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Apparently, Clancy Brown is voicing Alec Ryder, father of the player character.

The Doomkitten |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

A variety of important tweets.
Some details regarding the RPG elements of Andromeda.
101 questions and answers with the game's director.
Details about loyalty missions.
Downright massive infodump from NeoGAF, copypasted from a digital copy of Gameinformer.
They're coming fast and hard with the details now.

The Doomkitten |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

Yeah, I just meandered through Thedas as an excuse to hang out with my companions, and not really do anything else. The story was great. A quote from Yahtzee: "The writing's solid, but then BioWare don't score points for that any more. Birds fly, fish swim, Michael Atkinson molests dogs and BioWare games have good writing."

MannyGoblin |

There were some nice lore bits. Such as how boned Thedas is from all the Red Lyrium. After clearing the Emprise de Lion(sp) keep, you can overhear two mages going on about how Red Lyrium can poison animals under ground
Emerald Graves was dull and the Fairbanks quest was all it had. Crestwood was nice for the Rift under the Lake quest.
Hissing Wastes should have been chopped entirely, more Val Rouyex(sp) shenanigans please.
Storm Coast gave us Iron Bull which was nice but really didn't offer that much.
Western Approach was plot critical and clearing out castles to make bases is always nice.
The Oasis was another iffy place. Other than getting upgrades from the temple I could have skipped it.
The Descent was a nice DLC, I liked the shorter Deep Roads adventure.
Jaws of Hakkon had some nice characters, More Scout Harding, Storvacker and tough boss fights.
The Marsh area where you rescue your troops was meh, not enough stuff there since every inhabitant was dead from plague.
Exalted Plains was good for the elven stuff but the civil war was just a footnote, you just picked up the pieces.
The Warden/Empress quests were excellent. Someone had suggested that there should have been an either/or situation where say rescuing the Empress means you have to fight a Warden army completley taken over by demons or a civil war ridden Orlais

GreyWolfLord |

GreyWolfLord wrote:is it the entire trilogy? With all the dlc?Well, in related news, Xbox One now is backwards compatible with the entire Mass Effect Trilogy.
I just ordered an Xbox One and that looks to be what I'll probably play ME:A on when it comes out.
It's the entire trilogy.
I don't know about the DLC yet. The Xbox I ordered is a refurbished one and I won't get it till next week.
Looked it up, supposedly it includes the DLC. However, if you didn't buy the DLC when you had the xbox 360 and will be only using it as the Xbox One (like I will be) I don't know if it will be available or not.
If someone has an Xbox One they might be able to check now.

The Doomkitten |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |

Well, I'm expecting rainbows to fly outta my ass anytime soon, because BioWare has apparently granted all of my wishes.
According to this Game Informer podcast, the new team is bringing back an ME1 skill system, allowing for open progression (no more classes, and free respecs), bringing back loyalty missions (but they aren't necessary to get the good ending), and they're trying to hone to gunplay to like the ME3 multiplayer, which I loved.

Freehold DM |

The XBone emulates the 360 when playing backwards compatible games. If you purchased DLC for those games it will still be available when playing them and will be available for future purchase through the xbox live store.
according to what I saw when I installed me1, I got the dlc for it even though I never got it for 360.
I am excited.

The Doomkitten |

WOOOOOOOOT GAMEPLAY TRAILER And, apparently, you get a female turian on your squad, as well.

The Doomkitten |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |

*pushes up glasses* Actually, it looks like they're expanding upon previous Mass Effect powers-Vanguard's Biotic Charge (the Vanguard!Shep uses the eezo in their body to reduce their own mass and essentially perform a mini-jump, suddenly increasing their mass back to normal on their destination to create a large impact) and Sentinel's/Engineer's Incinerate (traditionally, it's a pellet packed full of flammable? or inflammable? doesn't matter! chemicals, rapidly produced by an omnitool and fired, but the same principle could be applied to create a flamethrower).
The glowing blue shield that we saw was probably a biotic field that suddenly increases mass to the point that the bullets that are shot at the Ryder suddenly do not have enough energy to propel them, and the glowing cover is probably a refined version of the omniblade technique that Tali'zorah created. Traditionally, the omnitool would create a thin, almost molten-hot slice or diamond and illuminate it with light to create an incredibly efficient cutting tool, but the technique could have been refined to create a large, thick sheet of diamond to provide cover.

Voss |

Yay! I get try this out in a couple of days. $5 for a month membership to EA access. I will get the money back on the 10% discount on the game so I am happy. Anybody else planning on cheesing an EA / Origin Access membership for the trial / discount?
Did and done. I've got five(ish) hours left in the 'trial' but there is also a door that can't be passed until the full version.
Which is intensely frustrating, because I want to know what happens next.
Which is to say, I'm enjoying it immensely. Beyond a driver update and the game's severe dislike of alt-tabbing, I haven't had any problems at all.
Combat is fun, and slightly more unforgiving than some of the trilogy (barring some of the junk sidequests in One where it just spams you with 10 or so jerks in big rooms), it is also far less static, which is great. The limits on powers (3+passives) I'm still getting a little used to but it isn't too bad- I prefer to specialize in a few things anyway.
The profile system seems... pointless, for pretty much the same reason. Unless you stagger out your points a lot (which doesn't help unlock more profiles), you won't have many abilities to slot into profiles, so... yeah. There is some anti-synergy there. The choice of initial profile (what was once class) is pretty important, as a few (infiltrator (cloak) and soldier (combat-training, which lets you unlock more weapon slots, eventually) for sure) get immediate access to abilities that need 9 points to unlock if you don't start with them.
Interactions.. haven't had much chance beyond getting the basics on everyone on the Nexus (couldn't chat with the ship crew before taking off, and then went right down to the planet afterwards). Saw one reviewer rant about how terrible they are, but so far, they are pretty standard fare.
Graphics and animations are fantastic. The jumping (and particularly the jump and climb onto a ledge) animations are really smooth. I was a bit concerned when they put out the recommended specs, but my 980ti handles the strain just fine, no real hitches or fps hits so far. I bought that to handle FO4 and Witcher 3, so if a system is good with those (or Battlefield 1, since they apparently share an engine), your system will be fine.
Only things I don't really care for are Dad and twin, who seem pretty unnecessary to anything. They seem there more for the writers that the players, as they don't do much beyond constrain who your character is.
Also, it suffers a bit from the hero complex. If you aren't personally fixing the problem, the problem doesn't get fixed. Taken to a rather extreme degree in some cases, which leads to an unnecessary Savior Complex.
Conversation animations aren't bad, but there are a few issues. There are points I feel like I'm watching a disney film (except default Sara has a couple moles and other facial features, and isn't just featureless pure white skin, which is a plus). But the eyes... this game has crazy eyes. They often just start darting everywhere for no reason.
Anyway, there are a few side missions to tidy up yet, so I'll get to those tomorrow.
Bonus: based on initial impressions, I like the companions far more than I thought I would (at least the ones I've met, which basically means the Milky Way immigrants). I can even see keeping the initial ones around, which is a change. The Krogan had a fun introduction, but he seems the least interesting in the sense that someone pushed the 'gotta have a krogan companion' button- he won't add anything we haven't seen before. Though I haven't been able to take most as companions yet, so time will tell.
Stray thought: non-hyper salarians make me want to punch them in the face.

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Im 6 hours in and....
Combat feels familiar but with a nice subtle facelift. RPG elements are back like leveling and crafting (that fell off in later installments of the original trilogy.) The exploration mechanics are interesting to learn and unlock.

The NPC |

I'm playing on an Xbox One and I am at the point where Ryder just got the ship.
So far the story is interesting and I am liking the side characters. Particularly the superintendent and the one who helps get your ship past the last bit of red tape.
Except for some of the makeup choices I am not seeing what some folks are talking about in regards to the female characters.
The only real issue I seem to be having are the side missions not appearing in my journal. I picked them up, but I am only seeing priority missions in my journal.

Voss |

I'm enjoying it quite a bit, as I go on, but there are problems areas (and not the superficial ones people fixated on before release)
B) Similarly, planetary scanning is as bad as its ever been. Go into orbit, click, and probably you find nothing at all, but maybe you scan one specific point. Many systems have 0-2 things of interest, and they aren't particularly interesting.
C) Crafting, gathering and buying suffer from a fairly bad UI. Needs to have more options, expansions and take up less space on screen so more things can be sorted and organized. As is, a clunky mess. It affects the quest log to, which is a mess. Collapsing trees that show details are easy to do, programmers, and were invented decades ago.
Storywise... the Kett. Sorry Bioware, but evil aliens of evilness being evil are not particularly compelling. Even with the 'not really a twist.' (too many datapads hinted at what was going on) The EVIL VILLAINS are actually a massive detriment to the exploration and settlement core of the game, and suffer from an incredible lack of nuance even after the big reveal, and setting up that choked exploration horribly. (More systems just can't be travelled to until you deal with Plot Point). To some degree it's the same problem the ME trilogy and Dragon Age suffered from. Don't cover your shiney new setting in grimderp on a day 1. There were lots of potential challenges without them, and plenty of reasons why life in Heleus is both a struggle and a challenge, even for the natives.
A couple pirate bands would serve the same role, on a less stupid scale.
Secondly, writers, stop with the Black and White choices jammed into nuanced situations. So far (30 hours or so in), I've hit at least 6 major points where the game insists that I choose between A or B, which are presented as absolute opposites... even when obvious compromises immediately present themselves.
All that said, I do thinks it's the best project Bioware has put together in quite a while. The just need to work on some UI issues (and not just compromise on a worse version because it will work on consoles), and occasionally slap their writers with a fish when they're writing themselves into a frenzy fueled by melodramatic purple prose. And wallowing in vast pools of tears fueled by the shallow pain of a thousand goth kids.

Abraham spalding |

The interface is a bit clunky, but otherwise it has been fairly enjoyable so far.
Moving the companions around with the direction buttons is functioning if not always what I mean for them to do. I don't like their slavish follow routines, I thought after fallout 4 semi independent movement of companions should be done and expected.
Game dialog with NPCs I. The ship is trite and not developed well.
However I am overall enjoying the game. With frustrations at problems that shouldn't exist (graphics bug in weird ways too, especially particle graphics and initial arrival in areas).
The only multiplayer I tried was frustrating, slow and a total loss but I wish likely try again later.

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So, broke down and bought the game.
My impressions.
Ryder is annoying, Jesus-like and personality-less. Shepard was more interesting.
Game is visually beautiful. Frostbite is amazing. I want them to redo the entire ME trilogy in frostbite. The only complaint I have is that turians and krogan look weird.
Voice acting is downright terrible. Seriously, those people sound emotionally dead. Except Peebee who is downright chipper all. the. freaking. time.
Facial animations are horrible. Even with the day 1 patch they are so freaking terrible. At least the eyes are no longer dead.
Story is forgettable.
Combat is ok, but it's annoying that Ryder can change skill sets on the fly.