Common Sense on the Andromeda animations controversy

Great Video. even scenes that are possibly handmade though have their own issues in the game and it is not just about their flawed conversation system or other bugs. questionable directing with no strong presence from the composer (until the final mission) don't help the matter either among other issues for some. i still think Andromeda is a good game but weak for a Bioware product. i am glad there are those that can still appreciate what the game has to offer (like good combat imo) cause as it is said in the video, people from Bioware Montreal like many other developers poured years of their life into their product so whatever happened to Andromeda frustrated them too. of course i also support those that keep giving constructive criticism.

Nice video. I like the fact that the video approaches the issues objectively rather than simply jumping on the hate bandwagon. The eye fix helped a lot. Hopefully BW is able to keep improving the game with updates/patches.

I'm more concerned with actual game bugs and glitches atm though. There are still quite a few bugs affecting quest progression that imo need to be addressed asap.

edit: Multiplayer balancing would be nice too.

I agree with you especially the bolded part. I was really surprised they didn't call Sam Hulick back for the game, I really found the soundtrack lacking a little bit and this is a first on ME for me as the trilogy had always very memorable tracks. My hope is now that they have built all ME assets for Frostbite, they can work on it and improve for the next game focusing more on the artistic direction and polishing what they have created already. Let's hope for the best. I still believe that had they more time, the game wouldn't have been as bugged as it is in its current state. If I remember right TW3 was postponed at least 3 times before release. Quality gaming takes time but it's really difficult to achieve that when you work for a big publisher.

Clearly the game wasn't finished and ready to go, but they did have it in development for 5 years. If BW wasn't done by then, I mean come on. I usually don't mind piling on the 'hate EA bandwagon' but they are a business and the game does have to come out eventually. Its not like EA made them push it out the door after 18 months. They had 5 whole years. Really no excuse for a lot of the shoddiness and lack of attention to detail.

Its not like they just pulled these guys off the street.  This BW studio has worked on ME before producing DLC and MP content.  Yeah they had to move to a new engine but how many AAA games get 5 years of development anymore?  That is a huge development time frame.  I have no doubt it was EA's idea to push the game out in time for their end of quarter profits, but I just can't find it in me to forgive BW all the faults after 5 years of development. 

8 years? Really?  That is practically unheard of.  If they need 8 years to push the game out EA would have been better off contracting the game out to Obsidian or someone else.

And I would imagine they had Frostbite veterans helping them out too.  Don't know that, but it makes sense that EA would do that in the transition, or any company.  I really don't make a distinction between Bioware and EA whenever I ponder such stuff as what you're talking about.  I would if Bioware were an independent studio, but it's all EA now.  Even still, it's not like I'm a fly on the wall or know the inner-workings.  In the end I judge everything by the finished product anyway.

The animations weren't the only thing in the came that made it come off a rushed and half-assed. This game wasn't ready for release, it was wasn't Arkham City on the PC bad, but it was pretty bad.

Foundation wise; all the beautiful lighting, environment (static tho), particle effect, vehicle, gun play, combat and even MP. These are things Frostbite does extremely well. So there is nothing to nix there.

Conversations, dialogue, inventory menu, loading of levels and all things RPG related on the other hand is not part of Frostbite because DICE doesnt make RPG.

It is EA that wanted to standardize all their games to use Frostbite. The DA:I team already express a lot of limitations when using Frostbite to make DA:I. Now if it were the DA:I team that makes ME:A, I am sure it will be much better since they already have experience with Frostbite but Montreal? 

Also, DICE are the ones maintaining Frostbite for EA not BW. I feel that today's BW is technically lacking, they no longer have the capability of creating the tools they need for Frostbite themselves.

So reality is; you are either as rich as Bethesda or Blizzard who can keep pushing things until they are as good as possible -or- you are as technically advance as CDPR who can make the REDEngine together with all the tools shown in the video together with a game like TW3. I dont see how BW Montreal (extremely inferior in every way compared to the above mentioned) can pull a game like ME:A off without having 8 years - it is mission impossible.

Oh yeah, EA only need to pay them 40m for 5 years of development.