Mass Effect: Andromeda Pre-Release Thread

[1451]

I expect even less rpg elements, nearly no customization of your companions' gear but it will be a fun game just like the previous ones. If they aren't planning on adding rachni romance I will not play it.

 

[Applypoison]

ME1:

Mako mission sections were done just fine; functional and not too popamole on the difficulty. What more could you want from a AAA 2007 hybrid Sci-Fi RPG? Gas station C&C? Diesel plz.

Sure, the copy-paste scavenging content was irritating, but that's optional AAA content for ya. It's either shit to play through or pointless to play through, sometimes both. The reasoning behind it is that it's OPTIOONULL, and between having it in unpolished form or not having it at all...

ME2: (Electronic Arts: Challenge everything, including the playerbase's IQ)

Starts with a terrible plot device taken straight the creative mind of a monetization assistant. Destroys level, skill, class, weapon & inventory relevance, and saves some of the best shit for DLC. Only redeeming quality is the silicon-injected atmosphere (and companions?), also how the final mission plays out, which is still among the best player-influenced, functionally viable epilogues ever done in games. Like the entire game was filler just for that part. That sounds familiar... OH WAIT

ME3: (EA did the right thing for once, and put money where the talent is. Then again, with that kind of budget, it's hard to screw up, and DA2 likely suffered as a result)

Yeah, yeah... the ending. The fucking ending. Still, I like to think real men don't let 20 minutes of xtreme popamole ruin 50 hours of solid, fleshed out and balanced gameplay. The drama surrounding this game is a largely a bandwagon, because here is what it does right:

• Everything ME1 did right, while simultaneously tossing out as much shitty ME2 'streamline' as they could.
• Holy shit, important events from two entire games' worth of C&C actually carry over. Every character has at least a cameo/mission and some semi-relevant C&C regardless of how often you could've screwed them over in past games. The Genophage conclusion. Stop and think about it for a minute, that is an assload of homework and commitment to a game trilogy spanning 5 years. Explaining cross-game C&C to an EA executive and getting it approved is probably reminiscent of peeling your skin off with a rusty scalpel dipped in acid.
• Manages to offer almost as much area exploration as ME1, with 2012 cutting-edge artistic assets. Easy to overlook/dismiss, but outstanding for an AAA title who would usually see no value in 'ridiculous' concepts such as non-linearity
• The gameplay functionality and difficulty, for a FPS-RPG, is actually acceptable. Actuallly. There were tactics to it, both individual and squad-based. Four difficulty settings, where the easiest one can be played by your little sister and the hardest one is actually satisfying.

What it did poorly? Some storyfag stuff, like Cerberus and Sovereign being basically retcon'd. The main antagonist being an AZN cyborg ninja. And no gay unicorn, which is obviously a big deal. Still, all in all, a decent game on its own and a good sequel.

So yeah, ME4 is something to look forward to in the same way you look forward to buying an air freshener - whatever you might be freshening, it will likely be worth it unless the scent of RTwP is too shitty for you to successfully erase. Let us hold our breath until we know for sure who gets to work on the game and how much cash is generously bestowed upon the lowly devs by the almighty, benevolent publisher.

In other (slightly old) news - Blizzard is now free from Vivendi shareholder control, after 7 years of churning out extra-popamole editions of popamole. Could Bioware have managed the same if they hadn't signed up with satan?

 

[Mangoose]

I liked some of the ME2 companion loyalty quests. Also I thought gunplay felt "tighter" than ME1. But yeah the RPG elements were cut down a lot, and it was corridory as fuck.

Didn't even bother playing ME3 past 1 hour. Talk about bland environments.

 

[Goat Vomit]

So how many gay/tranny/bi companions will be there this time? I hope Bioware goes for 100% just for the lulz

I wouldn't be surprised if the story is about the intergalactic LGBTX* agenda TBH. Oh and Mako romance too of course.

*(X = Xenophilia)

To: DGaider@bioware.internal.com
From: CHudson@bioware.internal.com
Topic: Mass Effect - Second Trilogy Ending preliminary writup

//fans complained that the first trilogy ending wasn't planned so I've sent a PM to Mac Walters and now you with a write-up for an ending for the new trilogy, feedback appreciated , I hope you can help me realize what a massive misogynist and racist I am, Gaider. -Casey//

A transfluid fursuited autoromantic ghost materializes on the station floor in front of the wounded N7 commander Calhoun, for a brief moment it flickers before stalbilizing.
//Emotions and mystary intensifies//

"I would ask you to join me in an polyamourous open relationship, Calhoun, but my incorporeal form makes sex hard with a dimensional normative femmephobic demispecies like you. Instead I'm here to offer you a choice." The metallic but androgynous voice (voiced by Keanu Reeves) buzz out, echoing in the empty station. Calhoun tries to stand up and respond but slips on the thick layer of sexual fluids covering the ground.

[Choice]
-Hello
-Who are you?
-What do you want?
-Eat shit

"I hate you to death you creepy normative ableist asshole, make love to yourself in a furnace. But I suppose I have little choice but to hear your gross response. What choice do you speak of?" (Try to get Mark Meer to do the main character role again, he could probably voice all genders this time, the gender slider changes pitch)

"The tumblr whine machine is a powerful thing, I want to know what you want me to use it for. You can either destroy the white CIS HET males, killing all men, whites, heteros and other priviliged victim fetishizing normals who insult everything liberal and good. Alternatively you can merge all sexualties, races, disabled people with ableist scum and create one great pansexual, schizofrenic, handicapped and transfat race of blacks. A last choice would be to mind control the breeder scum so the misgendering lesbophobic masses could take their rightful place under the boot of the misandrist supermacist fat black lesbian master race."
//Might have exceeded VA budget, rewrite to be shorter and more mysterious if so//

[Choice]
-Control
(pink)
-Kill
(purple)
-Merge
(beige)

//After picking a choice the machine sends out differently coloured radiation that sweeps the galaxy fixing all problematic shitlords. I've been in talks with Ian Frazier to see how far we can take the fursuit customization and realtears™ technology. Curiously I've seen a thread on the codex that's pretty popular where they asked for a Mako romance, I think we might be able to implement that if you don't think it's autophobic or rapey, how does a vehicle give consent and how do we fit underwear on it required for the dry-humping, any ideas? //

-xoxo love Casey

 

[Trash]

Personally I'd like to see the timeline rolled back to just after the end of the terran-turian war, with you staking out claims for HUMANITY now that you've made the turrurists your bitches.

Will never work for not being epic enough. Unfortunately, as it would probably make for a much more interesting story. Love all your suggestions, really, but it won't happen for a very simple reason. This is Bioware. Even worse, this is Bioware anno 2014.

 

[dryan]

Worth a play just for not being medieval fantasy shit.

it's so similar to medieval chosen one vs ancient evil fantasy bullshit that it's almost indistinguishable.

Nah. No dragons, potions, swords, kings and other fairy tale bullshit that people are obsessed with. I don't know why people never grow out of their Cinderella phase.

 

[hoverdog]

ME1:

Mako mission sections were done just fine; functional and not too popamole on the difficulty. What more could you want from a AAA 2007 hybrid Sci-Fi RPG? Gas station C&C? Diesel plz.

Sure, the copy-paste scavenging content was irritating, but that's optional AAA content for ya. It's either shit to play through or pointless to play through, sometimes both. The reasoning behind it is that it's OPTIOONULL, and between having it in unpolished form or not having it at all...

ME2: (Electronic Arts: Challenge everything, including the playerbase's IQ)

Starts with a terrible plot device taken straight the creative mind of a monetization assistant. Destroys level, skill, class, weapon & inventory relevance, and saves some of the best shit for DLC. Only redeeming quality is the silicon-injected atmosphere (and companions?), also how the final mission plays out, which is still among the best player-influenced, functionally viable epilogues ever done in games. Like the entire game was filler just for that part. That sounds familiar... OH WAIT

ME3: (EA did the right thing for once, and put money where the talent is. Then again, with that kind of budget, it's hard to screw up, and DA2 likely suffered as a result)

Yeah, yeah... the ending. The fucking ending. Still, I like to think real men don't let 20 minutes of xtreme popamole ruin 50 hours of solid, fleshed out and balanced gameplay. The drama surrounding this game is a largely a bandwagon, because here is what it does right:

• Everything ME1 did right, while simultaneously tossing out as much shitty ME2 'streamline' as they could.
• Holy shit, important events from two entire games' worth of C&C actually carry over. Every character has at least a cameo/mission and some semi-relevant C&C regardless of how often you could've screwed them over in past games. The Genophage conclusion. Stop and think about it for a minute, that is an assload of homework and commitment to a game trilogy spanning 5 years. Explaining cross-game C&C to an EA executive and getting it approved is probably reminiscent of peeling your skin off with a rusty scalpel dipped in acid.
• Manages to offer almost as much area exploration as ME1, with 2012 cutting-edge artistic assets. Easy to overlook/dismiss, but outstanding for an AAA title who would usually see no value in 'ridiculous' concepts such as non-linearity
• The gameplay functionality and difficulty, for a FPS-RPG, is actually acceptable. Actuallly. There were tactics to it, both individual and squad-based. Four difficulty settings, where the easiest one can be played by your little sister and the hardest one is actually satisfying.

What it did poorly? Some storyfag stuff, like Cerberus and Sovereign being basically retcon'd. The main antagonist being an AZN cyborg ninja. And no gay unicorn, which is obviously a big deal. Still, all in all, a decent game on its own and a good sequel.

So yeah, ME4 is something to look forward to in the same way you look forward to buying an air freshener - whatever you might be freshening, it will likely be worth it unless the scent of RTwP is too shitty for you to successfully erase. Let us hold our breath until we know for sure who gets to work on the game and how much cash is generously bestowed upon the lowly devs by the almighty, benevolent publisher.

In other (slightly old) news - Blizzard is now free from Vivendi shareholder control, after 7 years of churning out extra-popamole editions of popamole. Could Bioware have managed the same if they hadn't signed up with satan?

ban Applypoison.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Nah. No dragons, potions, swords, kings and other fairy tale bullshit

right. no fairy tale bullshit like medigelpotions, krogansorks, asarislutty dryads, omni-tool bladesswords, or bioticsmagic.... besides the ancient evil kraken demon necromancer that awakens to threaten the commonwealth with its hordes of undead and can only be stopped by the chosen one, that is.

 

[eremita]

ME1:

Mako mission sections were done just fine; functional and not too popamole on the difficulty. What more could you want from a AAA 2007 hybrid Sci-Fi RPG? Gas station C&C? Diesel plz.

Sure, the copy-paste scavenging content was irritating, but that's optional AAA content for ya. It's either shit to play through or pointless to play through, sometimes both. The reasoning behind it is that it's OPTIOONULL, and between having it in unpolished form or not having it at all...

ME2: (Electronic Arts: Challenge everything, including the playerbase's IQ)

Starts with a terrible plot device taken straight the creative mind of a monetization assistant. Destroys level, skill, class, weapon & inventory relevance, and saves some of the best shit for DLC. Only redeeming quality is the silicon-injected atmosphere (and companions?), also how the final mission plays out, which is still among the best player-influenced, functionally viable epilogues ever done in games. Like the entire game was filler just for that part. That sounds familiar... OH WAIT

ME3: (EA did the right thing for once, and put money where the talent is. Then again, with that kind of budget, it's hard to screw up, and DA2 likely suffered as a result)

Yeah, yeah... the ending. The fucking ending. Still, I like to think real men don't let 20 minutes of xtreme popamole ruin 50 hours of solid, fleshed out and balanced gameplay. The drama surrounding this game is a largely a bandwagon, because here is what it does right:

• Everything ME1 did right, while simultaneously tossing out as much shitty ME2 'streamline' as they could.
• Holy shit, important events from two entire games' worth of C&C actually carry over. Every character has at least a cameo/mission and some semi-relevant C&C regardless of how often you could've screwed them over in past games. The Genophage conclusion. Stop and think about it for a minute, that is an assload of homework and commitment to a game trilogy spanning 5 years. Explaining cross-game C&C to an EA executive and getting it approved is probably reminiscent of peeling your skin off with a rusty scalpel dipped in acid.
• Manages to offer almost as much area exploration as ME1, with 2012 cutting-edge artistic assets. Easy to overlook/dismiss, but outstanding for an AAA title who would usually see no value in 'ridiculous' concepts such as non-linearity
• The gameplay functionality and difficulty, for a FPS-RPG, is actually acceptable. Actuallly. There were tactics to it, both individual and squad-based. Four difficulty settings, where the easiest one can be played by your little sister and the hardest one is actually satisfying.

What it did poorly? Some storyfag stuff, like Cerberus and Sovereign being basically retcon'd. The main antagonist being an AZN cyborg ninja. And no gay unicorn, which is obviously a big deal. Still, all in all, a decent game on its own and a good sequel.

So yeah, ME4 is something to look forward to in the same way you look forward to buying an air freshener - whatever you might be freshening, it will likely be worth it unless the scent of RTwP is too shitty for you to successfully erase. Let us hold our breath until we know for sure who gets to work on the game and how much cash is generously bestowed upon the lowly devs by the almighty, benevolent publisher.

In other (slightly old) news - Blizzard is now free from Vivendi shareholder control, after 7 years of churning out extra-popamole editions of popamole. Could Bioware have managed the same if they hadn't signed up with satan?

Oh Satan could it be?! Is it possible that there's someone else who thinks ME3 is actually a pretty decent game? Allow me to fist you sir!

 

[Metro]

It reminded me of moon patrol. That alone was cool. Plus it offered some nice sights and the illusion of exploration. Unfortunately that was handled very poorly.

I dunno anything about 2 and 3 but if the exploration in those was anything like the 'exploration' in the first then it's a lost cause. Tool around a barren planet on some 'Find X dogtag/beacon/twinkies' mission or, at best, stumble on some five minute linear side-dungeon.

Oh come on, Megathreads suck and are impossible to follow

Appropriate since this game will suck and be impossible to follow.

 

[thesheeep]

I just hope it is no direct prequel. I hate direct prequels, they are always pointless, as you do not only know how it will end, you even know how the sequel ends.
Feels like everything has already been set in stone and you are just following the script. Which is what you do anyway, technically, but that feeling is not what a story driven game should strive for.

It's the same reason that made Star Wars episode 1-3 pointless (well, if you ignore the fact that they also sucked) and the reason that makes the Warcraft movie far less interesting.

 

[Angthoron]

Maybe it's a franchise reboot. The classic story of ME needs to be retold for a modern audience.

 

[Metro]

I'm sure it'll be sufficiently different. They're just using the ME tag for marketing.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

As long as i won't be closed in rainbow spaceship full of sexual deviants copied from DA:Inqusition, who wants to rape half of the galaxy , and after that save it from big vegetables , i could give it a go. But when Inqusition model wins, i want special 100% resistance for my heterosexual character for any Dorian style "Grab the soap" spell or ability of deviant chars.

 

[SuicideBunny]

As long as i won't be closed in rainbow spaceship full of sexual deviants copied from DA:Inqusition, who wants to rape half of the galaxy , and after that save it from big vegetables , i could give it a go.

that was already covered by me2.

 

[DraQ]

Like the entire game was filler just for that part. That sounds familiar... OH WAIT

Fuk u.

I don't even particularly like SW but comparing *any* part of the old trilogy with HURRMAN REAPER is a fucking disgrace, let alone the very best part.

 

[DefJam101]

Still waiting for the Mass Effect spin-off prequel where you control a C-Sec buddy cop duo. I can see it now: an uptight, by-the-book Turian and his new partner — jive talkin' black Renegade Shepard with an afro — dismantle a futuristic organized crime operation. Kicking down doors on alien drug farms, getting drunk after work, wearing sunglasses, jamming to bad 70s/80s music. Shit would be tight.

 

[Applypoison]

Like the entire game was filler just for that part. That sounds familiar... OH WAIT

Fuk u.

I don't even particularly like SW but comparing *any* part of the old trilogy with HURRMAN REAPER is a fucking disgrace, let alone the very best part.

Spoiler

No u.

I think the original SW trilogy is a classic either way. The point, is that the majority of Ep.V was more or less filler for the final ~20 minutes, which is when the story actually advances. (Ep. II sort of pulled the same device, except it was way more hamfisted and clearly aimed at a low common denominator, which made it far more painful.) The narrative in ME2 felt much like the same, where they had this AWSUM concept for an ending and basically built the whole game around it, fishing ideas from retconland along the way.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Well, I was kinda meh on ME1, played it mostly because of sci-fi setting. Main storyline was cliched but decent, characters were too underdeveloped for my liking, combat was atrocious. Liked ME2, they actually made combat somewhat fun (or at least not a chore), and I never really thought about series as RPG games anyway, so streamlining didn't bother me. Liked the characters more in ME2, come to think about it. Main storyline was nonsensical, but singular character quests were mostly well done.
ME3 was crap tho', with Shepard's sudden PTSD, all that Apocalypse Mew scenario and all. ME3's ending was just a pus cherry on a shitcake. Only redeeming feature for me was, surprisingly, multilayer, it's kinda fun to play with friends.

After DA2 and ME3 the only emotion that I feel towards Bio products is schadenfreude, so I hope ME4 flops.

 

[RK47]

Big deal.

 

[Jaesun]

ME2 was best mass effect.

 

[Nihiliste]

I remember I couldn't get past the boring grind when you arrive at the citadel at the beginning of ME1. The pale hallways and whatnot also reminded me too much of KOTOR, only I didn't have my childhood impressions of star wars to get me through the flaws and tedium. Maybe at some point in the future when the current resurgence of incline is over I'll go back and try to play these.

 

[RK47]

I remember I couldn't get past the boring grind when you arrive at the citadel at the beginning of ME1. The pale hallways and whatnot also reminded me too much of KOTOR, only I didn't have my childhood impressions of star wars to get me through the flaws and tedium. Maybe at some point in the future when the current resurgence of incline is over I'll go back and try to play these.

At least it didn't have plasteel containers.

You know what I liked most about Obsidian's sequel? It's the one where they gave you a plasma torch which you can simply say 'fuck you' to any locked door/containers immediately without having to power attack the door 10x like an idiot.

Also, Atton Rand's ability 'When he has a bad feeling, you better save game.'

 

[Metro]

'Best Mass Effect' is like saying 'most compassionate Nazi.'

 

[RK47]

'Best Mass Effect' is like saying 'most compassionate Nazi.'

The Biggest Beggar.