**^** Official Mass Effect Andromeda Thread **^**

[jamesbwbevis]

Less concerned with the attractiveness than I am with the disturbing nature of the character models in general. They don't just look fukking weird to you guys?

I agree with this, the models just look off and their movments in the cut scenes.

but whether the girl characters are 5s or 8s is not something a normal person should even consider

[AD117]

Less concerned with the attractiveness than I am with the disturbing nature of the character models in general. They don't just look fukking weird to you guys?

Thats also the main problem. The whole "aesthetics" debate started off as that and eventually evolved into an argument over how it looks in general. The models look super potato with strange animations and facial expressions. For example





And the worst offender:
http://i.4cdn.org/v/1488328229702.webm

[tnel00]

I'm really confused by the story...I thought we were going to a new galaxy where humans hadn't been before? If that's the case, then why in the exploration video are the main characters meeting other humans, krogans, etc.? Or do I have a completely wrong understanding of what this game's about?

[AD117]

I'm really confused by the story...I thought we were going to a new galaxy where humans hadn't been before? If that's the case, then why in the exploration video are the main characters meeting other humans, krogans, etc.? Or do I have a completely wrong understanding of what this game's about?

This has been confusing me too. SlootRyder went to go meet someone influential on one of the planets in a gameplay trailer and it was a human. I'm wondering wtf the deal is with that

[Zerafian]

7 sounds like a good number, not too much to make you think they're all shallow, not too few to make the game too short.


I think this game is going to deliver

I have to agree with this. Im picturing under 10 planets, like zones in any RPG or MMO. Maybe we can land on others but not really explore them in a large way.

[bongowongo]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/...player-freedom



Here's an interesting write up... Cautiously optimistic. Though, I'm still going to wait for more impressions and of course, reviews, but still, cautiously optimistic.






ah fuk who am I kidding .. I might go in day one because its still mass effect

I'm really confused by the story...I thought we were going to a new galaxy where humans hadn't been before? If that's the case, then why in the exploration video are the main characters meeting other humans, krogans, etc.? Or do I have a completely wrong understanding of what this game's about?

This has been confusing me too. SlootRyder went to go meet someone influential on one of the planets in a gameplay trailer and it was a human. I'm wondering wtf the deal is with that

Same.. Apparently this will be explained further during the game and also because there were people sent to that cluster waaaayyy before the Ryders and their crew arrive.

[tnel00]

Same.. Apparently this will be explained further during the game and also because there were people sent to that cluster waaaayyy before the Ryders and their crew arrive.

How? The game starts in 2185 which is only like 30 years or so after they discovered the mass relays.

[Zerafian]

I might go in day one because its still mass effect

its ok man...you wont be the only one. At this point Iv stopped watching or reading anything, since its so close to release. Im playing day one without question...because Mass Effect

[bongowongo]

How? The game starts in 2185 which is only like 30 years or so after they discovered the mass relays.

Using FTL drives.


I'm just spouting stuff I've read on gaf.

[eltwentyone]

How? The game starts in 2185 which is only like 30 years or so after they discovered the mass relays.

Cerberus probably ME can never let them go

[nkiritsis13]

I took it as there are over 100 planets to fly your ship to and tap for resources (just like in the previous mass effect), and then there are a handful you can actually land on.

That makes sense, I never played the original ones but heard about resources playing some part. Was it a mini-game or something of the likes in ME 1-3?

Looks like 7 planets that we can land on. Pretty good, especially if they claim each planet is bigger than the areas that were in Inquisition. Let's just hope that they can fill in those planets with meaningful side quests and characters with substance rather than mmo style fetch quests of DA:I. Also hope they're all varied and the flora/fauna look very alien .. Say what you will about No Mans Sky, but some of the worlds that game created were very alien like that made you feel like you were out in space.

Agreed on all points, as this is a case where as long as less means more content per planet, it's a better end result for us. If the general premise of the game is essentially colonization, it would be miraculous enough to find a couple habitable planets, let alone seven. Too many would be stretching the feasibility in a "world" where space travel exists. Like, what in the hell were we doing in the old galaxy if tens of habitable planets were a space-hop over next door?

It was a bit hard to understand some of the habitat explanations, but this is the gist of the seven:
Habitat 1: Arid world with fast underground rivers, dry desert
Habitat 2: Large moon orbiting gas giant, minerals
Habitat 3: Lush jungle canopies, rolling hills
Habitat 4: Wealth of surface water
Habitat 5: Turian and Quarians colonists, Extra protein life (?)
Habitat 6: Wide oceans and temperate climate
Habitat 7: Tropical paradise, first destination

The disappointment for me was the lack of any habitat with snow, so unless the fourth planet has a varied climate, as it is the only one that looked like it has the potential for a mixed environment, looks like a lot of jungles. The moon with the red plant life might have some polar regions, but that might also be expecting too much variation across however large the regions are in the game. At least the jungle environments offer plenty of room to display creative and alien worlds that take advantage of imaginative design freedom. I think planets like the first one will rely more on cities and outposts to be interesting because deserts are almost never remarkable in video games.

Referring back to the colonization hook of the story, perhaps that will allow the developers some room to play around with more intricate missions involving land disputes, dealing with hostile lifeforms, trade complications, and about any themes pertaining to colonization as a whole. Conceivably, they could expand upon real life examples throughout history to create intergalactic parallels or use them for jumping off points to bring depth to the mission structure.

Less concerned with the attractiveness than I am with the disturbing nature of the character models in general. They don't just look fukking weird to you guys?

Indeed, the human characters in the game all must have oddly proportioned models that tickle an uncanny valley response or something. Leaving subjective attractiveness out of the equation, they look goofy, especially in movement as AD117's example of fem-Ryder shows. Some of it is the body movement, but the facial models especially look... off.

- Always on the verge of self-defecating male-Ryder

Spoiler!

- This weird as hell facial expression:

Spoiler!

- ...

Spoiler!

Hodor!

- Group shot:

Spoiler!

From left to right: [Forgot to animate],
[Dramatic head turn],

[holding in a fart]

It's a bit of a shame to go from Shepard in the original trilogy...

...to the "Are we having fun yet?!" beer ad actor in Party Down/Leslie Knope's husband.

The original concept for the male protagonist looked anatomically human and more believable:

Spoiler!

...While also not looking like he was constantly about to sh*t himself.
Likewise, what we can see through the visor, the female (presumably) Ryder looks much more natural:

Spoiler!

The best I can chalk it up to is some uncanny valley effect because the current human models impart a disconnect that is difficult to describe. Contrary to this, all of the alien races look superb. Even the more "covered up" humans who are encased in body armor with helmets look better than when Bioware tries to humanize their characters. Considering that a large part of their goal with the series is meaningful inter-personal relationships, ensuring that the humans in particular don't look like synths is crucial in achieving that.

[bongowongo]

Wot dey heel?!?

Am I being trolled right now ..... We meet the first ever Gay Krogan (srs watch the video to believe lmao)


And wtf is up with that lip sync? that's fukkin horrid.



Will say though, those alien characters look great. I hope the PS4 pro visuals are almost on par with PC because it does look quite nice even though the human character models leave a lot to be desired. Weird.

[AD117]

Wot dey heel?!?

Am I being trolled right now ..... We meet the first ever Gay Krogan (srs watch the video to believe lmao)


And wtf is up with that lip sync? that's fukkin horrid.



Will say though, those alien characters look great. I hope the PS4 pro visuals are almost on par with PC because it does look quite nice even though the human character models leave a lot to be desired. Weird.

2:07

Jesus fking christ, I almost spit my coffee out lol. It's a female Krogan, but still.

More and more I'm convinced I should just go Charles Vane on this one

[Elvis.Costello]

^^fukkin lold hard at the voice.

Also tfw can't be



and have to be young Nolan North sounding dude instead. (The banter reminds me of Nathan Drake lol)

Edit: I'm still kind of finding it hard not to be excited for this though. Hopefully it's good

[Zerafian]

Wot dey heel?!?

Am I being trolled right now ..... We meet the first ever Gay Krogan (srs watch the video to believe lmao)


And wtf is up with that lip sync? that's fukkin horrid.



Will say though, those alien characters look great. I hope the PS4 pro visuals are almost on par with PC because it does look quite nice even though the human character models leave a lot to be desired. Weird.

jesus that human females lip sync was utter sh*t...and I believe that was a female krogan.

Iam tempted to buy it on my PS4 pro since I have a 4k/ HDR TV.

[2RDEYE]

i just care about the story tbh... mass effect 2's story is the reason why i loved that game.

cerberus, the mystery man guy, the reapers, gathering the strongest of the galaxy

[Driftslut]

Not sure if linked yet, but

https://www.masseffect.com/andromeda...arks-and-nexus

Looks like there were several arks, one for each species if I'm not mistaken; and it sounds like the other ones and the nexus (with some humans already aboard it) arrived earlier than Hyperion?

[youtube]2Xe4NoXadPI[youtube]

@ 2:26

"and looking for the turian ark"

interdasting.jpg

[GenghisBro]

Wot dey heel?!?

Am I being trolled right now ..... We meet the first ever Gay Krogan (srs watch the video to believe lmao)


And wtf is up with that lip sync? that's fukkin horrid.

Fukin lol at bioware

[bkozyn19]

ban me if this somehow doesn't turn out to be Mass Effect: Inquisition

[Singularity7]

Damn is this the model the Asari was based off?
The ugly Asari that everyone is baggin on?

[JPeeper]

So this is the actual model of the female Ryder:




This is what we get:



Like wtf:



How do you fuk that up that badly?


Meanwhile, a game from 7 years ago:



And it isn't even like they fuked up the guy that badly, he looks fairly similar:



It's just too bad they chose to pick a guy who looks like a complete chode to model the character after. Will actually change his appearance this time (left my Shepard untouched).



Ignoring the fact that they deliberately are making the chicks less attractive, the character models look straight out of Fallout 4 (ie. terrible) and the old ME trilogy games look better. The animations are also laughably bad.

[Maxamanius]

Why does every race of intelligent life in this game just happen to have two arms and two legs, that doesn't seem realistic

The storyline confuses me as well, they go to a new a galaxy and boom, the new races they encounter yet again have two arms and two legs, why does everything have two fcking arms and two legs, doesn't make sense.

The anatomy of two arms and legs should only be applicable to humans and life on earth, not realistic unless every other race you see that have this earth exclusive gene evolved from the same particles humans did on earth.

[Zerafian]

So what do you guys think....with a 980ti and older i7-4930k, should I get the game on PC or stick with my PS4pro. Only reason Im starting to question it is because I have a 55", 4k TV with HDR and after hearing the recommended specs, I feel like the game might be far more enjoyable with a controller and actually look better on with the PS4 and TV.

[Zerafian]

[JPeeper]

I may talk chit about the game, I may hate the kunts who made it, but fuk me sideways am I hyped.

Only 11 days ya filthy kunts.

[Slurgie]

So what do you guys think....with a 980ti and older i7-4930k, should I get the game on PC or stick with my PS4pro. Only reason Im starting to question it is because I have a 55", 4k TV with HDR and after hearing the recommended specs, I feel like the game might be far more enjoyable with a controller and actually look better on with the PS4 and TV.

If you don't mind using a controller then there's no reason not to. Bioware isn't know for making great PC ports, and there are no mods for ME so it's not like you're missing out. Graphics might be a little worse on ps4 but not by a big margin.

[nkiritsis13]

Wot dey heel?!?

Am I being trolled right now ..... We meet the first ever Gay Krogan (srs watch the video to believe lmao)


And wtf is up with that lip sync? that's fukkin horrid.



Will say though, those alien characters look great. I hope the PS4 pro visuals are almost on par with PC because it does look quite nice even though the human character models leave a lot to be desired. Weird.

I'm not sure about the "female Krogan" thing, because that was the gayest gay lisp I've heard that was completely unironic. 50/50 shot of it going down like this:

Spoiler!

At the rate Bioware's been, I'm worried that they're just going to see how bananas they can get.

As a whole, though, I don't know who approves these videos because they're not exactly selling their own work with that human lip-syncing. Aren't they using motion capture? I could understand if it was a character you created having spotty movements, but NPCs looking that off is poor form.

I guess it doesn't matter much if I plan on doing a space-Archer run because I'm just going to be a dick to them either way.

The most disturbing part of that video was at 2:55 with the docking bay. Slam poetry and singing?! Good gott Bioware's gone off the deep end. Know what, screw it. I'm going for space-Voldemort to cleanse the galaxy of all slam poets.

Dear lord.. It looks like bioware colabed with bethesda. And I also don't get the story... New galaxy, inhabited by all of the races from our galaxy? U wot.

I thought it's a bit odd myself, but it seems like the timeline coincides with the possibility that the reapers destroy all of the Milky Way galaxy species in the first trilogy, so if I'm understanding this correctly, these are just a backup plan to preserve everyone.

I found a pretty in-depth article explaining the basic gist well enough, with an interesting note regarding who is behind it:

Spoiler!

Mass Effect: Andromeda concerns an expedition to explore and colonise the Andromeda galaxy - specifically, its Heleus cluster. The Andromeda Initiative are the "civilian, multi-species project" organising the trip, and until quite recently, we knew very little about their backers or motives.

But at a presentation ahead of our hands-on preview, we heard that "a group of very powerful people" are behind the Initiative, and that having observed "there were a lot of threats around the Milky Way in general", they conceived the Initiative as a "plan B". Apparently this was an idea "they had thought about for a longer time", but something prompted them "to accelerate the process".

Or the more official description/sales pitch from the Mass Effect Andromeda website:

Spoiler!

Founded in 2176 and launched in 2185, the Andromeda Initiative is a civilian, multi-species project created to send scientists, explorers and colonists on a one-way trip to settle in the Andromeda Galaxy. With powerful benefactors lending their support, the program has grown substantially in scope since its inception. The Initiative’s ultimate goal is to establish a permanent presence on the seemingly resource-rich frontier of Andromeda, and eventually create a reliable route between it and the Milky Way Galaxy.

So, I guess powerful people and perhaps some ulterior motive leave more to imagination, with more complications you deal with:

Spoiler!

Not all of Andromeda’s challenges will be violent. Leaning in to Mass Effect’s traditional strengths in interactive dialogue, the Pathfinder will need to be a diplomat as well as a soldier; producer Mike Gamble says there’s a “political game” going on in Andromeda, that “not everyone arrives” in the galaxy at the same time, and that some elements of the Andromeda Initiative “broke off and formed factions”. Perhaps Hyperion arrives late in Andromeda, and by the time we stumble onto the galactic stage, the occupants of the Nexus and the other three arks have had months or even years to claim the plum roles?

Maybe they're going for a Game of Thrones in Space setup with cooperating pawns being used to fight for the "powerful people" or whatever they've come up with.

The expedition itself has a small space station (The Nexus) and four other "arks" for different Milky Way species led by a "Pathfinder," which is the Ryder twins' dad, Alec Ryder. Now, here is where I get lost, because he's described in the article as such:

Your dad has been retconned into Mass Effect lore and casts a pretty big shadow. Not only is he an N7 marine - the designation reserved for Earth’s very best soldiers - but he was also one of the first ever humans to enter a mass relay under the leadership of Alliance hero Jon Grissom. Alec fought the Turians during the First Contact War, after humanity got a little too keen on exploring mass relays, and has done pioneering research into artificial intelligence, having built the AI that serves the human Pathfinder team, SAM.

... so why am I supposed to get excited to play as one of his soy latte sipping children, again?

Otherwise, I do see the potential available - it just has to be done right. With a short supply of ideal planets to colonize and the different arks not arriving with equal footing, there could certainly be contention over land claims and other similar competitive interests putting these originally allied arks against one another. Assuming this is all taking place during a looming threat to the Milky Way inhabitants, it makes enough sense for everyone to want to get the hell, or if any hidden actors setting up the initiative are banking on these colonists to do the hard work for them and then inevitably kill each other off enough to make way for an easy take over.

Why does every race of intelligent life in this game just happen to have two arms and two legs, that doesn't seem realistic

The storyline confuses me as well, they go to a new a galaxy and boom, the new races they encounter yet again have two arms and two legs, why does everything have two fcking arms and two legs, doesn't make sense.

The anatomy of two arms and legs should only be applicable to humans and life on earth, not realistic unless every other race you see that have this earth exclusive gene evolved from the same particles humans did on earth.

Everything you ask can be answered with, "Easier to bone."

At least that's what I'm guessing that's how BioWare would explain it.

Stepping away from what I'm guessing are Bioware's autoerotic reasonings for so many bipedal races, I ran across an article discussing why the Kett were clothed, which might help give some insight as to the choices they made overall. The general takeaway I'm getting is that because they want this to be a very interpersonal game between you and the characters, they wanted to avoid any distracting or so alien that they lose any empathetic appeal. Now, I think that they should revisit that thought process with the human expressions and motion capture, because the more humanoid a race looks, the more wretched they come across.

In that respect, I can understand this direction, but what I find more important is avoiding inherent silliness that something like Star Wars brings. The new "Angara" race might just end up being a pissy bunch of discount gungans with bunny noses:

Spoiler!

Just doing my part to kill nerd boners.

...But at least nothing shown thus far has been as laughably absurd as anything approved by George Lucas. It sounds like there are only two completely new races, so it's not too bad - and we haven't seen what other types of creatures and wildlife will populate the game, so hopefully it is cohesive enough in the end.

Then there are the Remnant as a synthetic curve ball, which probably take the entire humanoid appearance for a completely different turn. I'd guess that the brief shot of some mechanical object in the first trailer...

Spoiler!

... is a tease of what the Remnant are capable of looking like. Going off of google rather than my own familiarity of the first games, I wonder if they're going to have anything to do with the Geth/Reapers synthetics, but I hope not because that could run the risk of soft-reboot territory instead of being 100% original.

So what do you guys think....with a 980ti and older i7-4930k, should I get the game on PC or stick with my PS4pro. Only reason Im starting to question it is because I have a 55", 4k TV with HDR and after hearing the recommended specs, I feel like the game might be far more enjoyable with a controller and actually look better on with the PS4 and TV.

I have a 980ti myself and an i7-5930k, and I'd go with the PC version just for the frame rate bump and possibility of mods later down the line. Dragon Age Inquisition is the most recent Bioware title and it has mods on the Nexus site.

As far as controllers go, this time they confirmed that the PC version will support them.

There is some differing recommendations between Nvidia and EA for what can be achieved:

EA:

Spoiler!

Nvidia says that a 1060 can achieve 60fps on high settings.

So unless you're planning on buying day 1, it might be wise to see if Bioware cocked up the PC optimization - just in case. Otherwise, it might depend on how well your TV displays lower frames per second because if it's not much of a bother, the (likely) 30fps might not be as irksome.

[2RDEYE]

story looks good. only thing that seems bad about the game are the chit looking main characters. your sister is the only attractive thing in your crew and you can't even romance her god damn it



actually looks hnnng and u can't even bang. it's like the game wants you to think about how incest should be legal

[nkiritsis13]

story looks good. only thing that seems bad about the game are the chit looking main characters. your is sister the only attractive thing in your crew and you can't even romance her god damn it

https://abload.de/img/5151510kuxu.jpg

actually looks hnnng and u can't even bang. it's like the game wants you to think about how incest should be legal

Hidden Achievement Unlocked


(Another) article I found on VG247 focuses exclusively on ME:A's romance options, as well as the writer's experience playing a preview. I'd say what's more disturbing is this part of the character/romance breakdowns:

Peebee
Scott Ryder could not seem to resist flirting with Peebee; the option came up multiple times in our chat, which seemed to be the first opportunity the pair had had to really get to know each other. Peebee was very open about her life and experiences – I won’t spoil what she actually said – but much more guarded about her immediate plans, even as she asked Ryder for help with them.

Achievement Unlocked: Looong Trip

In all seriousness, though, I don't want to set my expectations too high because I can see how ME:A could pull off some truly compelling and dynamic storytelling - especially if they've been taking notes on the wealth of television series that have created plenty of examples of how (and how not) to do extended stories with interconnecting plots and deep character relations.

[broseidon]

Lol it's not just the females that are disgusting, look at the MC proportions. Literally unplayable




Pretty sure it is only a matter of time until an actual cuckold character is in a bw game