Mass Effect: Andromeda

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T.O.T

Blitzball Champion
Feb 2, 2017
533
540
#1
I haven't read any actual reviews as of yet, but I am seriously wondering if some of the problems such as animations and odd body movements are as they are explained, or simply being blown out of the water. While I am not a fan of the series, I wouldn't want any game to get misjudged...especially if that could lead to misleading other people that may be interested in a product.
 

Jubileus

Warrior of Light
Oct 7, 2016
1,651
1,369
#2
I haven't played any of the Mass Effect games, so thought I'd offer a fresh perspective on this.

Generally speaking, I've heard that 1 and 2 were amazing games. From the screenshot comparisons that I've seen in passing comparing Andromeda and ME1+2, my honest line of thinking was "Wow...what happened here?"

My next line of thought was "I wonder why they dropped in quality so much? Were there developmental problems?"

I ask myself these in a none snarky way, mind you.

It's shallow, but presentation matters. A lot.

Add to the fact that no one wants to be playing as an "ugly" avatar. I've seen the facial templates for the female characters... and I don't see too many people wanting to play as them (myself included if I were to play a ME game sorry to say).

Interestingly enough, they kept the male avatars "attractive." Only the females were purposely changed to resemble a more average look.

From what I can gather, the females looking the way they do tells me that the SJW movement had an impact on it...

Can't help but feel that it's forcing things like this into video games that makes people hate "feminism" all the more. The comments on youtube tell me a lot about how people are interpreting this.

People are judgemental automatically. They ask questions later.. if at all.

It's sad but the visual presentation has had quite the negative effect on this game from what I'm seeing online.
 
Likes: T.O.T

Lulcielid

Warrior of Light
Oct 9, 2014
3,826
2,826
28
Argentina
#3
The reaction might have been pretty overblown but I can follow their logic, "ugly" visual presentation would be the last kind of problem one would expect from a AAA game for next-gen & high pc market.
It's sad but the visual presentation has had quite the negative effect on this game from what I'm seeing online.
Pretty sad considering (From what I could see) the problem is an isolated case located only on the facial animatoin with everything else (character animation, enviroment designs, special effects, etc) being high quality.
 

Jubileus

Warrior of Light
Oct 7, 2016
1,651
1,369
#4
The reaction might have been pretty overblown but I can follow their logic, "ugly" visual presentation would be the last kind of problem one would expect from a AAA game for next-gen & high pc market.
Edit: I misinterpreted your post.

My bad. But yes, this is true. Visual presentation would be a rare problem in this day and age for gaming.

Pretty sad considering (From what I could see) the problem is an isolated case located only on the facial animatoin with everything else (character animation, enviroment designs, special effects, etc) being high quality.
That is rather unfortunate.

I wonder, will the fans be willing to give the game a go?
 
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Jubileus

Warrior of Light
Oct 7, 2016
1,651
1,369
#6
Ouch.

That animations is pretty bad. Facial movements are very stiff in the second video, and I usually am not one to pick up on such details because I don't focus on that stuff too much.

*sigh* I don't think the dev team originally planned to be the new laughing stock in the gaming industry right about now.

I kinda feel bad for them.

I honestly wonder what happened during development?

I heard the budget was $40 mil for development... perhaps that was not enough?
 

Tornak

Keyblade Master
May 18, 2014
718
421
31
Madrid, Spain
#7
Mass Effect (basically thanks to 1 and 2) is one of my favourite series, so me not buying this game the very day it launches is something I wouldn't have believed months ago.

But, beyond the more than often awful presentation, I don't feel much in regards to the setting (the concept is cool, but, from what I have seen, the game doesn't embrace that), the characters, the new races... I obviously should play it myself (which I'll eventually do), but, seeing many reviews and seeing impressions of people I trust, this doesn't seem to be on par with the previous ones, at all. It's probably, at the end of the day, a good enough game, but I'd rather wait a little bit. Still, this is something I need to see for myself, but the already decreasing hype was lowered to a point where I didn't bother to buy it (Persona 5 being so close also helped).

In regards to the animations, I see that, above all, the game wasn't ready (which is funny considering EA said that they wouldn't mind delaying it 5 months if needed). A game as big as this won't have mo-capped conversations all the time, so I'm guessing they're procedural and that they ran out of time to make the final, actual tweaks to the individual scenes, making them look that way.

Also, glitches and bugs (attribuitable to the game's open nature and its apparently rushed state) and really, really poor textures and shaders for the human characters. Seriously, what the fuck is up with the eyes.

The fact that the character creator is shite is also important, as most non-important NPCs are made through it. But even if that weren't the case, it seems like a big step back from Dragon Age: Inquisition, which had a relatively good character creator. Here, they have the same problems (shitty hair and beard options -both stylistically and graphically, the beards being fucking painted-in textures-, but with inexplicably less options in regards to tweaking the face of the character). I'm guessing, again, that time ran out, because I don't understand it, especially as they have just one race to customize, unlike in DA:I.

And it's a shame, because the game can look really pretty (especially the aliens, the armours and the planets themselves) and the combat looks really fun and an actual step forward. I hope they're able to update stuff and polish the game up to a good enough level whenever I decide to buy it. I just hope EA doesn't say "fuck this" and abandons the IP due to a game that was pretty clearly not ready yet. I'm guessing that, with the new Bioware IP and with the next DA, we're not going to see a new ME in a while, though.

Honestly, unless the Andromedan setting ends up wowing me, I'd prefer them going back to the Milky Way for the next one, making them choose the most reasonable canon ending (who gives a shit, it's literally something you decide right before ME3's ending) and build on that. The fact that such a great, huge, unexplored setting like the Milky Way was abandoned in that manner is criminal (although understandable, as they wrote themselves in a corner).
 
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Likes: T.O.T

yeah_93

Warrior of Light
Sep 27, 2013
1,512
570
Venezuela
#8
I think it's disappointing how Andromeda ended up. It caught me by surprise, tough. I never would have expected the next Mass Effect would get a mere 73 in Metacritic. Oh well, good thing we have plenty of universally acclaimed games right now to compensate.
 
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Jubileus

Warrior of Light
Oct 7, 2016
1,651
1,369
#9
Another game to be hit with time constraint related problems then.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/23/15...tion-what-happened-former-animator-speaks-out

AAA games are getting more difficult to create, so I'm not surprised

I think what companies need to do now is make sure the team has a lot of time to complete their work, as well as prioritise what needs to get done in the most efficient manner as possible.

It's definitely tough no doubt.
 

sergann

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
Mar 3, 2019
6
0
#10
The reaction might have been pretty overblown but I can follow their logic, "ugly" visual presentation would be the last kind of problem one would expect from a AAA game for next-gen & high pc market.

Pretty sad considering (From what I could see) the problem is an isolated case located only on the facial animatoin with everything else (character animation, enviroment designs, special effects, etc) being high quality.
I wonder, will the fans be willing to give the game a go?