Mass Effect: Andromeda [PC]

I want to be careful about putting too much stock into a single glass door claim. But. I would suspect from this smoke that there is a fire.

 

I suppose I am not really in touch with what's popular. I don't play any online games other than Supreme Commander. I just watch for interesting single player horror and sci-fi games.

I've actually been exploring the Xbox 360 and PS3 libraries lately. I haven't played some of the exclusives there. It's all super cheap now.

 

The one I quoted was from July 2016.

Here are all the reviews (you must login either through the site directly or through facebook or google):
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Bi...tus=PART_TIME&filter.employmentStatus=UNKNOWN

I see only one mock review as a reaction to the game's release. Looking at the timeline, the site seems to be pretty good at filtering non-serious stuff.

Another from July but from Edmonton (the other was from Montreal):

 

It's not even really the old guard, although they probably represent the oldest remaining Bioware employees. The heart and soul of the company basically left when the founders all quit the company.

EA has pushed hard to transform Bioware from a RPG focused company to an action/FPS focused company. I imagine there's a lot of resentment and infighting between people that support that and people that wish they still created quality RPGs. Without the guiding vision of the founders of the company, it's become a mess.

Meh, not like I care anymore though. Bioware has been a dead company to me for many years now.

Regards,
SB

 

Eh, the complaints about Bioware don't seem any different than the complaints I've heard about just about every game development studio. Seems like the hours, deadlines and pressure sucks in the industry across the board.

I'm not one to let Bioware off the hook, or let their developers off the hook and focus on Bioware's Management staff as the excuse the game is substandard.

ME1 was a fantastic game with amazing graphics for a console game with an expansive universe and mythos. It would be hard for anybody to match that level of success this far after the original.

 

Mass Effect was affected as well. The first ME was a point and click RPG with an over the shoulder view (hence complaints from Shooter fans that it was a bad shooter since if you aimed at an enemies head you might not actually hit the enemies head since an RPG die roll taking your character skills into account determined whether you actually hit something you clicked on with the mouse or controller in the case of consoles). Starting with the second it's basically just been your average 3rd person shooter with the more and more of the RPG aspects and rich character driven dialogue (and dialogue consequences) being reduced.

Regards,
SB

 

ME1 was also a sort of simplified KOTOR.

I like ME1 and 2 equally I think. Both have a lot of flaws but a lot of exciting aspects too.

 

Both of those games are also just shooters with some RPG trappings draped over them very very loosely.

Classic RPGs are those where character skills and development are more important than player skills.

For example, if you are good at sniping in a shooter (1st or 3rd person) you'll be an ace sniper no matter what shooter you play, even if it's one supposedly about a character that knows nothing about guns. Player (you) skill is the only thing that matters. Even if there's a skill tree, everything in the game revolves around your skill as a player vs. the skills of the character you are controlling. FO3 and the Division are shooters in that combat is dependent on player skill with character skills adding flavor and little else to character development. FO3, at least has RPG elements in non-combat scenarios. So while I hate Bethesda for what they did to the Fallout franchise, I don't hate them as much as I hate EA for what they did to ME and DA (ME1 and DA:O were fantastic RPGs) after they took over Bioware.

However, in an RPG if you roleplay a character with no knowledge of guns, you aren't ever going to hit anything with a sniping rifle. Character skill (in game) is the main factor and it's up to you to play the role of an unskilled person gradually becoming more skilled over time.

In modern gaming, many people have really really loosened the application of the term RPG to where it is meaningless in many cases.

Regards,
SB

 

Nobody in their right mind could call Fallout 3 "a shooter". You can shoot things, but a bloody shooter it ain't.

Fallout 4 is a shooter with NV somewhere in between. NV had iron sights but did not have shooting mechanics of console games unless you thought original PlayStation FPS games had reached the pinnacle of the genre.

 

I considered it a shooter as other than VATs, you basically hit what you shot at. IE - you could proceed through the entire game without upgrading your weapon related skills and not really suffer if you were good at shooters as you could consistently hit what you were aiming at even if it was for reduced damage, but I do agree that it was more of a nod towards RPGs than the follow ups. Although with your disagreement perhaps I'm mixing things up with Fallout NV. Meh, I dislike the game enough that I can't be arsed to go back and check. So the point is yours.

The same can't be said of a point and click RPG system like ME1, even if it did use a 3rd person over the shoulder view point.

Regards,
SB

 

Yeah, you could use VATS to line up a perfect shot and manually pull the trigger and hit every time unless your target moved. That's when it became a janky mess: trying to hit a moving target. You looked like you should be able to strafe easily and aim but you couldn't really.

To be fair to Bethesda, they did clearly say at every opportunity that although FO3 looked like a shooter it wasn't. It must have been a conscious game decision because the bow mechanics in Oblivion weren't too bad!

As I wrote somewhere else I thought the decision to have dice rolls tied to the key combat mechanics in ME1 was terrible. I was supposed to be an elite sniper but couldn't hold my weapon still for many levels. If I was role playing, I was role playing a drunk!

 

So in general it feels like a fun game but boring?

 

I've barely been able to get my wife off the game since it was released. I'm a single dad at the moment.

 

FYI: There's a spin-off thread for discussing Game and Model Design Decisions over here, feel free to participate even if it is currently in the console section: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/me-a-game-and-model-design-decisions-gone-awry-spinoff.59997/

 

From the amount of swearing and reloading my wife does, this game has some serious save game and crashing issues.