Mass Effect: Andromeda

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CuriousOyster
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by CuriousOyster » Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:19 pm

Floex wrote:
jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


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It's easy to put spin on things. I mean, one of the top reviews is by Everyeye.it, you know THE Everyeye.it.

I know I trust them. Or how about LaPS4, these are quality trustworthy websites, for sure.


So why is there a debate about the metacritic score at all then, positive or negative? It always has and always will use random sites scores no one cares about.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by NickSCFC » Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:48 pm

I'm mainly just venting here.

I'm as big a Mass Effect fan of anyone here, double dipped on the original trilogy, bought the DLC and bought into the lore and was hugely anticipating the game. I even used to watch countless YouTube fan analysis and discussion videos.

This was one of my most anticipated games this generation and for EA to release the game in such a shoddy state is frankly disgusting. Once again EA don't get my money this gen, I'll be spending it on Horizon and Persona 5 instead.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Tafdolphin » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:25 pm

jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


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Jawa you're a blessing to this place, but this hugely oversimplifies and misrepresents the reaction this game has gotten. Most of the reputable sites' reviews have been middling to negative:


https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/0 ... da-review/

Mass Effect Andromeda feels like a game that exists because there needed to be a new Mass Effect game. It’s hard, as deeply as you explore it, to find something that shows any other reason for it to be. Despite the extraordinary opportunity of a fresh start, fresh characters, and even a fresh galaxy to set it in, this feels like a lengthy rehash of what came before. It is bad in many ways, from its madcap AI, poor character faces, dated design and most of all, horrible writing, but its biggest crime is just how unavoidably, all-encompassingly dull it is for so, so many hours.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... -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.


http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/03/20/m ... iew?page=1

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an expansive action role-playing game with a few great moments that recapture the high points of the landmark trilogy that came before it, and energetic combat and fantastic sound effects contribute to a potent sci-fi atmosphere. Without consistently strong writing or a breakout star in its cast to carry it through the long hours and empty spaces, however, disappointments like a lack of new races, no companion customization, and major performance problems and bugs take their toll.


http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mass-ef ... 0-6416638/

In many ways, Andromeda feels like a vision half-fulfilled. It contains a dizzying amount of content, but the quality fluctuates wildly. Its worlds and combat shine, but its writing and missions falter--and the relative strength of the former is not enough to compensate for the inescapable weakness of the latter. As a Mass Effect game, Andromeda falls well short of the nuanced politics, morality, and storytelling of its predecessors. For me, the series has always been about compelling characters and harrowing choices, so to find such weak writing here is bitterly disappointing. Yet even after 65 hours, I still plan on completing a few more quests. The game can't escape its shortcomings, but patient explorers can still find a few stars shining in the darkness.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by False » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:44 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:
jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


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Dual
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Dual » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:43 pm

Can't see a reason to play this over the dark souls 3 dlc or witcher 3 goty.

What a shame

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Manwell Pablo
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Manwell Pablo » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:13 pm

Moggy wrote:
Parksey wrote:I thought it was more an unwritten rule of gamers, rather than the journalists themselves. 8/10 is deemed as an acceptable score, but a 7/10 should carry one of those health warnings like on a fag packet.


Which is ridiculous because sometimes a 7 can be better than an 8. ;)

All of this "controversy" (and it really isn't much of a controversy) just shows how horribly inflated review scores are. A game is a disaster because it has dropped from an average of 9.1 to 7.5? It's strawberry floating crazy that scoring 7.5/10 would mean a game is bad.

I haven't played Andromeda and so have no idea if it is any good or not, but if it is bad then 7.5 is a ridiculously high score, if it is good then people thinking that 7.5 is a low score are ridiculous. And if it is just a bog standard ok game then both sides are wrong as it should have scored a 5 and be spoken of as average, not good or bad.


Speaking from a professional perspective as I work in statistics, computer game scoring is a little more complex than just your zero awful ten perfect when you attempt to quantify a 5 as average. An average game should theoretically score 5 but computer games generally are inflated somewhat, you rarely see a full price game get under six unless it's fundamentally flawed, especially AAA games. Nothing against ME as a game as game critics on mass have been known to criminally over and under rate games but 75 would suggest it's borderline average/good.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Moggy » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:20 pm

Manwell Pablo wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Parksey wrote:I thought it was more an unwritten rule of gamers, rather than the journalists themselves. 8/10 is deemed as an acceptable score, but a 7/10 should carry one of those health warnings like on a fag packet.


Which is ridiculous because sometimes a 7 can be better than an 8. ;)

All of this "controversy" (and it really isn't much of a controversy) just shows how horribly inflated review scores are. A game is a disaster because it has dropped from an average of 9.1 to 7.5? It's strawberry floating crazy that scoring 7.5/10 would mean a game is bad.

I haven't played Andromeda and so have no idea if it is any good or not, but if it is bad then 7.5 is a ridiculously high score, if it is good then people thinking that 7.5 is a low score are ridiculous. And if it is just a bog standard ok game then both sides are wrong as it should have scored a 5 and be spoken of as average, not good or bad.


Speaking from a professional perspective as I work in statistics, computer game scoring is a little more complex than just your zero awful ten perfect when you attempt to quantify a 5 as average. An average game should theoretically score 5 but computer games generally are inflated somewhat, you rarely see a full price game get under six unless it's fundamentally flawed, especially AAA games. Nothing against ME as a game as game critics on mass have been known to criminally over and under rate games but 75 would suggest it's borderline average/good.



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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Meep » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:24 pm

I look at more as if a game were sitting an exam. In that context, 5/10 is not about being average but just hitting half the available marks. Realistically you would expect students to get at least two thirds or more of the available marks if they bothered to revise and make an effort. A 10/10 is like getting full marks by hitting high in most areas (gameplay, graphics, art direction, script, sound, creative thinking, etc).

This makes more sense because the quality of a game is not effected by the quality of other games, so scoring in terms of averages does not make sense. There's no reason all games could not score highly if they were good enough.


...

Kind of disappointed by the reviews I have seen so far. Definitely not an immediate purchase. I'll maybe get it when it goes on sale.

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FatDaz
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by FatDaz » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:20 pm

Borderline average /good is by no means "a train wreck" that some are proclaiming it to be.

Personally I love the ME universe so I'm happy for more in any shape. Still waiting on the Trilogy remaster...

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Meep » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:39 pm

Oh, I'm sure it's not a train wreck, but it doesn't seem like something I want to pay full price for at launch either. Narrative and such is quite important to me so I found myself cringing at the ropey dialogue, bad delivery and poor character animation.

I was half considering it but the lowest price I could find for PC was about £37 so I will hold off for a while. There will probably be a better deal on it once all the DLC is a release and you can buy the complete edition. With any luck they might have actually fixed some of the problems it has by then as well.

Last edited by Meep on Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
jawafour
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by jawafour » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:42 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:
jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


Image


Jawa you're a blessing to this place, but this hugely oversimplifies and misrepresents the reaction this game has gotten. Most of the reputable sites' reviews have been middling to negative...


Taf, man, I gotta come back on that point; don't get me wrong, most reviews have indeed called out points of criticism - and quite right, too. But I feel that some folk are a little to eager to jump on the game. I just thought it was quite funny that Nick was using the "reviews are negative" line when - on the same Metacritic link on his post - it was clear that zero reviews had fallen into the negative category.

The game definitely doesn't appear to be a classic - although some folk here have played and enjoyed it - but a 70-odd percent game isn't awful. Disappointing aspects, sure, but still above average.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - 5min combat trailer released
by Venom » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:06 am

I played the original trilogy and really enjoyed them so I have been looking forward to this. With the negative previews it was difficult to know if it was all scaremongering about isolated tech issues. I've just watched the IGN review and it does refer to some probs but my filter tells me there are no major issues. Controls are meant to be good. The criticism I saw was the forgettable NPCs and writing - and that's kind of a biggie. I imagine some of the problem is that after the epicness of Shepards story it is intrinsically anticlimactic to play a new story set in the 'past.' The middling reviews indicate it might not be great but I'm hoping it's good.






LewisD wrote:*Enters thread*

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:(

*Leaves thread*



:lol:

I'm hoping that is a custom character and not the Bioware designed Ryder!

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by KjGarly » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:26 am

That's ME3.

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Venom
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Venom » Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:49 am

I'm not going to be able to recall a scene from a game I played 5 years ago, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!

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BID0
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by BID0 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:31 am

.

Last edited by BID0 on Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tafdolphin
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Tafdolphin » Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:42 am

jawafour wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:
jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


Image


Jawa you're a blessing to this place, but this hugely oversimplifies and misrepresents the reaction this game has gotten. Most of the reputable sites' reviews have been middling to negative...


Taf, man, I gotta come back on that point; don't get me wrong, most reviews have indeed called out points of criticism - and quite right, too. But I feel that some folk are a little to eager to jump on the game. I just thought it was quite funny that Nick was using the "reviews are negative" line when - on the same Metacritic link on his post - it was clear that zero reviews had fallen into the negative category.

The game definitely doesn't appear to be a classic - although some folk here have played and enjoyed it - but a 70-odd percent game isn't awful. Disappointing aspects, sure, but still above average.


You're not wrong, but see my previous comments re: context. What I also didn't mention was timing: look at The Witcher and Zelda. Both are Game of the Generation level of quality and both were reinventions of a brand. Andromeda's whole schtick was the reinvention of the Mass Effect brand: new character, new adventure, new galaxy. With this huge potential they've seemingly done...nothing. The game looks lazy, and there's nothing the interwebs likes to jump on more than laziness.

Women perhaps. And ethnic minorities.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Samuel_1 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:12 am

Gently-Parted Ringpiece wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:
jawafour wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:Stop making excuses, guys...

Andromeda has negative reviews throughout...


Image


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The main protagonist in this is truly terrifying, would look more at home is the new Resident Evil.

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KjGarly
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by KjGarly » Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:21 am

Key is available now from CDkeys. Can you not play early with a VPN?

Nevermind, you can.

Beyond the door (Not a spoiler really, taken right on the other side of it and you see nothing but that door behind you)

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Cal
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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by Cal » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:42 pm

If they improve the faces on the human models - you know, remember how to actually create attractive men and women - I might eventually get this. I doubt they're going to (this trend set in a while ago at Bioware, after all, as Inquisition all-too-readily showed), but if they do, I'm willing to give this a second look.

If I'm going to play a game in which I'm invited to create a personal avatar, lavish some attention on their appearance and, further, if I am invited by the developer to indulge in a relationship game throughout with other in-game characters (of either sex), I think the devs could at least make the effort to create some attractive male and female character models. Yes, I know 'attractive' is a subjective concept (I really do understand that), but I think I'm in the majority when I say that when it comes to this latest game Bioware is strangely (to the point of people calling it out) fond of the ugly tree when it comes to character design (male and female, imo).

Bioware have a few other ethical issues, from what I've seen and heard online, but I can't go into any of that here, so for the moment I'm choosing not to spend my money with them. I watched a YT video review last night in which a genuine ME fan expressed pretty much the same sentiments, adding that as he won't be buying into this iteration of ME, he'll be more than happy to enjoy the 'dumpster fire' that (to him) it is from the sidelines. I dunno - perhaps six months from now the game will have received a make-over. I hope so.

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PostRe: Mass Effect: Andromeda - March 23rd - Reviews incoming
by captain red dog » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:50 pm

So what happened here, have Bioware had a big turnover in staff since ME3? I really don't understand how these issues have occurred, if you look at ME1 the facial expressions/animations seem far more advanced than what we are seeing here. The stuff we are seeing here reminds me of the early PS2 stuff when FIFA was full of lifeless zombies!

I downloaded ME1 last week thanks to EA Access and I was amazed how well it holds up visually.


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