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Mass Effect: Andromeda Pre-Release Thread

pippin

Guest
You know, your usual disorderly, disjointed, hire & fire clusterfuck à la EA.

You know, I wouldn't blame EA entirely for this mess. If anything, I'd say they have been very protective of them, after all, it has been like 8 years since they bought them (because Bioware themselves wanted to be bought by them, actually). It's probably the only (or one of the few at least) companies that hasn't been altered in any way by EA directly. This is all speculation, but I'm willing to believe Bioware dug their own grave. Mostly because it's not like any of the current trends they champion can't be found even in the BIS/Interplay days.
 

Caim

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
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Dutchland
https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/5apg0e/mass_effect_andromeda_is_gameinformer_december/

xdt4v4SjRnvgSgy8393Wtum6Rnnm8YXwz-AKjjo7-WE.jpg
Armor pockets for the boobs? Or an attempt to ape Gears of War? Which is worse and why?
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
3,212
Location
Vostroya
You know, your usual disorderly, disjointed, hire & fire clusterfuck à la EA.

You know, I wouldn't blame EA entirely for this mess. If anything, I'd say they have been very protective of them, after all, it has been like 8 years since they bought them (because Bioware themselves wanted to be bought by them, actually). It's probably the only (or one of the few at least) companies that hasn't been altered in any way by EA directly. This is all speculation, but I'm willing to believe Bioware dug their own grave. Mostly because it's not like any of the current trends they champion can't be found even in the BIS/Interplay days.
I can only speculate too, but I think EA both protected them up to a point, and only then started to meddle. When EA aquired Bio, they gave them one definite console hit - ME, and a modest console hit fresh from development hell - DAO. What was its dev cycle? Something close to 5 years or more? Anyway, I doubt that they ever finish it without EA's money. Then they got two established brands - but after initial success Bio starts to fuck up. They attract all the weirdos across the whole internet to they BSN, they let the place fester. A large part of fanbase viewed as a toxic asset as a result, and rightly so. ME2 was a success, but ME3 generated not only controversy, but serious loss of faith in Bio as a brand as well. Even some of more casual players must've been affected, because many Youtube personalities criticized the ending too.

DA2 was a disaster, I don't have Origin sales figures, but I think it sold less than DAO, although I can't be sure. All of the above is on Bio, hardly EA's fault. But then Bethesda released Skyrim, and EA clearly wanted a slice from theme-park pie. The result was DA:I. Who's to blame more for DAI, Bio or EA is hard to say. I think that a professional must adapt to demands, be it narrative or graphics or gameplay, but it's hard to say had EA given Bio enough time, and to what extent it meddled with the ideas of what constitutes a Skyrim-like hit.

In the meantime, many people from ME teams, and some from DA left the company, and what they've left is:
manveer-heir-white-tears.jpg


If anyhing, EA still gives them too much leeway after all fuckups.
 
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Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
296
As a newfag around here, I have a confession to make. I used to frequent the BSN as BioWare introduced me to RPGs with Knights of the Old Republic when I was in my early teen years. I'd quickly point out that I hated the ridiculous over-emphasis on sexing up every NPC and the SJW atmosphere as much as the next guy and got into a few arguments about it before I just started avoiding those posts like the plague, but I also can't say I'm remotely sad that they burned those forums to the ground. I probably like the ME trilogy a lot more than most people on this forum. I'm not gonna defend my stance - I doubt I could do so well anyway - just stating my preference.

Even from what most would probably consider to be a fanboy position, I'd say holy shit does this game look like a train wreck waiting to happen. Multiple delays, no real footage of the game in motion, total change in dev team to a bunch politically correct individuals of questionable intelligence, and the overall decline in quality from BioWare on top of that. I'll be surprised if this pleases anyone, BioDrone or Codexer. I don't want it to be bad (what sort of asshole actively pulls for a game to be bad?), but it certainly doesn't look like it's gonna be good.
 

hajro

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
592
Fk cuckware, maybe ill torrent it when CPY cracks its denuvo version, otherwise no dice.
 

Caim

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
15,460
Location
Dutchland
As a newfag around here, I have a confession to make. I used to frequent the BSN as BioWare introduced me to RPGs with Knights of the Old Republic when I was in my early teen years. I'd quickly point out that I hated the ridiculous over-emphasis on sexing up every NPC and the SJW atmosphere as much as the next guy and got into a few arguments about it before I just started avoiding those posts like the plague, but I also can't say I'm remotely sad that they burned those forums to the ground. I probably like the ME trilogy a lot more than most people on this forum. I'm not gonna defend my stance - I doubt I could do so well anyway - just stating my preference.

Even from what most would probably consider to be a fanboy position, I'd say holy shit does this game look like a train wreck waiting to happen. Multiple delays, no real footage of the game in motion, total change in dev team to a bunch politically correct individuals of questionable intelligence, and the overall decline in quality from BioWare on top of that. I'll be surprised if this pleases anyone, BioDrone or Codexer. I don't want it to be bad (what sort of asshole actively pulls for a game to be bad?), but it certainly doesn't look like it's gonna be good.
You saw the error of your ways and have come to the Codex seeking the light. Welcome, brother.
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This game isn't actually being developed by the Bioware you know. It's a new studio making their first full game. Perhaps some problems can be expected.
 

hajro

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
592
Yeah its the studio that made ME3 MP, what a good choice for a triple A RPG top kek
 

Rev

Arcane
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
1,180
....none? I think almost all of them are gone. I'm pretty sure no one from the late 90s and early 00s is still there.
James Ohlen, the lead designer of BG2, is still at BioWare. They put him to work on ToR, though, so it doesn't really count.
Pretty much anyone else is gone, iirc.
 

vortex

Fabulous Optimist
Joined
Mar 25, 2016
Messages
4,221
Location
Temple of Alvilmelkedic
Reeks of development hell. You know, your usual disorderly, disjointed, hire & fire clusterfuck à la EA.

"But at least our talented team is made up of proud people with religiously and sexually diverse backgrounds!"

I expect this to be a complete distaster.

My opinion is this will the the best ME title. When Inqusition was yet in development they've said that all character customization was already ported over to Andromeda. So, feedback they've got from Inqusition and ME3 are going through dev iteration process. At least that's what I would do to not make it complete distaster.
 

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Devs these days are starting to pump out some pretty realistic characters, including animations. BioWare and Bethesda meanwhile give you Gumby. That's a human? Really?
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2016
Messages
296
I think the character model itself looks okay. The problem is more that the eyes don't look like they're focused on anything, giving him a dead/lifeless look. That's more or less on par with previous BioWare work, where they were relatively average with specific technical details but they can't animate for shit. DAI is a great example of this, with gorgeous environments and at least decent-ish character models mixed in with PS2/Gamecube/Xbox era animation work that made everyone come across like some sort of cyborg. They clearly spent what animation budget they had on facial animations, and even those alternated between being painfully average and really bad. The end result is this awkward exploration of the parts of the uncanny valley that nobody ever wanted to see. I'd hope that BioWare has learned their lesson and paid more attention to animation, but very little of the development of ME:A suggests that they give two shits.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
This game isn't actually being developed by the Bioware you know. It's a new studio making their first full game. Perhaps some problems can be expected.
Mini No Man's Sky tragedy incoming, anyone?

I see Bioware playing safe. If the game bombs, they can blame the external studio. Much like Hello Games.

Sucks to be an amateur.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Well it's still a studio labelled "BioWare" so they won't be able to pass it off as off-brand so easily.
 

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