Author Topic: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: Patch 1.10 to be final SP patch  (Read 11462 times)

Offline gpw11

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #40 on: Thursday, March 23, 2017, 07:22:14 PM »
Sooooooo I don't know if I'm fucking missing something here or what but I'm loving the game.   Like, to the point where I actually don't GET why it got such mixed reviews and seems to have a fan backlash against it (well, I get that last part - those people haven't actually played the game, and those that did and still didn't like it wanted Mass Effect 2 all over again).

It's like Mass Effect 1 but with the best combat of the series and a bit more depth to the various systems.   It doesn't have the streamlined and focused plot direction of ME2 or 3, both that's totally fine.  The new exploration mechanics, maneuverability, platforming, etc are all great.   

I do get what people are saying about there being too many side quests and a lot of them being somewhat repetitive, but that's like almost every RPG in the last five years for me. Hell, I started having a lot more fun in The Witcher 3 once I stopped being a completionist about it.

I don't know, maybe I'm out of touch but the way this was received seems really weird to me.


Offline Xessive

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #41 on: Thursday, March 23, 2017, 11:29:18 PM »
I have to admit, I'm really enjoying it as well.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #42 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 04:04:29 AM »
@GPW + @Xessive

So, in your opinions - how's the story? Voice-acting? And Dialogue?
A lot has been said from reviews about how "Meh" that stuff is, so....yeah, I'm curious.
And especially since BioWare Montreal developed this, not the BioWare Edmonton main-studio known for their great dialogue, writing, voice-acting, and storytelling.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #43 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 07:39:16 AM »
Sooooooo I don't know if I'm fucking missing something here or what but I'm loving the game.   Like, to the point where I actually don't GET why it got such mixed reviews and seems to have a fan backlash against it (well, I get that last part - those people haven't actually played the game, and those that did and still didn't like it wanted Mass Effect 2 all over again).

. . .

I don't know, maybe I'm out of touch but the way this was received seems really weird to me.

As I understand it, the most objective way to put it is that it's good, but not memorable like the trilogy preceding it.  There are bugs, animation and dialogue issues, some of which Bioware claims to be addressing.  A fine, if flawed game.  I like the footage I've watched.

But the hate is pure politics.  Neither side has been doing themselves any favors on that score.  Big online brawl.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #44 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 02:43:38 PM »
Sounds like this really could be Dragon Age 2 all over again - where the game gets crapped-on b/c it ain't a masterpiece, yet it might just be a decent game despite its laundry list of flaws.

For once, maybe PCG did have the right review for a BioWare title, this time around? ;)

Side note: PCG gave 80% score (out of 100%) for ME:A PC version; they WAY over-scored DA2 PC at 94%.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #45 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 03:37:00 PM »
DA2 was actually bad, though. At least from what I saw of it.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #46 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 04:02:59 PM »
DA2 was actually bad, though. At least from what I saw of it.

About DA2:
I actually liked DA2's action-y part for its combat + especially the look of the combat;  but didn't care that they stripped out most of the strategy elements & zoomed-out overhead tactical camera that were in DAO. Didn't like the over-usage of recycled environments + didn't like the lack of upgrading depth to your party members. I also loved the Three Act set-up, despite not being entirely executed perfectly. Having, more or less, 3 short stories of their own that were around 10-20 hours each was really cool.

I also loved a lot of the characters in this game, as well - i.e. Merrill, Fenris, Varric, Aveline, and Isabella. Also really liked the set-up of over the spans of years, numerous issues + things pop up w/ Hawke's family (often as side-quests, BTW), making those parts of the story feel really personal.

I liked that DA2 game, even despite the laundry list of flaws.

About ME:A:
I just have this feeling that like DA2, ME:A is going to be quite flawed, but still could be good - b/c it sounds like it has a few steps forward in some ways, but also takes some steps back in other ways (just like DA2). And b/c it really isn't a BioWare Edmonton masterpiece (especially in the story + character stuff, which I often think is one of the most important things for ANY BioWare-branded game), it's possible people could be over-reacting - like what happened w/ DA2.

Offline gpw11

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #47 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 05:58:58 PM »
@GPW + @Xessive

So, in your opinions - how's the story? Voice-acting? And Dialogue?
A lot has been said from reviews about how "Meh" that stuff is, so....yeah, I'm curious.
And especially since BioWare Montreal developed this, not the BioWare Edmonton main-studio known for their great dialogue, writing, voice-acting, and storytelling.

Voice acting and dialogue has been serviceable. Like there's a wide range - most of it is fine, some of it is good, and thee are a few spots where the dialogue and/or voice acting doesn't make the cut (there's a reason you keep seeing the same examples brought up). To be honest, I think the original series was like this as well, although maybe not to the same extent.  I was JUST playing ME 2 and the difference in quality in these areas isn't THAT noticeable.  The worst of what's here is probably worse than in the original series (probably) but, on average, it's pretty close.

The story I'll have to comment on later, when I'm further into the game, but I really do think that people are looking at the original trilogy with rose-tinted glasses in this aspect.  MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE ORIGINAL TRILOGY GAMES BELOW:

(click to show/hide)


The original trilogy was def one of my all time favorite series. Gameplay was fun, characters and world interesting, music and graphics just awesome, environment very entertaining but I think people really have to reach to think the storytelling was some kind of masterpiece.  From game to game it was bungled.  The character development was good, but YOUR character never developed at all.  So it kind of surprises me when people are like "it doesn't touch the story telling from the first series" because the first series had some excellent ASPECTS of storytelling, but overall they kind of dropped the ball from game to game.

Like I said, I can comment back on this later, but so far the story development has been just as fine as the first game.  The world, however, is old now.  You know all the technology and lore, you know the important races, etc, so it's definitely less compelling in that way.  They did have an opportunity with new races in a new universe and they haven't done so well with that yet, but I'll wait to see where it goes.

Fuck, the combat and exploring is so fun that, at this point at least, I don't really even need a reason to be doing it.


Offline MysterD

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Offline Xessive

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #49 on: Friday, March 24, 2017, 11:25:04 PM »
GPW summed it up quite well. It's a generally good experience despite some minor frustrations.

I can understand complaints about monotony, some parts will get repetitive and fetch quests are never fun.

After spending nearly 40 hours with the game, I can say that the animations are actually pretty damn impressive. Ryder's movements are natural and the way the player model reacts to the terrain feels more realistic. It's a not a generic "run" animation that moves identically across all terrain. I feel like the player model places its feet more cautiously. Even when turning, it's not just a player model rotation, there's so much more going on that makes it look and feel more natural than previous Mass Effect games. I can almost feel the weight of the character moving around in the game world. I'm confident in saying that the animations are actually amazing and far more sophisticated than anything we've ever seen in a game before.

Now, as for the implementation of these animations, this is where things get fuzzy and I can understand why people blame the animators. Some sequences and actions seem to be done in strange ways where the animation is not aligned correctly, such as the punch that never actually makes contact. That's not so much an animation issue as much as it is a designer's neglect.

Offline Pugnate

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Offline Pugnate

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #51 on: Saturday, March 25, 2017, 12:17:37 PM »
The voice acting for the male Ryder is far too stoic for my liking. I restarted as the female Ryder and the experience is infinitely better. Also, the animation is not that bad. I've gotten used to the glitches etc.

Offline gpw11

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #52 on: Saturday, March 25, 2017, 01:27:31 PM »
Sooooo.....you've started three times now?

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #53 on: Saturday, March 25, 2017, 08:52:01 PM »
Twice. I have to be more thorough since I will review it.

Offline gpw11

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #54 on: Sunday, March 26, 2017, 05:39:00 PM »
Fair enough.


Also, I'm at like 30 hours in and kinda getting bored. ha

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #55 on: Monday, March 27, 2017, 01:57:30 AM »
No, don't say that. I wish I had had more time to play it.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #56 on: Monday, March 27, 2017, 07:22:47 PM »
Total Biscuit on Youtube with Mass Effect: Andromeda PC:
Single Player - Approx. 1h 54m video.
Multiplayer - Approx. 38m video.

Offline Cools!

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #57 on: Thursday, March 30, 2017, 02:38:14 PM »

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #58 on: Saturday, April 01, 2017, 05:25:38 AM »

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #59 on: Saturday, April 01, 2017, 10:28:27 PM »
Haha, nicely done.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #60 on: Sunday, April 02, 2017, 09:30:00 AM »
This is interesting...and kind of funny b/c it was news let loose on April Fools Day.
Though, could this possibly be true...?

TechRaptor - Did BioWare OutSource their Facial Animations to other EA Studios?

Offline MysterD

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Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda
« Reply #62 on: Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 03:16:29 PM »
Kotaku - Sources have some big news regarding the future of BioWare Montreal + Mass Effect Franchise.

1. BioWare Montreal is getting down-scaled.
2. BioWare Montreal is getting turned into a support studio.
3. BioWare Edmonton is working on their new IP project code-named "Dylan," in which BioWare Montreal will be a support studio on that project.
4. Some of the BioWare Montreal employees have already been moved to other EA-based offices + studios.
5. Mass Effect franchise is being put on hold, for now.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: BW Montreal to be down-scaled, ME IP on hold.
« Reply #63 on: Thursday, May 11, 2017, 10:03:36 AM »
How sad an end that might be for a great IP.


Offline MysterD

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Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: BW Montreal to be down-scaled, ME IP on hold.
« Reply #66 on: Sunday, July 09, 2017, 07:00:42 AM »
GameRant - The additional Denuvo DRM has been patched-out of ME:A PC version:
https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-drm-pc/


Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: 10 Hour Trial released for PC, X1, PS4.
« Reply #68 on: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 04:33:32 AM »
Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC) - since I've been very curious about this, I downloaded the approx. 47GB Trial.

I played a little bit over 2 hours worth of ME:A from this 10 hour trial...and I actually do like it, so far.  I probably was smart in waiting to buy this b/c I'm not really having much complaints here w/ the animations here, in its current version + early on in this game. At least early on here, it probably has come a long from what we've seen from version 1.00 vs. now; I can't speak on how the facial animations have been re-tweaked for later on, as I haven't got that far + haven't bought the game yet. Every little thing they did (extra shadows + whatnot; eyeball tracking which is VERY important; etc) has really mattered here, in the early scenes. I've certainly seen much worse animations...in numerous Bethesda games before, TBH.

The game's flat-out gorgeous. The scenery on the planet that I'm on in this opening Prologue just looks wonderful. Character models look great. If there's anything that Frostbite can do, it's produce great-looking graphics.

Combat's by far the best it has ever felt in an ME:A game. The extra jet-packing really makes combat much more interesting as now you feel like you have to constantly keep moving, can jump, and zip in different directions in the air quickly for a brief moment - than say just constantly sitting behind cover compared to the old ME games. Combat is just much more fun, visceral + interesting this way. I'm loving this, TBH.

My complaints right now are this: story + character stuff. Namely, some of it lacks depth + personality - which, of course, the older ME games are absolutely known for.

It seems to have characters enter + exit too quickly. Granted, I'm only a bit over 2 hours in - but some characters that felt like they should be important are already getting killed off or written-out of the script too quickly. How am I supposed to care about them, if you're just axing them by death or kicking them out of the script too quickly? It seems like sometimes, we're not even given enough info about and spent time w/ a character to really even care about them. It does really feel like this game's story + character stuff was thrown together in the last 18 months or so, in that regard.

Other than the absolutely hilarious "my face is tired" line, the dialogue quality of the writing isn't horrible, TBH. It just feels like....they are basically hitting the beats they feel they need to + move the heck on, since they didn't have time to flesh a lot of that stuff out. Unfortunately, this game could really use more dialogue + writing. It doesn't really have the depth or intrigue of the older ME games - in both character + story & whatnot, at least so far.

There's also this weird tone going on in the game - b/c most of the 200,000 people on this ship are waking up 600 years later or so from a cryogenic sleep + you are basically trying to find & set-up a new home. Most characters seem to be ultra-positive about finding a new place. It's weird, as you'd think b/c you basically got evicted from your home planet + went into cryo-sleep on a ship in space, everybody would wake up pretty much upset, pissed-off, depressed, or something that they have to go try + find a new home. At least, for the most part, Ryder is given options to answer in a negative manner (i.e. cynical, depressed, not happy) or positive, when given dialogue options - as since the game seems so positive + hopeful in tone, at least I can bring the game back to its reality. There seems to be very few characters so far who are negative here, except the blunt & often angry-seeming Addison.

Regardless, I certainly played games much worse than this. It's good with its combat + graphics & it certainly has potential with its interesting premise (i.e. discover + set-up new lands & worlds), for sure - but it's just not on that BioWare Edmonton level of greatness w/ the character + story stuff. At least not yet, anyways - I can't speak on if it gets better since...well, I ain't got far along enough + I haven't bought the full game yet. It could be that this game is a slow-burn b/c it's said to be very long, too - and maybe it could develop + accumulate much more stuff later (i.e. story + plot + character), since people have said it does take about 10 hours to get past the initial stuff.

We'll just have to wait + see, I guess...whenever that might actually be...with me actually getting to the point in the game where (or if) it turns around + to actually buying the game.
« Last Edit: Saturday, July 15, 2017, 04:54:45 AM by MysterD »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: 10 Hour Trial released for PC, X1, PS4.
« Reply #69 on: Saturday, August 19, 2017, 05:25:49 PM »
ME:A News from BioWare.

Patch 1.10 will be last ME:A Patch for the SP component.
No more SP content coming (i.e. DLC's) for ME:A.
There are plans for more MP content from the MP-development team.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: Patch 1.10 to be final SP patch
« Reply #70 on: Monday, August 28, 2017, 03:53:13 PM »
So, yeah - I bought it during the $20 Origin sale. I'm now some 19 hours into this - 10 hours from the demo; and approx. another 9 hours total from this past Saturday & Sunday.

I'm enjoying this quite a lot actually, so far.

It feels like the story & characters lack depth and personality here. More so than anything, it feels like many characters are just....straight-forward in their style, words, language, and all of that stuff. It's not terrible, mind you - but it's all just doing enough to keep the player invested in doing the next quest & exploring the open-world...which is similar to actually how a lot of open-world games including Skyrim, do this kind of game. Dialogue isn't great, but it ain't terrible either; it's certainly often better than often what Bethesda puts together for dialogue & voice-acting. Sure, it can be spotty, once in a while - whether it's the voice-acting, or writing of the dialogue, or both - but it ain't terrible, for the most part.

Just like DA:I, when you hit a big huge open-area/open-world/open-planet - you can just get really addicted to doing quests, whether side or main; especially side stuff. A lot of the side-quests on the planets (not hubs) have to do w/ the overall building of the game-world/planet & gathering resources from it (since you're a Pathfinder and trying to colonize planets). They feel really connected to your job, as Pathfinder - and often, I seem to be doing these. They might be resource grabbing or fetch quests, but they're actually connected to your Pathfinder role.

That's, of course, not talking about other Loyalty side-quests and other side-quests that have to do w/ doing other things - whether short fetch quests, morality quests, quests w/ their own short story, and/or things of that sort.

Combat's great, for the most part. You will be constantly zipping in and out of cover or forced to move out of cover, as they will flank you out of it if you sit there in cover too long. You have a jet-pack, so you can use that to zip in all kinds of directions. You can place your teammates to move to certain spots that you're aiming at (like ME1+2+3) - but there's no BioWare Strategic Pause (unlike ME1+2+3). Without this BW Pause, you can't tell them to use their skills and have them do combos along with you to have a synergy of attacks & skills going - so that part kind of stinks. Though, you'll likely be more invested in what you're doing in combat than what they're doing anyways, unless they get knocked-down. Then, if they go down, you'll have to get them back up...if you can, before you get killed.

Regardless, so far...really digging Mass Effect: Andromeda, despite my issues with its story & character depth and personality.

Offline nickclone

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: Patch 1.10 to be final SP patch
« Reply #71 on: Wednesday, February 06, 2019, 04:42:17 PM »
Finally got an XB1 yesterday and I bought this game because I played the last 3 and this was only $7. I've only put a couple of hours in it so far, but I have to say that this game is freaking awesome so far! I guess it doesn't hurt that I'm playing the patched version, but I'm still liking the gameplay. The gunfights have a certain "Omaha Beach, Saving Private Ryan" feel to it (so far). I like this game, too bad they didn't take more time to develop it.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Mass Effect: Andromeda -> Update: Patch 1.10 to be final SP patch
« Reply #72 on: Thursday, February 07, 2019, 11:54:12 PM »
I think my issue w/ Andromeda is this: it's a good open-world shooter, but not a good Mass Effect game.

It is a good open-world FPS like that of a UbiSoft open-world game like Far Cry with one-off quests, collect-a-thons, and side-stuff everywhere. Combat's the best it's ever been in a ME game, here in Andromeda.

But this is also a not-so-good Mass Effect game. A lot of BioWare's hallmark stuff isn't here. There's a real lack of choice in most quests; not much character/story depth; and the dialogue/writing just isn't anywhere in the league of many of the other great BioWare Edmonton games.