews were good with major sites, it was only a problem with gamers. So it was not as bad reviewed as you seem to think it is.


Second of all, DA 2 sales as of now are of 2.57 million and that is JUST the physical copy, there is way more with digital sales. Of course 2.57 million might seem bad until you take into account that it was MUCH cheaper to make, with tons of reused environments, a very small city, and only a year and a half of development. Which means that it  had less works into it, which means less ressources invested and of course less money to do with sales until it is profitable. No problem with having lesser sales when it was not as expensive.

So where did you see that DA 2 was dissapointing for EA? I have not seen the part where they were, at least not to the point of refusing to finance a sequel.

DA2 has real issues, but I have more fond memories of it than I do DA:I, mostly because it knew the story it wanted to tell and told it, and because goddamn, Sarcastic Femhawke was the best Bioware protag ever. So appropriate to such a depressing story. Everything goes wrong for Hawke, in effect, and cracking wise is the only way to deal. I would have 100% rather had Hawke as protag in DA:I than the flavorless Inquisitor.

Are they dead?

"Well, if they aren't, there are boneless women flopping around Kirkwall."

OMG, so inappropriate, so funny.

Is modding Frostbyte actually a thing? Not that the ability to mod a game is an excuse, but at least in Skyrim determined users can forget the devs and fix the game themselves.

My favourite BioWare line ever. 

Talked to my buddy who used to work at the Edmonton studio about the game. Said they spent the last 2 years or so working on the game in some capacity there.

Said he let his contract expire because he knew in last summer there was no way it would be ready at launch. Texting him now and he said most of the programmers were like "why is it so generic" and they were told it wasn't and to stop complaining

Also said "People are going to hate the new save system. Why are we even doing it?" and basically told to just do their job.

What a studio!

Where did they say that? All I've seen lately is them saying they're "looking at options" and "investigating". The EA Access demo already includes the Day 1 patch.

Mike Gamble stated they're looking forward to improve it but not day 1. My mistake i red too quickly. I apology for that mistake but still they're looking into it.