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Preview Shocking Report From RPS: First Hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda Stinks

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
The truth is that quality is something that depends on a certain rigidity.

After all, standards exist only if you are somewhat rigid; fixed limits, which determine what is or isn't tolerable. This rigidity may come from a certain idealism (like, "I'm going to do a fucking hardcore RPG heavily based on C&C") or, in the past, hardware limitations (which forced artists to think creatively to do the best within the limits available). Boundaries are great ways to direct and focus efforts, and often serve as the motivation for you to go break them. But if there is a characteristic feature of Bioware's current culture, it is that of "tolerance" - "we will defend all minorities and present the most tolerant and comprehensive narrative in any fictional world: transgender, gay, asexual, furry or whatever, all welcome". The problem is that this kind of bias is hardly contained to one aspect of a person's life, just as a fanatic (political, religious, or of any kind) rarely limits his insanity to only one theme, it ends up leaking to other areas of their life.

The infiltration of the colored-hair-culture in the company caused the dissolution of the barriers that restricted (and simultaneously focused) the intent behind the games made by Bioware. Not that they were that awesome to begin with, but still. The degeneration of the culture of a company (or movement, or group, or country) ends up spreading to other areas, and we end up having the degeneration of gameplay, concepts, presentation... Everything. The end result is what we see here.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
288
I'm glad to see that a lot of these reviews are focusing on the bad writing. It seems that only yesterday we were treated with the famous "I want to be a dragon", and the mainstream press praised the awesome dialogues of DA2. Could this be a sign that the audience is finally ready to call bullshit on the power rangers level writing in games?
 
Self-Ejected

Lurker King

Self-Ejected
The Real Fanboy
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1,865,419
Just imagine if this game end up being successful despite these negative previews. It would mean that publishers don't need paid journalists and doritos anymore.

The infiltration of the colored-hair-culture in the company caused the dissolution of the barriers that restricted (and simultaneously focused) the intent behind the games made by Bioware.

Nah. Bioware was a colored-hair-culture from day one. The difference is that they also provided C&C and now they are following suit directives: "I want this to be another MMO clone with three hundred hours". It's understandable that this will cause some butthurt, but then again they have being betraying their past audience for years in order to increase it even more, and they have being sucessful doing that. What makes you think that things would be different now? What I find hilarious is that all triple-A games look like a gigantic MMO. From the last Final Fantasy to ME, they all look the same. It's disgusting.
 
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Invictus

Arcane
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Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The fact that the game is getting burned by former fanboi media by somehow switching the "strengths" (writing, choices, characters) and weaknesses (Meh combat system, dumbed down character and weapon customization, that fucking space boggie) of the previous Mass Effects is what is really troubling for Bioware, that even their die hard alien fuckers are noticing how shitty the writing, quests and setting are and the highlights are the FPS aspects of the game
5 years tops for Bioware I say
 

Zed

Codex Staff
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Staff Member
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17,068
Codex USB, 2014
PC Gamer sucks ass. Swedish PC Gamer (printed) was alright back in the day cuz they had a guy who wrote funny captions but now it's all shit.
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
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Suicidal

Arcane
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Guys someone should write a positive review of Andromeda for the Codex and make it sound as sincere as possible - just to fuck with some heads. Imagine the reaction when people find out that RPG Codex, the site that hates ALL new RPGs, is filled with racists, woman haters, enemies of gay and transsexual rights all over the world, with ties to the alt right movement, secretly funded by the KKK, actually likes ME Andromeda, a game that even the mainstream journo sites turned their backs on.
 

Falksi

Arcane
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Nottingham
The fact that the game is getting burned by former fanboi media by somehow switching the "strengths" (writing, choices, characters) and weaknesses (Meh combat system, dumbed down character and weapon customization, that fucking space boggie) of the previous Mass Effects is what is really troubling for Bioware, that even their die hard alien fuckers are noticing how shitty the writing, quests and setting are and the highlights are the FPS aspects of the game
5 years tops for Bioware I say

Bang on. They made the choice to appease the drongo fuckwit masses and left it's core fanbase behind happily, ignoring the direction which they wanted Bioware to take. Now that said drongs are waking up to the fact that what they wanted is actually wog-wank, there's few left to stand by them.
 

Serious_Business

Best Poster on the Codex
Joined
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Frown Town
Turdomeda time. This has to essentially be the Witcher 3's influence... this game seems to have given the mainstream media some conception of what a good open world game can be. Even worst : the W3 formulated some litterary standards to the industry. Reviews are constantly pointing out the "weak writing" ; this is a first. In a world of standards, even minimal standards, Bioware can't keep up. Even Many Dragons Inquisition was starting to be seen relatively critically, although of course only after the 10/10 reviews... after the first superficial effets of the game wore off and the whole thing was revealed to be without substance. It's not so much that their games are getting worst, but the general perception of the industry is changing. Now the fedex quests are just not acceptable anymore. It is amusing to see how people are droning on about how this new game is a decline in the series ; as if the original games were somehow of better quality. Time to be smug about this stupid shit, I guess. Then, play this game 7 times in a row - to fill the void... emerge with new powers, new anger. Reduced in mind, but never in bitterness.
 

Goral

Arcane
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Messages
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The same Gamespot gave "Fallout 4" 9/10 rating even though wooden characters and dialogues were even worse than in ME (judging by let's plays/screens).

This is what they said about F4:

However, fans - and I count myself among that number - will likely shrug and accept that this is simply how things are in a Bethesda RPG, and it's true that the highs do outweigh the lows. Fallout 4 has given me some of my best gaming memories of 2015
Seems to me that Bethesda jews give better bribes to journalists, otherwise I can't explain these double standards. So while it's good to see EA getting some truth bombs it has a bitter taste.
 
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MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
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5,703
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California
"Our use of Star Control II as inspiration for the first series was so successful, we've decided to up the ante and use Star Control III as our inspiration for the next. What could go wrong?"
 

Kuattro

Augur
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Messages
401
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La Font del Gat
Seems to me that Bethesda jews give better bribes to journalists, otherwise I can't explain these double standards.

I'd think it was very easy to explain, and it has nothing to do with money.

Game journalists are cowardly snivelling sneaky little creatures with nothing in common with humans except their exterior appeareance. They never go against the current, and they only pick on the wounded, the weak and the infirm.

When they saw the whole internet pointing and laughing at Bioware, they knew they were free to shit on them without fear of reprisals. So they did, in the knowledge that they were safe from ire except for a minority of stupid people, that is, the ones that are fanatic enough about this that they will throw a tantrum at them. If they did what they're doing with FO4, hordes of irate bethestards would rain on them until this so called journalists were nothing but a smear on the floor. Bioware, though? Old, senile, bleeding, on its way to the slaughterhouse Bioware? They are a free target, and damned if the subhumans that populate the modern game press will not take the opportunity to seem like the cool kids, picking on the perpetually bullied.

Hence their reaction.

And our joy. :P
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
share a laugh day

Why+bioware_63d071_5829072.jpg


happy sunday guys! :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/45iqm2/anon_remarks_on_new_bioware_hire/czylrsf/
 

Goral

Arcane
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Falksi

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I'd think it was very easy to explain, and it has nothing to do with money.

Game journalists are cowardly snivelling sneaky little creatures with nothing in common with humans except their exterior appeareance. They never go against the current, and they only pick on the wounded, the weak and the infirm.

When they saw the whole internet pointing and laughing at Bioware, they knew they were free to shit on them without fear of reprisals. So they did, in the knowledge that they were safe from ire except for a minority of stupid people, that is, the ones that are fanatic enough about this that they will throw a tantrum at them. If they did what they're doing with FO4, hordes of irate bethestards would rain on them until this so called journalists were nothing but a smear on the floor. Bioware, though? Old, senile, bleeding, on its way to the slaughterhouse Bioware? They are a free target, and damned if the subhumans that populate the modern game press will not take the opportunity to seem like the cool kids, picking on the perpetually bullied.

Hence their reaction.

And our joy. :P

That's a brilliant post *tipshat*
 

Kuattro

Augur
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
401
Location
La Font del Gat


I wouldn't say the same. It's just my perspective of course, but I don't think that the volume of jokes made about FO4 is even close to the level of mockery that ME:A recieved, and continues to recieve.

Whether it is because Bethesda's incompetence was not as clear as Bioware's (after all, FA4 was a full 80something hours game at release, ME:A was a 10 hour trial, so it might have been more concentrated) or something else, I don't know, but I don't really remember Fallout being as mocked as Andromeda.

I might be wrong of course, but not about the nature of game journalists.
 

aris

Arcane
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
11,613
The slaughter continues:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-19-mass-effect-andromeda

If there's any genuine mystique to the idea of travelling 2.5 million lightyears to colonise another galaxy, BioWare's fourth Mass Effect smacks it over the head with a prospector's shovel and boots it out the airlock during the first few hours of play. You're left with a zesty but unsurprising third-person shooter, struggling through a soup of mundane chores - a game of mesmerising, gargantuan landscapes sabotaged by uneven writing and (at the time of review) an astonishing quantity of bugs. Perhaps above all, there's a shortage of drama or real consequence to Andromeda, apparently brought on by the shift to an open world template, that is sadly new to Mass Effect - a series celebrated not merely for its freedom of choice, but for making those choices matter.
...
Unfortunately, many of the key dilemmas recycle well-trodden conceits from the original trilogy and RPGs at large - yes, the salarians and krogans are still at each other's throats over the genophage, and yes, you'll be asked to decide the fate of a possibly innocent convict. Other decisions are revealed to be of small import in hindsight, which reflects both the relative weakness of the writing and a broader structural shift - away from the flexible yet impactful narratives of previous games and towards the spineless, anything-goes tepidity of an open world.
...
The lion's share of Andromeda's missions are busywork - go to a waypoint, scan 10 Remnant collapsible shelving units with your ugly wrist-mounted display, scoop up five mineral deposits for some lazy boffin back on the Nexus, blow up three raider outposts, and so forth. The game's partiality for such insipid fare is made all the worse by some needless toing-and-froing - this is a universe with FTL communications and cranial AI implants, but you can't check your email, pick a weapon prototype to research or take a vidcall without heading home to the Tempest. More aggravating still is the act of travelling between planets and solar systems, a janky, unskippable 20 second cinematic which feels like some animator's pet project that nobody had the heart to erase.
...
A wider problem with Andromeda's writing is BioWare's failure to convincingly replace the old Paragon/Renegade system, which awarded points for Nice and Nasty dialogue choices or actions. As a way of thinking about ethics Paragon/Renegade is obviously very clunky, but as a dramatic device it creates strong pivotal moments in dialogue while underlining the effects of your decisions over time. Andromeda's equivalent, a four-way split between rational, emotional, casual and professional options, is relatively non-committal. It's basically the choice between bored Ryder, soppy Ryder, flip Ryder and parent Ryder, neither of whom are really worth getting to know.
I feel kind of bad for the world designers/artists in this game. From what I've seen, some of the environment work on the planets are pretty damn solid, beautiful both artistically and technically, yet it marred by shit work by the rest of the team: Stupid bugs, shitty shitty animations, even worse writing, and what seems to be essentially a SJW uglyfying of the women in the game.
 

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