Old Mass Effect Megathread: Original Camera Angles

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Ainsley McTree: Feb 19, 2004

2house2fly posted:

Men wouldnt though

I'd probably go for a don draper look

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:42

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# ? May 14, 2024 14:17

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Serf posted:

Like when people talk about the hilariously compressed timeline needed to make this game work, they have a point. The ME series by itself has a ridiculous timeline, but when you factor in Andromeda it just gets sillier. Had humans been kicking around for a few centuries with the Council things would make a lot more sense for both the Shepherd games and Andromeda.

Dragon Age has a setting with a lot more forethought put into it than Mass Effect ever did. I just try not to think about poo poo like the timeline of these games because so much of its logic collapses in on itself when you do.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:42

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Veotax posted:

Well, the game just bugged out and put all of my powers into permanent cooldown and made them all completely unusable. I was sort of enjoying the game enough during he prologue to keep my pre-order (especially since I got it 30% off during an Origin pricing error) but now I think I might cancel and maybe pick it up down the line when it's greatly reduced or finally hits the EA access vault. What little of the openworld gameplay I did wasn't grabbing me, the Nomad is less fun to drive than the Mako, and I didn't really care for the Mako.

Where is the refund link in Origin?

You might need to open a ticket.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:42

Dexo: Aug 15, 2009; A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.

Real hurthling! posted:

they should have polished the ui a lot more imo but yeah its very good.

also i thought of one new concept! freeze objects and impart momentum on them and then ride them when they unfreeze. was that used anywhere else?

I'm like 60 hours in and haven't really had any struggle with the UI, but I'm generally not sensitive to that kind of stuff as I grew up and got used to playing games with convoluted inventory systems(hey Morrowind)

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:42

Randarkman: Jul 18, 2011

Arglebargle III posted:

But detective noire is a major influence for the Witcher novels, and the games like the low fantasy deconstruction route, so sorceresses are hot because A) Geralt is a jaded private ~~eye~~ monster slayer who needs a femme fatale and B) if you had the magic power to make yourself hot and young you would.

You know actually thinking it about it and typing it out I kind of withdraw my criticsm to that. I mean it's kind of sleazy, but really thinking about it as a fantasy detective noire kind of pulp fiction story it makes perfect sense for it to be sleazy.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:42

Cowcaster: Aug 7, 2002

Real hurthling! posted:

they should have polished the ui a lot more imo but yeah its very good.

also i thought of one new concept! freeze objects and impart momentum on them and then ride them when they unfreeze. was that used anywhere else?

in tribes 2 if you deployed an apc it was counted as frozen and you could huck a bunch of concussion grenades under it and then when you undeployed it all the momentum it had gained activated at once flinging it across the map and/or crashing the server but that's probably not really applicable

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:43

Norns: Nov 21, 2011; Senior Shitposting Strategist

I like the idea that Zelda invented jorts. I always assumed Kevin Smith stole them from a goon.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:43

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Yeah, they make the Nomad and then locked a lot of what should be its basic functionality behind upgrades so you have to switch between drive modes to get up hills when that should be better limited to trying to go up mountains.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:44

Kirios: Jan 26, 2010

LITERALLY MY FETISH posted:

I'll bite, what new concepts?

Also I'm more interested to hear about your opinion about a game you've actually played.

Let me attempt to separate my bias opinion with more concrete facts about it:

1. The climbing, exploration, sense of scale, and discovery is something that 100% sets new ground. The climbing alone is a new concept never seen in an open world game prior to it. The whole "see that mountain in the distance? you can go to it!" is absolutely true and something that puts even a game like Skyrim to shame.
2. The physics in this game, especially in an open world game, is absolutely mind blowing at times. The amount of unique variety you can use to tackle drat near every situation in this game is something that never grows old. Even Half Life 2 doesn't compare to this.
3. The "major" dungeons and how you interact with them is definitely something I've never seen in a game before.
4. Even the idea of a game this massive, this full of possibility, being portable and able to take with you wherever is groundbreaking in its own right. Obviously does not apply to the Wii U.

(personal bias starts to come in now)

Calling the towers in Zelda "Ubisoft Towers" is a bad joke. If you want to criticize me for not playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, this is a clear cut sign you haven't played Zelda. Does the framerate hang at times? Yes, especially in the Woods. Does rain suck in this game? At times, but it's something that I've always been able to plan for and expect, outside of a location where it's for story reasons. Can weapon durability be a drag? Sure, it's definitely not for everyone, but I've found it enabling myself to use an amount of weapons in a game where I would have hamstrung myself otherwise.

I'm an open world collector kind of guy. I play a (good) Assassin's Creed Game, I tend to 100% them for example. The fact that Zelda takes that away, encourages me to explore in a way I never have before, incentivizes me to use the physics in ways I would have never thought of before, and the simple ability to pepper a massive, massive open world full of interesting details and locales that almost always rewards me for going out of my way to identify them is a few of the many, many reasons why I call it my favorite game I've ever played. I'm about 60 hours in, and it hasn't slowed down for me in the slightest.

Zelda is a game that will be talked about by fans and developers alike for a decade to come. There are some brilliant and wonderful design decisions that I beg open world developers to take note of.

Kirios fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Mar 16, 2017

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:44

VideoGames: Aug 18, 2003

I am downloading the access 10 hour trial.
I will be able to play tomorrow night! I am excited

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:45

Ainsley McTree: Feb 19, 2004

Randarkman posted:

You know actually thinking it about it and typing it out I kind of withdraw my criticsm to that. I mean it's kind of sleazy, but really thinking about it as a fantasy detective noire kind of pulp fiction story it makes perfect sense for it to be sleazy.

There are definitely elements of the witcher universe that feel like they were written by and/or for horny teenagers and i won't pretend otherwise, however it's a small part of an excellent game that's generally not very horny at all

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:44

Real hurthling!: Sep 11, 2001

Dexo posted:

I'm like 60 hours in and haven't really had any struggle with the UI, but I'm generally not sensitive to that kind of stuff as I grew up and got used to playing games with convoluted inventory systems(hey Morrowind)

i played lots of games in the old days but its not them old days no more. also i don't like the green stamina circle's position on screen at all times at all but why nit pick a great game.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:45

CJ: Jul 3, 2007; Asbungold

2house2fly posted:

Men wouldnt though

Apparently in the books all the Wizards make themselves look old because they are expected to look wise.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:45

whatever7: Jul 26, 2001; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

That Cora chick is ugly. Vampire hair; arms are too long; square face.

And the ginger chick has a blooms head as her hair.

I can't have digital sex with this poo poo.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:45

Serf: May 5, 2011

Nichael posted:

Dragon Age has a setting with a lot more forethought put into it than Mass Effect ever did. I just try not to think about poo poo like the timeline of these games because so much of its logic collapses in on itself when you do.

I mean I would be down for a game with nothing but non-human characters in the Mass Effect universe pre-humanity, but a game like that just wouldn't fly apparently.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:45

Arglebargle III: Feb 21, 2006

Dexo posted:

Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn't some super original game. Like Everything in that game has been done before to varying degrees. What sets Zelda apart is it's crazy level of polish and charm in it's world. Meanwhile this game has seemingly very low levels of polish.

The Witcher 3 has over 300 hours of polish btw.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:47

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Ainsley McTree posted:

There are definitely elements of the witcher universe that feel like they were written by and/or for horny teenagers and i won't pretend otherwise, however it's a small part of an excellent game that's generally not very horny at all

I like the quests that you (and Geralt) both think is going to end in sexy times but for one reason or another go the other way. Like the sword tutor quest that ends with Geralt just being kind of disgusted with the woman, or the succubus that just says, "Sorry, no witchers."

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:47

Norns: Nov 21, 2011; Senior Shitposting Strategist

Ainsley McTree posted:

There are definitely elements of the witcher universe that feel like they were written by and/or for horny teenagers and i won't pretend otherwise, however it's a small part of an excellent game that's generally not very horny at all

Witcher is pretty horny my dude. The games featured loving collectable cards with the chicks you banged.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:47

Cowcaster: Aug 7, 2002

Arglebargle III posted:

The Witcher 3 has over 300 hours of polish btw.

boo this man

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:48

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Serf posted:

I mean I would be down for a game with nothing but non-human characters in the Mass Effect universe pre-humanity, but a game like that just wouldn't fly apparently.

I think Andromeda is going to be essentially what I want out of a Bioware game but this will forever be a missed opportunity that it wasn't a more low-key post ME3 reconstruction game. There's a lot you could do/could've done with ME's setting post ME3 and they chose to do none of it.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:49

Norns: Nov 21, 2011; Senior Shitposting Strategist

Wonder how many people will gently caress in Cyberpunk 2077

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:50

Serf: May 5, 2011

Nichael posted:

I think Andromeda is going to be essentially what I want out of a Bioware game but this will forever be a missed opportunity that it wasn't a more low-key post ME3 reconstruction game. There's a lot you could do/could've done with ME's setting post ME3 and they chose to do none of it.

That would mean deciding that one of the endings was canon. Do you really want to revisit that particular phase of the Internet? Everything about Andromeda is designed to sidestep that entire fiasco, it's just that each aspect of it has been done in the absolute dumbest way possible.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:50

Buck Wildman: Mar 30, 2010; I am Metango, Galactic Governor

Axel Serenity posted:

I'll probably hold off until it's 50% off somewhere.

Like I said, I'm a huge ME fan. I probably play the series through at least once a year. I even loved ME3 despite the last ten minutes. I just am not feeling much with ME:A after playing around a bit though.

The character creator is really bad and took out a pretty big part of the fun for me. It's hard to imagine that they went from a pretty good creator in DA:I to this. It feels like a big step back. Once you're in game, the lack of options really starts to feel apparent after a bit and you see things in your char you want to change but literally can't. Big jaws and Steven Tyler mouths everywhere.

The animations are bad but maybe not as much as people harp on. For most scenes they are pretty on par with the rest of the series, but then they will do some extreme closeup to show off that texture budget and the lack of eyebrow, cheek movement becomes really noticeable. It's like they had a set goal for textures in mind but then realized that making meshes to match that quality was going to take a huge amount of time and money and they ran out of budget for it. Which pretty much the opposite of how it's suppose to work.

The gameplay itself is fine, for the msot part, and probably the closest in feel to the old games. The first planet was pretty cool, and I like having options of different areas to explore. Scanning didn't feel too bad since it seemed mostly optional but I didn't do too much of the tutorial reading since we're timed. There are some janky issues with covering and stuff, though, and it in that respect it doesn't feel very precise. Like, some rocks it will auto cover and sometimes other rocks of the same size won't? Also it doesn't really "lock" you in cover mode like the previous games so you just kind of feel weird and floaty?

The actual combat customization is pretty nice. You have to really look and go through your keybindings, etc. to figure out what everything does, but it's pretty robust even if the UI isn't intuitive. Like, you press "M" to open your map but you don't press "M" again to close it and instead it takes like two extra steps for that?

I guess overall I'd give it a 6.5. Like, the parts of actual gameplay are fun and feel like Mass Effect for sure, but the game felt really... unpolished, I guess. It certainly doesn't feel like they had 5 years and the budget they put into this. The basic template is there, but there are a ton of really weird QOL things and dev choices that make it seem kind of rushed or that they focused on the wrong priorities while making it. It's not bad, but I'm going to wait for some performance patches and reviews of the post-10hr trial before buying it, which is a far cry from the "I will buy this day-of launch" I had going in to it.

This is a very fair and appreciated assessment, and I think we're in accord. I'm not likely to get this at launch because there are a number of games I need to work through first and I want to see what people think beyond the early stretch of the game. As I've said previously, the game looks like good stupid fun, in part because of the wonky tech, and I really want to see impressions of the full on game after a few weeks when everything has simmered down.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:51

Bolow: Feb 27, 2007

I haven't read like any of this thread but this probably got asked like 3000 posts ago.

Why the gently caress are there Krogan colonists if the genophage is still a thing when they leave?

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:51

Real hurthling!: Sep 11, 2001

Norns posted:

Wonder how many people will gently caress in Cyberpunk 2077

not as many as the robots who gently caress i'd bet

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:51

Randarkman: Jul 18, 2011

Norns posted:

Wonder how many people will gently caress in Cyberpunk 2077

New CD Projekt Red game?

Bolow posted:

I haven't read like any of this thread but this probably got asked like 3000 posts ago.

Why the gently caress are there Krogan colonists if the genophage is still a thing when they leave?

Gotta have Krogan.
By the way, I used to know a chick that looked like Wrex.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

GET MY BELT SON: Sep 26, 2007

Will my progress from today on carry over to the official release next week?

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

Hulk Krogan: Mar 25, 2005

Bolow posted:

I haven't read like any of this thread but this probably got asked like 3000 posts ago.

Why the gently caress are there Krogan colonists if the genophage is still a thing when they leave?

They explain it (sort of) when you get to the Nexus

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

Ainsley McTree: Feb 19, 2004

Cowcaster posted:

boo this man

I think that's his first post in this thread that i've liked

Norns posted:

Witcher is pretty horny my dude. The games featured loving collectable cards with the chicks you banged.

only the first (and worst) one had that my dude. the sexy stuff is, percentage-wise, a pretty small part of the other games

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Nichael posted:

There's a lot you could do/could've done with ME's setting post ME3 and they chose to do none of it.

That's like saying after blowing up Thedas with a Death Star that there is a lot of life left in the Dragon Age franchise.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

DatonKallandor: Aug 21, 2009; "I can no longer sit back and allow nationalist shitposting, nationalist indoctrination, nationalist subversion, and the German nationalist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious game balance."

I honestly think this could be a Batman Arkham Knight situation. Would not be surprised if EA pulls the game from sale for half a year right after release to fix some of the bullshit and get a new metacritic entry.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:53

Abroham Lincoln: Sep 19, 2011; Note to self: This one's the good one

Norns posted:

Wonder how many people will gently caress in Cyberpunk 2077

the real cyberpunk future is being able to steal someone's face and put it on a robot, thus being able to gently caress anyone and everyone

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:52

Dexo: Aug 15, 2009; A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.

Kirios posted:

Let me attempt to separate my bias opinion with more concrete facts about it:

1. The climbing, exploration, sense of scale, and discovery is something that 100% sets new ground. The climbing alone is a new concept never seen in an open world game prior to it. The whole "see that mountain in the distance? you can go to it!" is absolutely true and something that puts even a game like Skyrim to shame.
2. The physics in this game, especially in an open world game, is absolutely mind blowing at times. The amount of unique variety you can use to tackle drat near every situation in this game is something that never grows old. Even Half Life 2 doesn't compare to this.
3. The "major" dungeons and how you interact with them is definitely something I've never seen in a game before.
4. Even the idea of a game this massive, this full of possibility, being portable and able to take with you wherever is groundbreaking in its own right. Obviously does not apply to the Wii U.

(personal bias starts to come in now)

Calling the towers in Zelda "Ubisoft Towers" is a bad joke. If you want to criticize me for not playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, this is a clear cut sign you haven't played Zelda. Does the framerate hang at times? Yes, especially in the Woods. Does rain suck in this game? At times, but it's something that I've always been able to plan for and expect, outside of a location where it's for story reasons. Can weapon durability be a drag? Sure, it's definitely not for everyone, but I've found it enabling myself to use an amount of weapons in a game where I would have hamstrung myself otherwise.

I'm an open world collector kind of guy. I play a (good) Assassin's Creed Game, I tend to 100% them for example. The fact that Zelda takes that away, encourages me to explore in a way I never have before, incentivizes me to use the physics in ways I would have never thought of before, and the simple ability to pepper a massive, massive open world full of interesting details and locales that almost always rewards me for going out of my way to identify them is a few of the many, many reasons why I call it my favorite game I've ever played. I'm about 60 hours in, and it hasn't slowed down for me in the slightest.

1. Games have had systems that allow you to navigate anywhere. might not be through "climbing" but yeah.

2. Far Cry 2.

3. I'm pretty sure it's not even the first time in a Zelda dungeon you've had to manipulate parts of the dungeon itself to complete it. Like the Water Temple in Ocarina comes to mind.

Like I said nothing in there is original. Nintendo put together a bunch of systems from other games, Nintendo made them better than in their original game(besides Fire not spreading like loving crazy in grass and just staying in a small area). And polished the everliving poo poo out of it.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:53

Dexo: Aug 15, 2009; A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.

Arglebargle III posted:

The Witcher 3 has over 300 hours of polish btw.

pity I got 5 hours in and while I know and am more than willing to say the game is good I just had no will to keep playing.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:54

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

DancingShade posted:

That's like saying after blowing up Thedas with a Death Star that there is a lot of life left in the Dragon Age franchise.

Retcon some aspects of it, and proceed with either the blue or red ending as definitive canon. It was never as complicated as people made it out to be. Andromeda's setting has always seemed like a bizarre overreaction. Again though, I don't know if that even matters a ton because the game will almost certainly be good in the ways Bioware games are always good, and that's enough for me.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:55

Arglebargle III: Feb 21, 2006

Ainsley McTree posted:

I think that's his first post in this thread that i've liked

same

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:55

DancingShade: Jul 26, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

I'm still waiting for games to copy Far Cry 2's grass fire mechanic.

Lost my stolen jeep a few times to scrub fires started during firefights.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:55

LITERALLY MY FETISH: Nov 11, 2010; Raise Chris Coons' taxes so that we can have Medicare for All.

Kirios posted:

*snip*

I haven't played botw, but I don't think I was the one referring to ubisoft towers. My only umbrage is when someone says botw sets new ground and does radically different things than other games, and I haven't seen anything like that. It looks like a game that does things that other games have done, but just much better than before. That's not a new concept, kinda like how TW3 doesn't really do anything prior 3rd person RPGs haven't already done, but it just does them much better. The only new thing it does that other games haven't done, if maybe not as well or as large, is being mobile, and that's a selling point for the switch, not botw.

# ? Mar 16, 2017 21:57