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I played 3 hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda - Thoughts so far

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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
A few I took (output at 1080p because I've been having issues with 4K screenshots lately for some reason). Not sure what the cause is. Wanted to take more but I was too busy just taking everything in lol.

masseffect_andromeda_m3znr.png


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masseffect_andromeda_bzlwf.png



Thanks for the impressions shinobi. These screens look great but it seems like you're playing with CA turned on.

Can you please take a couple of screens when you have the time with both CA and film grain turned off ? Just wanted to get a feel of the clarity on a Pro.
 

JBwB

Member
That's the feeling I get, it looks like everyone is ready to destroy it, like they want it to be bad.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. With so many great games coming out so close together it wouldn't be a stretch for people to try to justify not buying it.
 

Orca

Member
What are you talking about? The early access thread is not that positive, it's more average/mediocre.

Yeah, I'd bet there are people like me that aren't going to post in that thread because anyone with something remotely positive to say about the game seems to be regarded as a deluded idiot who doesn't notice problems and/or is an EA/BioWare shill.

Enjoy the echo chamber though.
 
I wouldn't say the majority of people who played it think it's good though, man..
I would. The people who hate it are really loud, and they do a good job amplifying each other (see: the RPS impressions thread), but most previews and hands-ons *are*positive. They're not entirely uncritical, but by and large people who played the game without the express intent of shitting on it seems to be enjoying it.
 
Yeah, I'd bet there are people like me that aren't going to post in that thread because anyone with something remotely positive to say about the game seems to be regarded as a deluded idiot who doesn't notice problems and/or is an EA/BioWare shill.

Enjoy the echo chamber though.
What a strange sentiment. If you don't want there to be an echo chamber, voice your opinion. That's what you're here for.

I would. The people who hate it are really loud, and they do a good job amplifying each other (see: the RPS impressions thread), but most previews and hands-ons *are*positive. They're not entirely uncritical, but by and large people who played the game without the express intent of shitting on it seems to be enjoying it.
That looks like wishful thinking to me. The previews have been mixed at best, and there's plenty of normal people critical of the game, without having the express intent of hating it.
 
Yeah, I'd bet there are people like me that aren't going to post in that thread because anyone with something remotely positive to say about the game seems to be regarded as a deluded idiot who doesn't notice problems and/or is an EA/BioWare shill.

Enjoy the echo chamber though.

It really is an echo chamber. It's a shame because it's a good game and this is coming from someone who hated Dragon Age.

I hope once the game is out the shit posting will die down. Doubt it though.
 
I've been following that thread religiously and the opinions generally boil down to it has problems but I still like it. It's mixed but it's more on the positive than the negative. So don't blast Shinobi when plenty of others feel exactly the same way.
 
What a strange sentiment. If you don't want there to be an echo chamber, voice your opinion. That's what you're here for.


That looks like wishful thinking to me. The previews have been mixed at best, and there's plenty of normal people critical of the game, without having the express intent of hating it.
Mixed, yeah. Not unambiguously positive, but overall, more good than bad. And the hate train for this got rolling a while ago.

Ill stand by my assessment.
 
Mixed, yeah. Not unambiguously positive, but overall, more good than bad. And the hate train for this got rolling a while ago.

Ill stand by my assessment.
Alright. Just don't forget that it's equally unreasonable to gloss over genuine criticism as 'people with the express intent of hating a game'.
 

Gudji

Member
I do hope the characters, story and stuff to do in the game improves tenfold after the initial hours, because so far it''s somewhere between average and good, not great or amazing, at least for me. But hey... I guess I had high expectations and wanted a fucking stellar game, for one of my favorite franchises ever.
 

mindsale

Member
I love this franchise - some of the most fun I've ever had in multiplayer was in Mass Effect 3 so I'll buy it for that if only that - but I am heavily skeptical of all the negative reports (animations and enjoyment) coming off of the campaign. If it reviews sub-80, I'll very likely skip it.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
It really is an echo chamber. It's a shame because it's a good game and this is coming from someone who hated Dragon Age.

I hope once the game is out the shit posting will die down. Doubt it though.

I would wager it's near to ME3 levels drivebys and non-educated (aka haven't played the game) slander. It's an easy second to ME3's debacle, at best.

I've played the game, 10 hours, and really enjoyed myself: yet got called out for being a Biodrone not long after, it's sigh personified at the moment.
 

red36

Neo Member
I paid 5 for Origin Access to play it. I played it. I canceled my pre-order. I can't, in good conscious, support this. Not in 2017. Not from Bioware/EA.
 

madquills

Neo Member
What a strange sentiment. If you don't want there to be an echo chamber, voice your opinion. That's what you're here for.


That looks like wishful thinking to me. The previews have been mixed at best, and there's plenty of normal people critical of the game, without having the express intent of hating it.

the echo chamber is always a danger. I started up the trial desperate to love it and had my excitement dampened a lot, but I'm still totally going to read all the reviews on Monday and long as one or two say 'it gets better...' or 'it's worth it in the end' I'll totally risk it - that said, there are some crazy flaws so far that I'll never be able to look past.

So it's case of 'serious questions need to be asked' vs. 'how much can I overlook in order to enjoy the rest'.
 
the echo chamber is always a danger. I started up the trial desperate to love it and had my excitement dampened a lot, but I'm still totally going to read all the reviews on Monday and long as one or two say 'it gets better...' or 'it's worth it in the end' I'll totally risk it - that said, there are some crazy flaws so far that I'll never be able to look past.

So it's case of 'serious questions need to be asked' vs. 'how much can I overlook in order to enjoy the rest'.
Yeah, that's how I feel too. I can't really bring myself to play more than the 3.5 hours I've invested in it until I see a bunch of reviews claiming 'don't worry, it gets so much better'.
 
Watched a playthrough of the first hour last night. Looked pretty good and I'll probably give it a go eventually. Just too many games right now though. Have to finish Horizon, need to go back and finish Nioh, want to play Nier Automata, Ringed City DLC coming out.
 
People dogpiling on Shinobi should take a step back. Your actively being the type of person that can make this community look bad. He posted his thoughts in good faith and honestly, even from what I've played, I'm really enjoying the game too, warts and all. Does that make me a co-conspiritor? No. Shinobi has always posted his thoughts,good or bad along with news and rumors, let's treat him with a bit more respect please. He isn't a new poster, he isn't a shill, he is a long time member of the comminity but being treated this way... you can't expect him to feel welcomed at all.
 

BumRush

Member
People dogpiling on Shinobi should take a step back. Your actively being the type of person that can make this community look bad. He posted his thoughts in good faith and honestly, even from what I've played, I'm really enjoying the game too, warts and all. Does that make me a co-conspiritor? No. Shinobi has always posted his thoughts,good or bad along with news and rumors, let's treat him with a bit more respect please. He isn't a new poster, he isn't a shill, he is a long time member of the comminity but being treated this way... you can't expect him to feel welcomed at all.

Well said. I never expected this to blow back on Shinobi the way it did.
 

Rodhull

Member
Feel sorry for Shinobi. Sounds like he's put a fair bit of work into the OT he's going to post and it's inevitably going be swarmed by drive by shitposting.
 

Ralemont

not me
I do hope the characters, story and stuff to do in the game improves tenfold after the initial hours, because so far it''s somewhere between average and good, not great or amazing, at least for me. But hey... I guess I had high expectations and wanted a fucking stellar game, for one of my favorite franchises ever.

I think the Forbes article made a good point about the story/characters, which is that those things always take time, sometimes a long time, to find their mark. Sometimes of course they never do, but I'd personally call Mass Effect 1's story straight up boring if I had stopped pre-Virmire, for example.

I might be giving BioWare too much faith, but characters are the one thing I'm not worried about. I think once we get the alien squaddies and our team starts interacting and developing dynamic relationships and tensions it will have that great BW cast feel. Right now people are playing mostly with Liam and Cora with a bit of Vetra (who I've only seen praise for) and we all know how BW is with human squaddies in ME games.
 
This morning i restarted the trial but with a customized Ryder. The Asian female that has been posted in several threads and i noticed how much better, MUCH less derpy the expressions are during cutscenes. So cutscenes were quite a bit better i would say.

Anyway, this time i decided to explore every single part of Habitat 7 and i noticed how i had missed several things in my first play session of the trial. A cool alien structure to explore and scan, some kind of tree in a cave and more. For some reason i found enough reason to get sidetracked on this planet, explore and scan things, but i didn't really enjoy that on Eos much. For some reason i am not feeling the level design of Eos and i am digging Habitat 7 in that regard. I really am hoping the rest of the planets are more like that than Eos.

I want to be stumbling upon things that make me go ''oh wow, what could this be? let's go check it out.'' when i explore these planets and Eos really didn't do that for me. Habitat 7 definitely did though.
 
I think all milky way tech uses mass effect fields to work. Shields are mass effect fields and the guns use mass effect fields for rail gun effect.

The mass effect is changing the mass of something using element zero. The relays were just a travel method.

Basically the mass effect is space magic.

The mass effect is related to the particule Zero who enable faster than light travel in the mass effect relays.

There is still plenty of mass effect in andromeda since knowing of the mass effect work is what enable races to travel in space.

Everything uses Mass Effect fields, guns, ships for artificial gravity and even biotics. Mass Relays were just wormhole-like travel enablers, basically.
Oh right. Forgot about that part.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
I wouldn't say the majority of people who played it think it's good though, man..

An easy majority for people who have actually played it I would say, not an overwhelming majority, but a majority none-the-less.

Good is very subjective though, I see flaws, for instance (as I do in every game), but I consider Andromeda very, very good where it matters.
 
After that partial second playthrough it definitely confirmed for me that my only real downer is the planet Eos. Unless they let you explore but more and find different areas in the full game, this planet is not for me. But I love several things about it, like the voice acting, the ME feeling when you are on Nexus and Tempest and if course combat which in my book they really nailed. I am starting to dig the new crew and with a customized proper looking Ryder these cutscene aren't nearly as bad as with BioWare's Ryder.

So there really is plenty good here already.
 

Gestault

Member
Feel sorry for Shinobi. Sounds like he's put a fair bit of work into the OT he's going to post and it's inevitably going be swarmed by drive by shitposting.

Mods are good about trimming the crap posts. Situations like this, I always think of it like spring cleaning. His ongoing contributions to the community here are important, though I think this site in particular is naturally resistant to info coming from people with mixed motivations. Even if in the end there's zero real-world effect on the info he sends out, it's fair to note his friendship with the team, special access and complimentary copy of the game. He's part of the hype cycle, which is still fine. People get hyped for things they enjoy.

I do know we're going to have "contributions" from people whose primary impression of the game is the album of embarassing visual glitch/animation gifs. That's going to be rough, but that kind of knee-jerk reaction is there in most OTs. Alongside that, there's going to be valid criticism.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Feel sorry for Shinobi. Sounds like he's put a fair bit of work into the OT he's going to post and it's inevitably going be swarmed by drive by shitposting.

He's not doing the OT(i think it was never his intention anyway?), and he's not even making the 2nd Community thread which is close to reaching 20k posts. His last post in the community thread was a bit vague on when he'll post again on GAF, if ever.

I think this thread really soured him on GAF overall, which is a shame considering how nice of a guy he is.
 
He's not doing the OT(i think it was never his intention anyway?), and he's not even making the 2nd Community thread which is close to reaching 20k posts. His last post in the community thread was a bit vague on when he'll post again on GAF, if ever.

I think this thread really soured him on GAF overall, which is a shame considering how nice of a guy he is.

We're reaching 4chan level anytime now.

I feel sorry for him.
 

YaBish

Member
I feel bad for Shinobi. He seems to have pretty similar tastes to me in that we're not too picky about the types of experiences we enjoy. I remember back when The Order 1886 came out he was having fun with it, and sure enough, when I rented it down the line I had fun with it too. This all in spite of the numerous posters calling it a piece of shit for not being 10 hours longer.

Video games' perceived value varies from person to person. Unfortunately, this forum sways to the hardcore nitpicky side more often than not, leading to situations like this where a guy who just enjoys playing video games gets dogpiled on for voicing a positive position on a possibly average game that's coming out at a time where many games are being showered with critical acclaim.

I enjoyed the OG Mass Effect trilogy. Was I a little disappointed in reading some of the initial impressions? Sure, but that won't stop me from maybe picking up the game down the line. There is room in this world for average games. Even if that average game has the "cherished" Mass Effect name slapped on it.

Besides, I need to get my uggo create-a-character fix from somewhere.
 

Rodhull

Member
He's not doing the OT(i think it was never his intention anyway?), and he's not even making the 2nd Community thread which is close to reaching 20k posts. His last post in the community thread was a bit vague on when he'll post again on GAF, if ever.

I think this thread really soured him on GAF overall, which is a shame considering how nice of a guy he is.

Oh right I was sure i saw him put something up on twitter about the work he'd done with some other guy for it. Maybe i misread.
 
I wouldn't say the majority of people who played it think it's good though, man..

I'd say the majority do. The majority just don't think it's great. This is going to be Fallout 4 all over again, and when reviewers don't slam the game for not being groundbreaking we're going to be filled with threads claiming journalists are shills or idiots. It's startling how many people think opinions of games should be binary - amazing game or awful game, nothing in between.
 
Being sceptical of opinions?
That doesn't make any sense. His opinions are his opinions, you might have different ones.
Yea that's exactly what his point was.....
If you aren't gonna bother learning what posters like and dislike why even bother listening to their opinions.
 
Shinobi, it seems like the negativity is boiling over for this game, particularly with respect to jankiness. Have you run into a lot of it yet, and/or is it getting in the way of your enjoyment of the game?
 

Cranster

Banned
The game itself seems fun, my biggest gripes so far with it is not being able to control squad power usage like the original trilogy which is a huge mistake design wise and the cluttered UI. It is disapointing from an animation standpoint but the original trilogy had issues and limitations aswell so I can live with that. The CC though is currently not defensible though.

Shinobi, do you know if Bioware plans on patching in the power wheel and improving the UI?

And it's was same with halo 5!!!
With Halo 5 I think alot of it is a reaction to Halo 4 and MCC still. I have my own criticisms for Halo 5 but overall see it as a huge step in the righ direction after Halo 4. As for ME:A, you have to also keep in mind this is the first game in the franchise 5 years after the fact the developer deliberately mislead their fanbase on the scope of the game's ending before release.
 

ironcreed

Banned
People dogpiling on Shinobi should take a step back. Your actively being the type of person that can make this community look bad. He posted his thoughts in good faith and honestly, even from what I've played, I'm really enjoying the game too, warts and all. Does that make me a co-conspiritor? No. Shinobi has always posted his thoughts,good or bad along with news and rumors, let's treat him with a bit more respect please. He isn't a new poster, he isn't a shill, he is a long time member of the comminity but being treated this way... you can't expect him to feel welcomed at all.

This bodes well. Glad to hear you are also enjoying the game.
 

cripterion

Member
He's not doing the OT(i think it was never his intention anyway?), and he's not even making the 2nd Community thread which is close to reaching 20k posts. His last post in the community thread was a bit vague on when he'll post again on GAF, if ever.

I think this thread really soured him on GAF overall, which is a shame considering how nice of a guy he is.

Or maybe he's enjoying the game and doesn't have time to post? Besides one poster I don't think people have been too harsh so he shouldn't hesitate to come back and partake here. I appreciate his threads on Andromeda cause it got the info rolling.
I do not share his enthusiasm of the game after having sunk a couple of hours in the trial but like I said, I find myself wanting to play more so it's not all bad.
 
That's the feeling I get, it looks like everyone is ready to destroy it, like they want it to be bad.

I don't think anyone wants it to be bad. People are just disappointed. There are always people who are going to try and tear a game down before it's even out. It's just that Bioware is making it really easy this time around.
 

Brokun

Member
Enjoying the game as well. I'm about 8 hours into my 10 hour trial. The animation snafus are there and they are funny and disappointing, but at the same time it is not affecting my enjoyment of the game in any meaningful way. I still wish they would bring back the tactical pause during combat and I'm not crazy about the changes to how the class system works (although I am slowly coming around on it). I'm playing through as fem Ryder. She hasn't grown on me yet but there's still time. I get the constant smirk criticism but you know if you play her as bubbly and sarcastic it actually works to your advantage, and it can be just... well great. The music so far isn't blowing my socks off as I was hoping for more synth, but it sounds like they were trying to strike a balance between the synth of ME1/2 and the Clint Mansell score of ME3. It does its job adequately but I hope to hear more synth the further along I get.

Aside from that it's feeling Mass Effecty to me in a good way, and I am looking forward to Tuesday when I can really sink some time into it without feeling like I should move through an area quickly because of the trial timer.
 
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