Damn. Looks like I might have to do a chick Ryder play through at some point. 

Oh boy

I did think the facial animations were a little awkward after waking up from cryo sleep. I'm glad I'm not crazy.

Those are hilarious. I'm really partial to this one.

I can't believe they let that in the final coding. I know it's a Bioware game (always buggy), but damn...

TLDR version:

Combat feels great.  He doesn't care about the RPG side, just shooting stuff in the face and loved it.

Got a turtle head pokin'! Gangway! Where is the shitter on this barge!?



Have any decent reviews sprouted yet?

Used my last bit of trial time to make my Ava Ryder. Didn't finish the whole intro mission so hopefully I don't lose her.

RPS's contrarian guy hated it, but the dude seems to love anything that sucks, and hate anything good.  I've seen good to very good general reviews across the board.  Couple more days before full reviews can come out.

The reviews so far have been less than favorable. The one huge bioware fanboy at polygon (iirc?) hated it but he loved ME3, DA:I, etc.

Keep in mind a couple IGN people trashed it then "updated" their piece with glowing reviews.

What I've gathered thus far is that the positives are that the combat is great and the exploration in pretty good. The negatives are piss poor writing, dialogue,  and immersion killing animations. The huge selling point for these types of games is supposed to be the story/characters, but that is sorely lacking. Plenty of games have great combat so I don't see a reason to spend money on this if unbiased reviews aren't good. I have the trial downloaded and plan to weight in with my impressions once I get off of work.

That's what I was going to say, it looks like I'm playing a female Ryder.

I'm liking what I'm playing so far.

The animations are janky as fuck, and the dialogue is, at times, somewhat forced.  The soundtrack isn't particularly memorable.  Main villain seems pretty standard and forgettable at this point.

On the other hand, the story and characters have actually pulled me in quite a bit, and the combat and exploration and movement are great.  Plus the game is visually beautiful.

I'm not saying this is the greatest game in the series or anything, and it's impossible to say whether the story will actually pan out, but for now it feels like Mass effect to me.


I think a lot of people are mad about the animations because they haven't really gotten any better in the last 5 years since the game came out.  And it's a fair criticism, especially since you've got games like the Witcher with face models and animations that are light years ahead of where these are.  On the other hand, the jank never affected my enjoyment of the previous trilogy, and it's not affecting it here either so far.

I'm hoping they have a lot of animation fixes in the Day 1 patch or soon after.  We'll see.

Confirmed no animation fixes in day one patch. That day one patch is already active for EA access members. Will be at a later date. My guess probably a month.

I don't think there's much they can do with the animations except fix them for the next game.  I mean, they can probably fix some of the worst instances, but the whole system kind of needs a reboot.  

The real issue is that unlike most of the other games with good animations that used mocap, Bioware decided they wouldn't or couldn't and instead went with computer animations a la 2005.  I read somewhere that the basic problem is the character creator; it makes it tough to use mocap when you have so many customization options for, say, eyebrows.  But even if that's a legit issue, it still doesn't excuse the shitty animations on NPCs.


Either way, they had better figure out a way to get around their limitations it in the future.  In another 5 years when ME:A2 comes out, this level of animation jank will simply be unnaceptable.

Honestly I think it's unacceptable now. Down right embarrassing for Bioware.  

As a huge ME fan, I'm disappointedly looks like  they rushed the game out. They should have pushed it back until summer. I would have been ok with that if it meant a more polished game. There are a lot of great games that have come out in the past month that will keep many busy until then.

I'll defiantly get this game, agian being a huge ME fan. But it will be probably be two or three months. Hopefully by then they will have worked out some of the issues.  I'm getting tired of developers putting out unfinished work.

I know Star Citizen has mo cap facial and non facial animation for characters and they are customizable. They are using the most complex system I've ever seen though and it looks incredible.

So tired of mystical powerful plasma weapons and effects.

...It's Mass Effect, wtf were you expecting?

Lets compare to 10 years ago



Pretty pathetic for a big budget AAA title. Apparently the team making the game was assembled to be the "most diverse" and is full of SJWers. The gameplay designer is an anti-white racist who is obsessed with race. I guess this is what you get when you hire on that instead of actual talent or skill.

Hasn't it been in development for 5 years?

Looks like it was just a crappy team that designed it. It's not the same team as the ME trilogy.

It pains me to see posts like this.  It's time to hold the companies accountable and stop buying trash.

I'm a huge Total War fan, but the last couple sucked.

I bought an Xbox for Halo, and 360 for Halo 3, but everything after Bungie sucked.

I loved the first several Assassin's Ceed games, but the recent ones sucked

The first Dragon Age was great, but the second one sucked.

I'm a fan of the first ME, but they got progressively worse (I played all 3).

I'm not buying anything from these developers based on their name alone anymore.  Especially if EA has their hand in the pot.

I didnt say I was going to day one it. It would be at least a month, two, three or next year even before I pick it up. There are better games out right now. Zelda, HZD, Nioh, Nier, etc

I disagree with the implication that the reviews, in general, have been less than favorable.  I've seen plenty of favorable ones that do note the animations are sub-par to atrocious, depending on timing, but also note other aspects that are quite enjoyable.  Keeping in mind that we're also getting "reviews" that are based on less than 10% of the game. I've only seen a couple (like rock, paper, shotgun) where they simply tore it apart.  (His review came across as having an ax to grind, and very bombastic with entirely too much over the top hyperbole) The most impartial views, IMO, basically said it was overall favorable, but you should walk in knowing there are a few glaring issues, which they were willing to overlook for an overall good experience, but that some may not be able to.

It honestly kind of bugs me to see the level of disingenuous complaining that is going on around the animations because you've got a bunch of youtubers who are reveling in an orgasmic circle jerk over the same 15-20 video clips, declaring the game shit because of 3-4 minutes OUT OF 10 HOURS of game play and then posting it, hoping to rake in the views.   Then people post comments, who haven't even played it, that the game is obviously crap, simply based on those cherry picked animations.

That said, the problems do concern me.  Not enough to not buy it, but enough that i'm a bit worried of what we'll see in the larger game past the 10 hour cap we've seen so far.   The animation issues bug me from a "they said they'd fix it and they didn't" point of view, which pisses me off, but i just don't see how it can be "immersion breaking".  At least not to me.   The poor writing comments honestly worry me a great deal more.  I haven't really seen any good examples of this (other than the "my face is tired" garbage, but i'm not going to trash the story and the writing over one comment.   Everything else i've seen people throw up and call it "bad writing", i actually find quite funny.  Is it campy?  Yes. I enjoy that.  Guess that makes me a lover of "bad writing".   (One review i read stated that Ryder says "Speed bump!" when running over an enemy and that this is typical of Bioware's "bad writing".  Sorry, i find that hilarious and not bad at all.)

In the end, if the bad animations carry through the entire game, we're still only talking about 1-2% of the entire experience, as it currently stands.   I'm okay with that.   If a little glowing boy appears after you kill the Kett leader, though....

I've seen a wide range of tone in the first impressions I've watched and read.  Giant Bomb sounds disappointed, Kotaku's reviewer is pretty high on it, and there's others all over the place.  What I find interesting is that after playing 10 hours myself, I find myself much more in line with Kotaku's impressions and disagreeing with the Giant Bomb guys, despite the fact that I normally don't care for Kotaku's stuff and love Giant Bomb.  I'm not sure whether my love for all things Mass Effect is clouding my judgement or what.

As to the animations, I would say they are more important than their actual screentime might suggest simply because this is a game series which has always focused so heavily on the characters, and building connections with them.  Having a derpface show up every couple of conversations with a character can really break the experience.  But then again, in my 10 hours I saw plenty of janky animations, and I wouldn't say it affected my overall experience or enjoyment of the game in any significant way.  

In fact, I find myself agreeing to a T with the Kotaku writer here (shudder) who says:  "In my time playing it, I have encountered some stiff facial animations that made me pause. The humans in particular don’t seem to emote enough, sometimes staring blankly, or blinking at odd intervals. Andromeda crosses into the uncanny valley at times. But, honestly, in the hours that I’ve poured into the game, these details haven’t ruined the experience. They’ll briefly take me out of the moment, sure, but a few awkward seconds in, say, a 15 minute engrossing conversation with someone is minor."  That was pretty much my exact experience as well.

I can't find any decent sources but the rumor is they are lifting the review embargo tomorrow, 3/18.

Unless it's changed, all the things I've heard say Monday the 20th.

Speaking of animations, I think Shepard must be proud to see Bioware continuing the tradition to the next generation.  

Official clarification on the subject posted in the comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/600zin/no_spoilers_heads_up_for_those_of_you_trying_to/

Review embargo is still active, but streaming embargo is being lifted

See, I trust your comment more than a lot of what I see on YouTube, because you've actually played the Game!  Now, part of that is probably confirmation bias, because you are saying what I am thinking is the truth, but it makes sense.

I will not argue that the bad animations are very disappointing, especially after promising after n7 day that they knew it was a problem and would fix it.  It bugs me less because I personally care less about it, though I do note that a few of them are decidedly jarring given context of the conversation.  Plus, I wanted this game to be  GOTY material, because I love ME, and this will never be that due to the variety of issues, which bugs me more than the animations themselves.

As to the embargo being lifted early, they should.  They won't, but they should.  I read multiple reviews that hinted at, or very nearly blatantly stated, even while saying that they can't talk about anything beyond the first 10 hours due to embargo, that the game gets better.  A Forbes writer even wrote an entire article about why the early access was a horrible idea because the game starts really slow, so you're getting an awful impression of what the game really is because the bugs are all people want to talk about, rather than great storyline and companion missions, because you aren't allowed to talk about those things due to it being past the 10 hour mark and therefore is embargoed.

I will still buy my pre order,  hopefully by my second play through, they will have a nice big patch that fixes a lot of this.

For some reason, part of me thinks that the studio who made Ghost Recon: Wildlands, despite being an ubisoft company, has some conservatives in it. Maybe I just missed it, but outside of the non-realism of a female operator on a spec ops team, I didn't notice
any overtly SJW tones, plus I think playing female characters is kinda cool anyways. In fact some of the things in that game seemed anti-SJW .

I think if more conservatives picked up coding and had a hand in game making, games would be less political and focus more on a enjoyable story and gameplay then trying to inlay social commentary.

So the MP looks amazingly fun, also vanguard biotics are stupid powerful apparently.  

biotics + jump jet = love

Ok, I could get past the animation thing. I mean, it's 2017 and there are games out there that do it 10x better at the same price, but whatever, I stay for the character and story right? Nothing any critic or USER has said makes me thing "wow, that sounds worthwhile". I would love to give it some personal thoughts but lo and behold it is also the AAA first game that I have ever had an issue with on my PC that keeps it from starting at all. It's an ok loading screen I guess, but other than that I can't comment.

Seriously though, I have been looking for reasons to buy the game since the series is one of my favorite but you have user accounts and critic reviews saying "none of the stuff that makes an rpg a good game were done well, but MUST BUY OMG". Now, once again, I could get past that but I spent half an hour diagnosing technical issues just to get the game started and then it won't get past the first loading screen. Sounds kind of like a turd that isn't even polished right? Cherry on top is that EA actually expects people to uninstall utilities and make firewall exemptions for their trial authentication when none of their other games required this level of WHAT THE FUCK just go get the game running.

Genuine question here, at this point what reason would I have to buy it?

Semi spoiler thing for getting potentially ultra rare random starter gear.

Click To View Spoiler

Great info. I'm still trying to figure out which training I want to choose at the start and which profile to focus on. For those who don't know, here are your options when creating a character below. Your choice unlocks certain abilities early and helps you get a jump start into a profile (profiles: soldier, engineer, adept, infiltrator, vanguard, sentinel, and explorer).

Technician: Free point in Overload, Unlocks Invasion, Unlocks Team Support
Biotic: Free point in Throw, Unlocks Singularity, Unlocks Barrier
Security: Free point in Concussive Shot, Unlocks Turbocharge, Unlocks Combat Fitness
Leader: Free point in Energy Drain, Unlocks Annihilation, Unlocks Team Support
Scrapper: Free point in Charge, Unlocks Combat Fitness
Operative: Free point in Tactical Cloaking, Unlocks Combat Fitness

You can find a description of the above bonuses in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17gymZv5-ME

Once you have enough skill points into Combat, Tech, Biotics, or a combination of those, you can then unlock the first level of a profile, which are described here: http://www.gameskinny.com/jf2k7/mass-effect-andromeda-guide-profile-bonuses

An example of one of the profiles, Vanguard:
Requires 3 points in Combat and 3 points in Biotics
+20% Melee dmg
+50% Melee force
+10% Biotic recharge speed
+20% Power shield cost reduction
+10% Max shields
Unlocked Ability Siphoning Strikes: Melee attacks restore shields
Unlocked Ability Biotic Jumps and Evades: Instead of a jump-jet, use biotics to jump and evade

So many damn choices!!! I'm leaning towards a tech Engineer build with the drone; combat builds seem a little dull and biotic builds seem way too overpowered.

If you're super interested in the story of Suvi's romance, this video is a spoiler. It's super hilarious though, and my love for Kallo has skyrocketed.

Use milkeyway weapons, They aren't plasma.

Their rifles sheer off small pieces of metal from a block and use the mass effect field to fire them at supersonic speeds. The magazine you change is a heat core.

Nailed it. This is a game designed by Social Justice Warriors, for Social Justice Warriors. The people behind ME1-3 are long gone, replaced by developers with no prior experience but were put in leadership roles for this title because >muh female developers. Please, save your money. This is Wand of Gamelon to ME1's Link to the Past.

I'm regretting my preorder now.  I loved ME 1 and 2 and enjoyed 3, but basically tuned out to whatever Bioware was doing after since I never cared about Dragon age.  I had no idea the SJW bullshit had infected Bioware so bad, and didn't hear that the people from the original trilogy had left until yesterday.  I'll give it a chance, but my expectations are pretty low.

I'm hoping this is the game to end the preorder nonsense but I doubt it.

I got as far as the trial would let me and I'm pretty torn. Combat is actually solid, AI isn't terrible, friendly AI is actually pretty competent... but some of the system are a step down. I won't beat the animations dead horse again, but the dialogue itself is just so fucking flat and I don't really care what happens to any of the characters to be honest. I'll probably hold off til it's on sale for 50% off and there have been some patches since I did notice A LOT of small graphical bugs in the 4 hours I played.

edit: should add that it did feel very much like a mass effect game for the most part but the flat dialogue delivery and pacing really is that bad. It's very jarring. If you want to shoot some stuff and level up or whatever it's pretty solid.

Apparently Bioware pushed another fix patch earlier today.  

From what I'm reading from a lot of reviewers, other than the dialog and animations, it's a solid game.  We'll wait and see on my opinion once I get hands on, since I am pretty critical about that sort of stuff. Either way, I'll play the shit out of it.

Say what you will about the rest, but holy fuck, they made Drax look good.

From my playtime I got a pretty heavy ME1 vibe, both for good and for bad.  On the one hand, you've got a lot of the great things about ME1 here - exploration, actual RPG mechanics, the wonder of a new and unexplored space, etc.  And I actually like the characters and the story so far is engaging, to me at least.  

On the other hand, there's some of the rough stuff about ME1 that seems to have reappeared too - more jank, a somewhat incomprehensible UI, and some weird design choices that may have sounded good on paper but in practice are not great.  

For example, something I noticed pretty quickly were the transitions in space from planet to planet.  As you scan and mine and whatnot, are all done in a first-person sort of way that looks like you are actually in the space ship as it flies from place to place.  It's a great idea in theory and cool for the first 3 or 4 times, but it quickly becomes a pain in the ass when you are trying to scan planet after planet and it takes 15-20 seconds for each transition (literally; I timed it a few different times).  As cool as the effect is the first few times, it very quickly turns into a "oh god, not this again" moment.  I don't see that making a return in the sequel, at least not without some significant adjustment for how long it takes.

I hate to say it, but I'd rather have ME3 planet explorer right now, the first person shit got annoying after scanning 20 planets, and there's supposedly hundreds. Fuck me.

After seeing Skill-Ups review, I'm going to skip out on the side quests and focus on the main story, ark retrieval, and loyalty missions. Looks like I'm not going to do any crafting because yet another developer has decided to be stingy with in game resources. *cough* Massive *cough*

ETA:
Damn it, it's like the Division all over again. More crafting locked behind material shortages gated behind intensive grinding. And it's obvious from the ads and developer interviews that crafting is where all of the best gear is found, but if I want to do crafting I have drop everything and pause my experience of the story, which I'm more interested in than some stupid open world bullshit that I'm fucking sick of.

Who thought of this stupid open world bullshit anyway? 

That review has sunk in and now I'm debating if I want to cancel the preorder in protest and buy it on a sale.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE CANCEL THE PREORDER

Keep in mind reviews prior to release are generally more favorable than stuff that is coming out afterwords. If you live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and have 1mbps internet and it would take all week to download then I get it. I haven't been able to not find a physical copy of a game in walmart, on amazon, or wherever since I can't remember when. This will likely be a fun game but from just a few hours I think it will be a shit show until a few patches in.

So it looks like average to average plus.  That said, I'd be very surprised if Bioware doesn't throw a lot of work at fixing it, as this probably their worst reviewed game and they've put a ton of money into advertising it.  Regardless, I'll likely be playing the hell out of it.  Not like I can cancel my preorder anyhow.  If I don't like it, Bioware gets struck from my "companies I preorder from" list, and joins Ubisoft, 343i, EA, and Activision in the corner.

General consensus is it has some good, some bad, but most Mass Effect fans will enjoy it.  From people that I know that have personally played it, for the most part it is well received.  That said, the folks that were playing it are ME fans, so the previous comment is accurate.  I'm a pretty hardcore ME fan, so odds are I'll like it regardless.

Current metacritic score is 75% with 18 positive and 10 mixed reviews.

AngryCentaurGaming - Jeremy Penter - Rent
Arcade Sushi - Luke Brown - 7 / 10.0
Areajugones - Antonio Vallejo.T - Spanish - 9 / 10
Ars Technica - Lee Hutchinson - No Verdict
Attack of the Fanboy - Kyle Hanson - 4 / 5 stars
CGMagazine - Chris Carter - 7 / 10.0
COGconnected - Paul Sullivan - 88 / 100
Critical Hit - Geoffrey Tim - 8 / 10.0
Daily Dot - AJ Moser - 3 / 5 stars
Destructoid - Brett Makedonski - 6.5 / 10.0
Digital Spy - Justin Mahboubian-Jones - 3 / 5 stars
Digital Trends - Phil Hornshaw - 2.5 / 5 stars
Eurogamer - Edwin Evans-Thirlwell - No Recommendation
Fenix Bazaar - Gaetano Prestia - 8 / 10.0
Forbes - Paul Tassi - 8.5 / 10.0
Game Informer - Joe Juba - 8 / 10.0
Game Revolution - Aron Garst - 3.5 / 5 stars
GameMAG - xtr - Russian - 7 / 10
Gameplanet - Matt Maguire - 8 / 10.0
GamePro - Rae Grimm - German - 87 / 100
GamesBeat - Jeff Grubb - 55 / 100
GameSpace - Suzie Ford - 8.5 / 10.0
GameSpot - Scott Butterworth - 6 / 10
GamesRadar+ - Andy Hartup - 3.5 / 5 stars
Gaming Nexus - Kinsey Danzis - 8.8 / 10.0
GamingTrend - Travis Northup - 80 / 100
God is a Geek - Chris White - 8.5 / 10.0
Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 3.5 / 5.0
IGN - Dan Stapleton - 7.7 / 10.0
IGN Italy - Francesco Destri - Italian - 8 / 10
IGN Spain - José L. Ortega - Spanish - 9 / 10
M3 - Niklas Alicki - Swedish - 5 / 10
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 6 / 10
MMORPG.com - Catherine Daro - 8.7 / 10.0
PC Gamer - Chris Thursten - 80 / 100
PlayStation LifeStyle - Keri Honea - 6.5 / 10.0
PlayStation Universe - Kyle Prahl - 8 / 10.0
Polygon - Arthur Gies - 7.5 / 10.0
Post Arcade (National Post) - Chad Sapieha - 8.5 / 10.0
Press Start - James Mitchell - 9 / 10
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - John Walker - No Verdict
RPG Fan - Derek Heemsbergen - 78%
RPG Site - Andrea Shearon - 7 / 10
Shacknews - Brittany Vincent - No Verdict
Stevivor - Steve Wright - 9.5 / 10.0
TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10
TrustedReviews - Brett Phipps - 3.5 / 5 stars
USgamer - Kat Bailey - 3 / 5 stars
Video Game Sophistry - Andy Borkowski - 6 / 10
VideoGamer - Alice Bell - 7 / 10
Xbox Achievements - Richard Walker - 80%

After seeing a few of the reviews I decided this game is a solid PASS.

I may buy it some day in the distant future when it is 90% off of the complete edition, but for now nope. Pass.

Game's officially live in some countries in 30 minutes, and for those on PC who are using a VPN.

This is going to be a long day! I should go see a movie, or two...

I think I am going to cancel my Amazon preorder. Not that it matters. Might be too late.