Mass Effect:Andromeda

[QT Melon]

I suppose this thread should be made.

What are your thoughts and feelings about this game?

I haven't purchased the game as of yet, and I am not going to lie, the nightmare fuel of the animations are incredibly disturbing. I'm not saying "Graphics is everything" but if you're going to go this route in making 3D animation...try to get it right. There's always been some blunders in getting it right, even Horizon Zero Dawn suffers from it, but not to this degree. It would be less of a problem if you aren't dependent upon interacting with these models so much. So it is a major turnoff for me since I am supposed to be invested in the characters, and those very characters scare me.

That said, i find the criticism to be a bit odd overall. I mean I understand complaints about the animation and rendering, however, I don't understand behavior of people running over to blame a sole person (people went after a person that no longer worked there?). There's a big team of people working in general. I just can't see it as being the fault of one "lead animator" when there's usually checks all around for QC saying "oh no this doesn't look right". It seems like an overall management problem, than "look these SJWs ruined the game" They may have an influence on how some stuff works, but this really seems more of just people in charge not getting things done right, and possibly BoD politics would have a greater influence since they are the ones with the money.

The other oddity is how people view ratings. From what I can surmise from all the ratings is that it's a "good" somewhere on the "average/bit better than average game" It seems the new meta is "good/average" is now bad. If it's not in the high 80/90's the game is real garbage. I understand with AAA titles there is the monetary investment so the game itself should be at a higher standard but if it's an average game, it doesn't mean it's incredibly bad, just disappointing because it doesn't meet up to all expectations.

Are there any charms or positive things people are finding in this game? I heard the multiplayer is actually fun.

 

 

 

[Vae]

Obvious issues about the animations aside, I just don't have any interest in getting this game. Which is a disappointment, because I really liked the original trilogy.
The characters just don't seem interesting at all. And the dialogue, what little I've seen of it, is just awkward and bad.

Everyone looks, sounds, and acts like they're 14,
or were written by someone who is.

The environments look nice, but that's not nearly enough to get me to shell out a bunch of money on a game.

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

Going with what Vae stated, there are somethings I'm hearing that I'm not a fan of:

Removing Renegade and Paragon: Choices are more gray this time around and you chose more the tone of how you say things in dialogue trees. But to me, Paragon and Renegade is what made my mass effect experience and sometimes mixing up the two for an interesting Shepard

Can't control your squadmate's powers, they do it automatically now...just no. That was an option to have them do it automatically, I want to set up my own attacks with them. You cant even change what weapons they use or how their armor looks

Character customization looks terrible and bare

 

Also, the dialogue...again...just look at this!

 

[Toshabi]

OH MY FUCKING GOD ITS @QT Melon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Mass Effect died with Commander Shepard. EA and Bioware seems to have lost its soul when it comes to stuff like this. Its really bothersome how a triple A company is literally showing how little they want to push boundaries in terms of animation by pushing a product that rivals CDI Zelda.

[TrishaCat]

TFW Mass Effect Andromeda will sell more than Nier Automata and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (nvm) solely because its a Bioware game and they have the marketing power for it

[Vae]

2 minutes ago, Battlechili said:

TFW Mass Effect Andromeda will sell more than Nier Automata and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

You're joking, right?

I wasn't aware that Bioware was a bigger name than fucking Nintendo.

[TrishaCat]

15 minutes ago, Vae said:

You're joking, right?

I wasn't aware that Bioware was a bigger name than fucking Nintendo.

Admittedly I hesitated typing that, but I do believe it. No, I'm not joking.

Bioware has EA's backing, and the game is on platforms that already have sizable userbases. The Switch is still new and the Wii U didn't do very well. I can't see Zelda outselling this even.

If I wind up being wrong then that's cool though

EDIT: Actually on re-looking up Zelda sales data and comparing that to the Mass Effect series, I'm almost certainly wrong assuming something didn't go drastically wrong. So nevermind, you're definitely right. I stand by my sadness that this will probably sell well compared to other titles on name and marketing alone, however.

[Vae]

6 minutes ago, Battlechili said:

Admittedly I hesitated typing that, but I do believe it. No, I'm not joking.

Bioware has EA's backing, and the game is on platforms that already have sizable userbases. The Switch is still new and the Wii U didn't do very well. I can't see Zelda outselling this even.

If I wind up being wrong then that's cool though

EA's a large company, but they're not Nintendo by any stretch of the imagination.

[Antumbra]

After playing this game a ton yesterday I would so far give it 2.5/5 stars.

I like the combat for the most part, there are a lot more skills that can be leveled up and some neat ones to boot.  I do wish I could control my squad more but I can live without it too.

The dialogue is probably the WORST part for me.  It is forced, rushed, badly timed, and just fake.  It feels like someone made a game from someone's fan fiction.  I have zero connection to the characters and most are bland.  Just to compare, you get attached to Vega in ME3 after just a mission because he feels like a real character.  These schmucks are all just talking heads that could be replaced by anyone.

One thing I also miss was the great soundtracks from the trilogy.  This one has nothing memorable so far.  Get Hanz Zimmer on the phone dammit.

[Hewge]

The eyes, man. The eyes.

It's like the characters are trying to look at everything all at once, except for the one thing in front of them that they should be looking at.

[Toshabi]

Just now, Antumbra said:

After playing this game a ton yesterday I would so far give it 2.5/5 stars.

I like the combat for the most part, there are a lot more skills that can be leveled up and some neat ones to boot.  I do wish I could control my squad more but I can live without it too.

The dialogue is probably the WORST part for me.  It is forced, rushed, badly timed, and just fake.  It feels like someone made a game from someone's fan fiction.  I have zero connection to the characters and most are bland.  Just to compare, you get attached to Vega in ME3 after just a mission because he feels like a real character.  These schmucks are all just talking heads that could be replaced by anyone.

One thing I also miss was the great soundtracks from the trilogy.  This one has nothing memorable so far.  Get Hanz Zimmer on the phone dammit.

I give it a 2 out of 10. TBH, the dialogue was fucking HUGE for me back in the day. Same with going evil. Without the dialogue, its honestly just a pretty decent RPG Shooter. Its a fucking husk. 

 

 

[QT Melon]

2 hours ago, Toshabi said:

OH MY FUCKING GOD ITS @QT Melon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Heya! @Toshabi

I'm coming for that booty

 

I think that this game made me see both sides of the Crazy Spectrum, SJW and Gamergate D:

[Toshabi]

3 minutes ago, QT Melon said:

Heya! @Toshabi

I'm coming for that booty

 

I think that this game made me see both sides of the Crazy Spectrum, SJW and Gamergate D:

(peach emoji 100% emoji)

I didn't hear much on the crazy spectrum/sjw/gamergate side. Give toshabi some intel!

[QT Melon]

1 minute ago, Toshabi said:

(peach emoji 100% emoji)

I didn't hear much on the crazy spectrum/sjw/gamergate side. Give toshabi some intel!

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/20/gamergate-alive-well-ea-employee-blamed-mass-effect-andromedas-facial-animations/

 

Basically someone blamed the wrong employee for the mess of this game and it encouraged others to harass her. I don't get it. I understand being upset about a game's quality issues, but I don't understand the point someone can make by making it really personal.

Then you have people who supposedly fight for "diversity" through exclusion. http://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/03/mass-effect-andromedas-racist-game-designer-no-longer-works-for-bioware/26431/

 

Not sure how much involvement he really had in game but it was disturbing to see some of his tweets.

 

[Toshabi]

3 minutes ago, QT Melon said:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/20/gamergate-alive-well-ea-employee-blamed-mass-effect-andromedas-facial-animations/

 

Basically someone blamed the wrong employee for the mess of this game and it encouraged others to harass her. I don't get it. I understand being upset about a game's quality issues, but I don't understand the point someone can make by making it really personal.

Then you have people who supposedly fight for "diversity" through exclusion. http://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/03/mass-effect-andromedas-racist-game-designer-no-longer-works-for-bioware/26431/

 

Not sure how much involvement he really had in game but it was disturbing to see some of his tweets.

 

I wanna draw it down to people taking joy in being angry at stuff. Honestly, I blame it on EA just being a super shoddy ass company. 

[Tsuujou]

24 minutes ago, QT Melon said:

http://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/03/mass-effect-andromedas-racist-game-designer-no-longer-works-for-bioware/26431/

Getting some.....interesting ads on this page. lol

[QT Melon]

1 minute ago, Tsuujou said:

Getting some.....interesting ads on this page. lol

I'm sorry, I have Adblock so I don't see them. I was trying to find some article on it from other sites, but it seems like they were deleted?

[Tsuujou]

Just now, QT Melon said:

I'm sorry, I have Adblock so I don't see them. I was trying to find some article on it from other sites, but it seems like they were deleted?

Oh don't worry about it (not sure why my adblock isn't stopping this page in particular). It was just slideshows of a bunch of Super Sonico figures, Overwatch dakimakuras, and other degeneracy. lol
I just thought it was funny.

[Toshabi]

On 3/22/2017 at 1:55 PM, Vae said:

 

Also,

 

[Deskai]

Only thing going for it is the combat, everything else...

There's MasterCard

[Shiro]

Best part of the game so far.

 

[Red Lion]

I think the biggest reason I have a hard time being interested in Andromeda isn't the ugly characters and wonky animations, or even the stilted, phoned in acting. I mean, I played TES Oblivion, that has some ugly ass characters and shitty acting and I still enjoyed it. No I think what's putting me off is how much it looks like Dragon Age in space. Let me clarify, I love the dragon age franchise. But the last game didn't grab me like the first one did. I felt way less invested even so it was a bigger game with more stuff. Though that's kind of the issue, it's a lot "more" but only some of that "more" is actually "better". One thing that definitely wasn't better about that game. The player character. The inquisitor, no matter how you play them, is a bland piece of garbage. It felt like none of the dialogue options ever went very extreme, there was no real attempt to allow you to build a personality in-game and develop the inquisitor as a CHARACTER. There's no real sense of weight or depth to your background and you're never really allowed to emote, even so they spent the money to give you a voiced protagonist. So much as I liked other elements of the game, I never gave a shit about my own protagonist. Even if my character is a blank slate for me to project on and build it still has a designated voice and is restricted to a very linear narrative. The result is that the character is too defined for me to really play with and not defined enough to really feel like a character in the story. What pulled DAI through for me was the supporting characters and just an overall fun game to play. That and I really feel like I like the game as much as I did because I was super invested in DA Origins when I played it years ago. If I hadn't played the previous games and already been familiar with the setting and invested in the overall story I  might not have cared about Inquisition as much as I did. 

I don't really have that advantage with Mass Effect. I played part of the first game once and wasn't really able to sit and play the full trilogy. So I have no prior investment in the Mass Effect franchise to draw me into playing another game. I have to kind judge what I know about Andromeda as it's own entity....and it really falls flat for me.

I feel like Andromeda is going to have the same problem of a player character that is to restricted by their role in the narrative to really let the player cut loose and just role play however they want, but not enough definition to really justify calling them a character. And unllike Dragon Age Inquisition I don't see any characters in Andromeda who look like they'll make me give a shit about them. Most of the things people keep talking about are the romances and the sex scenes. I've heard very little on the environment or the plot. Everyone I've seen in this game so far has come across as boring, stiff and flat. They're boring to look at. Boring to listen too and I can't remember who the fuck most of them even are. 

I could be biased, I'm taking a look at this game while I'm wrapping up Witcher 3, which has wormed its way into being one of my new favorites. Solid story, great characters, fantastic animation and a world that I really love learning more about. Andromeda by comparison just...isn't sucking me in on any levels. It's visually bland. I can't think of a single scene I've watched so far where anything I saw stands out. 

[QT Melon]

I think the game itself is getting a bit more flak than it should be, but even saying that. I think AAA titles are somewhat more deserving of it. Where something like No Man's Sky asked for the AAA price and didn't deliver that experience I actually get the hate for the game. I also hate the hype train that's been going on with marketing.

For one of the things, it boasted about having full frontal nudity, which meant to me, it was going to take a mature tone. I think it's great when we can get games to be more mature, and show boobs, GIVEN that the rest of the story is also invested in presenting it, more than a fan fic or something you see in FA/DA. The fact that the original series was lauded for intricate characterizations, morals and investment in your choices, makes it more apparent that the game needed to carefully work on that successful formula.

Without that it comes off like a juvenile fap project.

I know I harp about the animation quality, but its funny where a game is finished but has no polish, where Final Fantasy 15 has polish but wasn't finished. The sad fact is despite the huge story gaps in presentation with FF15 it still made me feel for my group. I think a majority of reviews for ME:A said it's not quite there. Then also there's the fact that many outlets haven't exactly been that deep in and the stupid embargo didn't help things either.

I think overall it's asking for the AAA ($60) acceptance, and from what i can gather there's stuff gong for it, but it's more of a $35 acceptance.

 

[Deskai]

1 hour ago, QT Melon said:

I think the game itself is getting a bit more flak than it should be, but even saying that. I think AAA titles are somewhat more deserving of it. Where something like No Man's Sky asked for the AAA price and didn't deliver that experience I actually get the hate for the game. I also hate the hype train that's been going on with marketing.

For one of the things, it boasted about having full frontal nudity, which meant to me, it was going to take a mature tone. I think it's great when we can get games to be more mature, and show boobs, GIVEN that the rest of the story is also invested in presenting it, more than a fan fic or something you see in FA/DA. The fact that the original series was lauded for intricate characterizations, morals and investment in your choices, makes it more apparent that the game needed to carefully work on that successful formula.

Without that it comes off like a juvenile fap project.

I know I harp about the animation quality, but its funny where a game is finished but has no polish, where Final Fantasy 15 has polish but wasn't finished. The sad fact is despite the huge story gaps in presentation with FF15 it still made me feel for my group. I think a majority of reviews for ME:A said it's not quite there. Then also there's the fact that many outlets haven't exactly been that deep in and the stupid embargo didn't help things either.

I think overall it's asking for the AAA ($60) acceptance, and from what i can gather there's stuff gong for it, but it's more of a $35 acceptance.

 

I dunno

if these animation problems happen to a Bethesda game...folks would go "oh Bethesda, you and your quirks"

No Man sky is from one person being vague as fuck on what would be in the game which folks took it as "Something that would be in the game"

In the end though I can understand they tried cause its been known they consistantly use the same animations thru their games with lil touch ups so they tried to make a whole new one. Problem is, they may have not enough time to do so, they also had to get use to the Frostbite 3 which the only other game they made it with was DA:I (though that was 3 years ago...). I guess they just had big ambitions and it bit em so instead we get funny moments like these

[Red Lion]

14 minutes ago, Deskai said:

I dunno

if these animation problems happen to a Bethesda game...folks would go "oh Bethesda, you and your quirks"

I gotta agree. The gaming community is really lax with Bethesda. 

Granted, I don't think anyone plays Bethesda games for the in-depth character driven stories or gripping cinematic animations. People who go into a Bethesda game pretty much just want to fool around with the world, collect random bullshit, and then mod everything into a completely different game when they get bored. Bethesda knows this, in fact, I think they count on it, so they just go ahead and make their games super mod friendly.  Bioware on the other hand is known for being highly character and story driven with their games and their games are a lot more cinematic. So I guess we have to factor in general expectations when we judge a game. For me Bioware games are more comparable to the Witcher Franchise than they are TES or Fallout. I feel confident saying no one would have forgiven the Witcher 3 for shite acting, poor animation and bland characters.

[Lucyfish]

Andromeda is fucking fantastic so far.

I have not encountered any of the stuff people are complaining about. The facial animations are NOT that bad, (seriously, have you fuckers ever played a David Cage game? WORST facial animations in the world) and there's less bugs than in most AAA titles.

It's definitely WAAAAAAAAY fucking better than Mass Effect 3.

 

 

Also Vetra > Garrus

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

4 hours ago, Lucyfish said:

Andromeda is fucking fantastic so far.

I have not encountered any of the stuff people are complaining about. The facial animations are NOT that bad, (seriously, have you fuckers ever played a David Cage game? WORST facial animations in the world) and there's less bugs than in most AAA titles.

It's definitely WAAAAAAAAY fucking better than Mass Effect 3.

 

 

Also Vetra > Garrus

1. You think David Cage animations are bad? At their time, Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls were very impressive. Still are in a sense. Their tech demos were great as well as their new game coming out

2. Vetra > Garrus? Anyone > Garrus?

I'm gonna have Javik throw your ass out the airlock

[Lucyfish]

1 minute ago, DevilishlyHandsome49 said:

1. You think David Cage animations are bad? At their time, Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls were very impressive. Still are in a sense. Their tech demos were great as well as their new game coming out

2. Vetra > Garrus? Anyone > Garrus?

I'm gonna have Javik throw your ass out the airlock

Did you play Heavy Rain? The dad character's mouth gets so huge when he yells it'd make Steven Tyler blush.

Fuck Javik and his uninteresting ass. All he was was fan-service to try to make up for the all around 100% fuck-up that was ME:3.

 

 

So yeah, Andromeda is a perfectly great game, and people's nitpicking are honestly nothing but that, nitpicking. Incredibly minor problems in an overall fantastic game.

[Deskai]

15 minutes ago, Lucyfish said:

Did you play Heavy Rain? The dad character's mouth gets so huge when he yells it'd make Steven Tyler blush.

Fuck Javik and his uninteresting ass. All he was was fan-service to try to make up for the all around 100% fuck-up that was ME:3.

 

 

So yeah, Andromeda is a perfectly great game, and people's nitpicking are honestly nothing but that, nitpicking. Incredibly minor problems in an overall fantastic game.

eh, the animations problems exist

the only thing going for it is the combat

and its oddly lackluster about "me giving fucks about these characters" as they be boring...

its an "average" game by gaming, but oddly lackluster compared to other Bioware games

[Lucyfish]

Just now, Deskai said:

eh, the animations problems exist

I haven't seen them. Occasional wide eyes or odd mouth movement, but other than that, I do not at all see the "huge animation problems" other people do. For the most part, it's just like any other Mass Effect game.

I think people just like to exaggerate when it comes to opinions on BioWare games.

[Deskai]

1 hour ago, Lucyfish said:

I haven't seen them. Occasional wide eyes or odd mouth movement, but other than that, I do not at all see the "huge animation problems" other people do. For the most part, it's just like any other Mass Effect game.

I think people just like to exaggerate when it comes to opinions on BioWare games.

...

We have people literally having videos of these animation problems existing therefor they do exist.

Even something that would occur in Bethesda games of characters walking off cinematic screen while having a dialogue with em...to then just teleport back.

That would fall under animation glitching though, that even Bioware acknowledge they exist.

 

[QT Melon]

Oh I have complained about Skyrims character animations in the past, and got shooshed by fanboys. The difference which I acknowledge is Skyrim is more about exploration than character interaction like ME is.

When you are frontloaded with exposition about the characters you are invested in and greeted with uncanny valley, I can't blame people for being turned off. I also don't think it's fair to compare games that are older with less budget, than to a game that had a bigger budget ($40 million) and posted better results early on. Example Peebee.

 

 

I'm not worried about the skin color change or even if people expect her to be dolled up when she's an alien, but it's very much that they stretched the faces and deadened the eyes by not properly rendering them...their shadows are mostly missing making the eyes look like Paint by Number. If she, and other models had their eyes rendered a little more like below, I believe there would be far less complaints, well there would be complaints about the silly animations but I don't think people would be as spooked.

It's even more perplexing because early game copies had a better render. IE Sara Ryder. Her jaw and face are stretched out, causing this odd Joker like Grin on her face all the time.

 

I can't blame that on SJW, even though there's some weird conspiracy going out, because the older render has her looking like a person, obviously female, and I'm not thinking "oh wow she's hot" like she put on some sexy makeup or something.

 

It's just odd that considering first impressions are about everything, that it seemed to be overlooked or checked off as "okay". I can see it happening later on....but the first part of the game wasn't checked? That seems a bit silly and lazy. It's like whoever was in charge of the patch file grabbed the wrong one, or trolled...and now Bioware has to do damage control pretending that's not what happened. I find it more perplexing that people can't even "see" this downgrade and think dead looking eyes is perfectly fine.

 

[Red Lion]

Quote

Mass Effect: Andromeda received "generally favorable" reviews for the Xbox One and Windows verisons,[82][84] and "mixed or average" reviews for the PlayStation 4 version,[83] according to review aggregator Metacritic. The animations have been pointed out to be sub-par. The story of the game has been described by GameSpot as having problems that "stem more from delivery than from plot", with the vast majority of characters being described as dull. 

From Wikipedia

The general consensus seems to be that this game is just ok. Not terrible, but not amazing. And people generally seem to agree that the characters are boring, and the animations and acting are sub-par.

[QT Melon]

1 minute ago, Red Lion said:

From Wikipedia

The general consensus seems to be that this game is just ok. Not terrible, but not amazing. And people generally seem to agree that the characters are boring, and the animations and acting are sub-par.

Right. I figured it was an okay game, it's obviously not going to live up to hype but I don't think the game is "trash" I think there's too much of the spectrum that wants to make it trash. I do think however, it's not the AAA $60 dollar purchase, because it's coming off extremely unpolished which is unacceptable in my opinion to merit the price tag. The problem is, it's far likely by the time they fix those problems...(if they do)...the price will have deflated by then. It's unfortunate that it's difficult in the way console market works, they can't come up with a better price model where if a game is in the shape where it looks like a 30-40 dollar game (if it' a AAA title) it is priced that way in the beginning but the add on to fix the issues puts it at the "regular" 60 dollar price tag. While in theory it sounds like a better model to encourage companies to release more completed/finished games, there's enough issues and drawbacks that will prevent companies from doing so.

[Red Lion]

I'm also not going to disagree that people are a little harder on BioWare than they are some other publishers. But BioWare's top two franchises produced critically acclaimed games. All said and done Andromeda is a game that scores in the 70s when it's predecessors were scoring in the 90s and the Dragon Age franchise was scoring in the 80s and 90s. It has two critically acclaimed franchises to compete with and it doesn't meet those standards. I don't find it unfair to have high expectations of this company. 

[QT Melon]

55 minutes ago, Red Lion said:

I'm also not going to disagree that people are a little harder on BioWare than they are some other publishers. But BioWare's top two franchises produced critically acclaimed games. All said and done Andromeda is a game that scores in the 70s when it's predecessors were scoring in the 90s and the Dragon Age franchise was scoring in the 80s and 90s. It has two critically acclaimed franchises to compete with and it doesn't meet those standards. I don't find it unfair to have high expectations of this company. 

I'm going to agree with that, I think it should have at least met, exceeded or come very close to the preceding games in terms of score. Something like 80-90s is acceptable. I think 70 is acceptable for a game overall, it didn't meet up to past standards. I think the other crime is they had more access to technology, even with console limitations.

If they want to blame consoles, then it's a stupid argument because consoles were always limited how you worked with/around those limitations and can still produce games.

Exactly how hard is it to implement an eye shader for example and to watch the stretching of jawlines when doing mo-cap, when other games seem to be perfectly capable of doing that? How hard was it to not review the first opening parts of the game for dialog, and animation?

I don't think console limitation holds as a good excuse, but wouldn't be surprised if it was more of EA just pushing the project out.

[Lucyfish]

3 hours ago, Deskai said:

...

We have people literally having videos of these animation problems existing therefor they do exist.

Even something that would occur in Bethesda games of characters walking off cinematic screen while having a dialogue with em...to then just teleport back.

That would fall under animation glitching though, that even Bioware acknowledge they exist.

 

I mean, I'm running the game on a computer that's really only half-suited to handle it, and I have had absolutely no problems.

Whatever, there will obviously be patches for the minor bugs.

As for animation problems, it obviously is a client-side problem if it is happening for some people, but the game is working perfectly fine for others. Particularly those like me, who have to run the game on mid-to-low settings and still have no problems.

I think these bugs are probably because of corrupted files during the installation process. Something fixable. Or, it is a problem with the high-resolution meshes, which again, is a fixable bug. And seriously, none of the intended facial animations are that bad. A little awkward sure, but this game was not made by the same devs as The Witcher 3 so I am not going into it expecting the best facial animations ever put in a game.

What I wanted was fun characters to converse with, interesting story, and a new galaxy to explore. That's exactly what I got.

[Deskai]

2 hours ago, Lucyfish said:

I mean, I'm running the game on a computer that's really only half-suited to handle it, and I have had absolutely no problems.

Whatever, there will obviously be patches for the minor bugs.

As for animation problems, it obviously is a client-side problem if it is happening for some people, but the game is working perfectly fine for others. Particularly those like me, who have to run the game on mid-to-low settings and still have no problems.

I think these bugs are probably because of corrupted files during the installation process. Something fixable. Or, it is a problem with the high-resolution meshes, which again, is a fixable bug. And seriously, none of the intended facial animations are that bad. A little awkward sure, but this game was not made by the same devs as The Witcher 3 so I am not going into it expecting the best facial animations ever put in a game.

What I wanted was fun characters to converse with, interesting story, and a new galaxy to explore. That's exactly what I got.

No wonder, lower settings lose stuff including animations....

As I'm experiencing these quirks at high end...

Also no, these are bad installs or somehow client side (how does that apply here if you are talking multi player). These are legit animation glitches....that hopefully get patched soon enough for bioware sake.

[QT Melon]

8 hours ago, Lucyfish said:

 

I think these bugs are probably because of corrupted files during the installation process. Something fixable. Or, it is a problem with the high-resolution meshes, which again, is a fixable bug. And seriously, none of the intended facial animations are that bad. A little awkward sure, but this game was not made by the same devs as The Witcher 3 so I am not going into it expecting the best facial animations ever put in a game.

 

 

I'm honestly confused. What does the Witcher 3 staff have to do with being part of a largely funded game ($40 million) have to do with this? Even Witcher 3 has animation problems. I don't know why people use Witcher 3 so much. It's fairly obvious they had other issues, because Dragon Age Inquisition uses the same engine and had less horrible results. The animation problems were still there, but not as bad.

http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/supposed-former-bioware-employee-explains-what-went-wrong-with-mass-effect-andromeda

If this article is correct, losing 13 (16 combined?) leads is a huge problem. The work environment had an impact on the game.

https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-editor-412/

This one mentions 3 major influences on the game left over a year ago. I get that people don't want people harping on their game franchise, but to be blind about the impact of quality when there was so much turnover during the time it was being developed is rather amazing.

 

[Red Lion]

11 minutes ago, QT Melon said:

I'm honestly confused. What does the Witcher 3 staff have to do with being part of a largely funded game ($40 million) have to do with this? Even Witcher 3 has animation problems. I don't know why people use Witcher 3 so much. It's fairly obvious they had other issues, because Dragon Age Inquisition uses the same engine and had less horrible results. The animation problems were still there, but not as bad.

http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/supposed-former-bioware-employee-explains-what-went-wrong-with-mass-effect-andromeda

If this article is correct, losing 13 (16 combined?) leads is a huge problem. The work environment had an impact on the game.

https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-andromeda-editor-412/

This one mentions 3 major influences on the game left over a year ago. I get that people don't want people harping on their game franchise, but to be blind about the impact of quality when there was so much turnover during the time it was being developed is rather amazing.

 

It's not so much, I think, over all model quality as it is the fact that the characters are kind of bland looking and don't properly EMOTE. Witcher 3 doesn't have flawless animation but the characters are emotive, memorable and very distinct. It's a different company but it shows what can be done in terms of bringing the characters in a game to life. Witcher 3 is also 2 years OLDER, which is a significant gap since video games age fast, and Andromeda is supposed to be a cutting edge AAA game. So I think a comparison is fair enough, even if it's different companies. Even with the dragon age franchise, there's a sense of organic emotion that was just lost on Andromeda. Even compared to previous mass effect games if the video comparisons are to be believed. 

Quote

The Witcher III is cheaper than those big titles, even when you remove the incorrect budget numbers in the image. According to Polish daily newspaper Puls Biznesu (Business' Pulse) in 2013, CDPR CEO Adam Kiciński estimated the game's total budget at over 110 million zł (Polish Zloty, $30 million). Of that total, 45 million zł ($12.2 million) was production budget, while another $25 million was going straight to marketing. A story published yesterday at Gazeta.pl put the final production budget a bit higher: over 120 million zł ($32.4 million)

Witcher 3 is also comparable in production price (without factoring the cost of marketing, this is just what they spent on actual game development) to Andromeda, making the two a little more even to compare. 

https://www.destructoid.com/uncharted-animator-explains-wacky-mass-effect-andromeda-facial-expressions-427083.phtml

Actually this explains why that is pretty well. The algorithm they used for ME Andromeda's facial animations is actually on the lower end. Bioware is hinting at an animation patch but the fact remains that this game was sent out the door before it was ready.  The early access patch already made improvements to some of the conversations and cinematics and it's likely there will be more to come.
 

The laugh track is annoying af but this right here kind of sums up everyone's issues. "My father is dead" Delivered with a complete lack of emotion. Likewise the woman hearing the news for the first time also gives a very underwhelming reaction. There's nothing here to convey even the slightest hint of depth to the characters, to the father being dead, to really anything. And that is a huge problem. If the character doesn't give the impression that they give a shit about their own tragedies why should the audience? That creepy frozen smile at the end doesn't help either. It completely obliterates any gravity the scene might have had. On the positive side, they've already fixed some of it and will likely fix more in the future.

[QT Melon]

Right, what I am referring to is that people use Witcher 3 as the throwaway, go-to in making excuses or comparisons and often disproportionate..."I wasn't expecting Witcher 3". I get that Witcher 3 put forth a lot of stuff on the table. However, I'm looking at it as the perspective of a company that should have done better because it has more backbone. W3 was lauded as "the small company that made a big production game" but it hired on a lot of talent. I think it had 200 something people on staff at some parts?

Even then, if I never heard of Witcher 3 or it never existed, the animations are still problematic, but it seems like the render output is really what made for a bad combination. I look at Dragon Age Inquisition a lot as comparison since they do use the same game engine. Mass Effect did laud itself to be huge with more character interactions, and will agree that it was rushed (I believe I said as much in earlier statements, because Final Fantasy 15 faced the same issue, and worse it was announced 10 years, with 7 of them spinning its heels until Tabata took over). I don't care if it's not to "Witcher 3" standards I was looking at it as if these are standards I'd accept from a AAA title. Answer is no.

 

The laugh track I believe was to demonstrate it came off like a sitcom/Sienfeld show (hence the music) which you see here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-msmx9yW5Q

I just have more of an issue with really creepy looking human characters, since the alien ones like Jaal are fine (but if you're gonna have humans...they needed to pay attention to the ones in the beginning at least, I think people were more willing to overlook later ones.

I mean FF15 was full of glitches too, and I absolutely get gaming companies can't get everything especially when there are looming deadlines. Hell my one of my favorite glitches to see was seeing Noctis becoming best dragoon

It was their fault for making it too big, and having to resort to quick algorithms for choices but seems weird to do so early in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lucyfish]

BioWare? With a backbone? I can't stop laughing at that prospect.

[QT Melon]

7 hours ago, Lucyfish said:

BioWare? With a backbone? I can't stop laughing at that prospect.

If you aren't understanding the context of the statement, I guess it is funny? In this case it's not backbone as in bravery, it's backbone as in clout/notability/presence. The company has a decent list of notable games, and Mass Effect especially put it on the map. I can see why people would reasonably expect better from it as technology improved. More people despite some of their leads leaving would be enticed to work on a game with name recognition.

[Lucyfish]

7 hours ago, QT Melon said:

If you aren't understanding the context of the statement, I guess it is funny? In this case it's not backbone as in bravery, it's backbone as in clout/notability/presence. The company has a decent list of notable games, and Mass Effect especially put it on the map. I can see why people would reasonably expect better from it as technology improved. More people despite some of their leads leaving would be enticed to work on a game with name recognition.

BioWare has been a 2-game company for almost their entire existance. The only two games worth shaking a dick at are Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect 2. Almost every single other game BioWare has made has either been a decent game hogged down by dumb bullshit, or just an all-around shitty game. Almost every Dragon Age game that isn't Inquisition was pure garbage, the first Mass Effect was good but very full of issues, and don't even get me started on Mass Effect 3.

BioWare is a mostly miss company. Andromeda is one of their first real big steps forward as a company. Like, maybe they can finally do some consistent good work for once.

[QT Melon]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they were involved in Baulder's Gate (2 was the better one), and Star Wars Old Republic as well? They were also I believe in conjunction with CP Projekt Red (Witcher) for Jade Empire?

So they had a few more properties than what you listed that were rather well received. C.P.R was actually founded longer than Bioware by 1 year, but Bioware has had more game output. This gave them more chances to fix failures and shortcomings.

 

[Crazy Lee]

On 3/22/2017 at 8:10 PM, DevilishlyHandsome49 said:

 

 

After watching all the footage, I think I agree with the alien.

Kill.
Me.
Now....

Plus, found a video blaming the facial expressions on SJWs and Leftists without evidence, of course. If there's something you disagree with it must be the other side's fault. May be because of the one male staff member who was racist towards white people, so they seized on that tiny bit of evidence as proof that Bioware was filled with leftists or something. I just blame it on lazy animators... maybe they're not hiring the cream of the crop anymore.

[Shiro]

17 minutes ago, Crazy Lee said:

Plus, found a video blaming the facial expressions on SJWs and Leftists without evidence, of course. If there's something you disagree with it must be the other side's fault. May be because of the one male staff member who was racist towards white people, so they seized on that tiny bit of evidence as proof that Bioware was filled with leftists or something. I just blame it on lazy animators... maybe they're not hiring the cream of the crop anymore.

People always have to find someone or something to point their finger at. It never fails.

[QT Melon]

Kinda feeling bad for a friend right now. Because ME:A is so huge, you're likely to get caught up in side quest discoveries as you do main story ones. He hit a bug where the main story one gets rather glitched. The problem is that he did a lot of sidequests and other discoveries along the way. He now has to revert to a save that is many days old.

[TrishaCat]

17 hours ago, Lucyfish said:

Almost every single other game BioWare has made has either been a decent game hogged down by dumb bullshit, or just an all-around shitty game.

Jade Empire tho

[QT Melon]

 

I lost it at 4:57