The animation thing is pretty bad, like downright terrible, kinda of ridiculous tbh, as in absolutely ridiculous that it's even a topic of conversation ffs. I'm happy i don't really notice what the F' those people are going on about, but then again i don't obsessively laser focus on someones mouth when they speak either. Dunno? I really don't notice, probably too busy enjoying the game to go all OCD on some avatars lips.
The animation thing is pretty bad, like downright terrible, kinda of ridiculous tbh, as in absolutely ridiculous that it's even a topic of conversation ffs. I'm happy i don't really notice what the F' those people are going on about, but then again i don't obsessively laser focus on someones mouth when they speak either. Dunno? I really don't notice, probably too busy enjoying the game to go all OCD on some avatars lips.
Or it could be that you just have low awareness.
Or maybe *Gasp* he just is enjoying his time in game and the minor issues don't effect his overall enjoyment. [mod edit]
The animation thing is pretty bad, like downright terrible, kinda of ridiculous tbh, as in absolutely ridiculous that it's even a topic of conversation ffs. I'm happy i don't really notice what the F' those people are going on about, but then again i don't obsessively laser focus on someones mouth when they speak either. Dunno? I really don't notice, probably too busy enjoying the game to go all OCD on some avatars lips.
Or it could be that you just have low awareness.
Or maybe *Gasp* he just is enjoying his time in game and the minor issues don't effect his overall enjoyment. [mod edit]
You are way too high strung, my dude. Even the person I responded to caught that it was a lighthearted joke.
That said, there are very real differences in human perception and they explain why some people don't notice the animations and others can't help but notice them.
My brother will watch videos with the popup blocker bar across the top and the mouse cursor sitting in the dead center of the screen. He's one of the most oblivious people I've ever met.
I'm on the extreme opposite end where I can't help but notice things that are out of place. I see things that normal people can't like the blood cells moving through my eye. The poor animation in Andromeda is a very real obstacle to my enjoyment of the game.
Soooo they're saying something is more complicated than the Internet has made it out to be?
PLOT TWIST: The guy hasn't worked for Bioware in years & his explanations are just bad.
WHat his explanation was was simple. It's as layman as one could get, he is right that RPGs typically are a case of quantity over quality in many respects. There are exceptions, yet even in those exceptions there are plenty of issues brought on by the very nature of the genre.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I have now played Mass Effect Andromeda for a good chunk of 15-20 Hours or so, and yes I have noticed the "stale" Eyes that certain individuals have, but ...lol SO. This is just redicoulous hate on Another Bioware masterpiece. Sometimes we are treated with other gems, like the Witcher 3 , were Close to Everything is perfect, I thought they overdid the redicoulous hunt for ? in that game however, It's abit redicoulous and thing that makes W3 bad in my book, but to some people this is a good thing. ME: A is also "nearly" perfect , albeit some stiff human faces, all the ALIENS look fantastic in the game, and I managed to create a fantastic looking main characther with the creator. right now everyone compares this game to a much beloved game on PS4 Horizon and The Nintendo Switch Zelda, good for these game companies they managed to get Everything right, but I still love ME:A and I will not buy a PS4 or a N:Switch ..So I will have to pass on these games and enjoy my time in Another Bioware Classic..
Instead of dealing with the actual and reasonable criticisms levied by not just fanboys and angry gamers, but many, many critics, you attack the individuals behind those criticisms. Good show. Makes you look entirely reasonable and professional.
We speak of different things. Reasonable criticism of any sort is entirely okay, just like, for example, your message. I respect your opinion.
What I spoke of, however, was people going out of their way to harass a person who did not have anything to do with the reason they were angry in the first place. That is not "just an opinion". That is not "reasonable criticism". That is hate, unfounded and petty.
A bit late of the reply and I've read enough of the material to actually feel like I need to warrant some points that the community portion of developers, professionals and reviewers really are divided from as far as the playerbase and I think its this divide that really makes the whole case become a problem that creates and leads to a bigger problem.
Granted a bit of a late reply (I got back from vacation okay..so yeah not doing this on the phone then) but these are my opinion of the whole debate on what you've mentioned about the attack on the lady:
1- There was never an acknowledgement about the fact that sh-t travels upward and not downward EVER! Yes I know it takes a lot of ppl to make a game and develop it but she was hardly alone in being blamed for one aspect of the game as far as history is concerned; she has Luke Smith from Bungie on Destiny and Hiromichi Tanaka for the first release of FF14 proceeding her in terms of "their fault". I could even apply it politically and say how ppl are blaming Trump and Ryan for the failure on the Health Care Bill that just failed. Yes they were part of teams and it involved many many ppl but saying it shouldn't apply in her case ignores that it works that way for a lot of businesses and venues in life and we shouldn't be making an exception without a warranted case.
2- I will acknowledge that the harassment vented toward her was bad and horrible, but it wasn't the worse [which doesn't lend it to making it acceptable either, I am aware of that] and placing it as misogynistic doesn't make it that the gamers were being sexist either. I don't go around and correct my cisgender, female friend when she calls a player who killed in a game a "bitch" and I don't petend to be appalled that her lesbian sister uses words that feminist find offensive.
Like I said, it doesn't make it right ever, but I also wouldn't take the criticism as a means of inferring that the gamer community should be painted as male-dominated, anti-feminist community. I'd place it more simply that they were awaiting a game and were pissed massively that something that they felt was simple wasn't addressed. And I get it isn't simple but goes to my next point.
3- Horrible company relations and outreach. It became evident that she wasn't involved in the project in any way, shape or form but that also falls on Bioware to make a community engagement effort and, frankly, except for Square Enix's FF14 and CCP's EvE Online, the majority and trend in all of this it to create horrible community feedback areas that leave gamers/users more frustrated that there is no outlet to create feedback.
I once met a developer from the abandoned WISH mmorpg that never came to be years ago and one thing he mentioned that's relevant is that players sometimes want stuff that isn't feasible but don't care and so having a community management and team that addresses it and has experience with the player end but also isolated from them at some level is critical. They need to confront controversies initially and head on and early but not feel that they have to cater to every need and also have the leeway of expression and validating points on either division. Bioware sucks at that but that's also the trend more than the exception and I think this is more important to address than the case of misogyny in the gaming community if only because the issue of misogyny gets addressed issue by issue rather than as a community; with the former painting gamers as horrible ppl vs it being the exception than the norm.
4-I think the whole critique of the gaming review should also tend to critique the game on terms of what players value versus the game as a whole and reflect that. Demon's Soul was given a pretty bad rating in a lot of areas and not given serious reviews by a lot of major magazines until well after its release and only when a 2nd run of the game came out.
So all I'm saying is that there are things that players value more and, at the same time, value less than reviewers. It'd be nice if we could get on the same page but that also means having that dialogue and commenting on the merit of it.
Just my 2 cents and, again not a necro troll/feedback reply but was on vacation and typing this crap on phone is a pain!
So the guy who posted the video of how bad the expressions were pretty much defeated this article's opinion in one fell swoop. rofl
Considering how much you talk to different people/aliens in this game. A 5 minute video is like .01% of the total animations. It's like the cognitive dissonance Anti-vaxxers have.
I have now played Mass Effect Andromeda for a good chunk of 15-20 Hours or so, and yes I have noticed the "stale" Eyes that certain individuals have, but ...lol SO. This is just redicoulous hate on Another Bioware masterpiece. Sometimes we are treated with other gems, like the Witcher 3 , were Close to Everything is perfect, I thought they overdid the redicoulous hunt for ? in that game however, It's abit redicoulous and thing that makes W3 bad in my book, but to some people this is a good thing. ME: A is also "nearly" perfect , albeit some stiff human faces, all the ALIENS look fantastic in the game, and I managed to create a fantastic looking main characther with the creator. right now everyone compares this game to a much beloved game on PS4 Horizon and The Nintendo Switch Zelda, good for these game companies they managed to get Everything right, but I still love ME:A and I will not buy a PS4 or a N:Switch ..So I will have to pass on these games and enjoy my time in Another Bioware Classic..
Well, no, most people were comparing the game with previous Mass Effect games. You probably haven't played those, so you wouldn't know. The *ridiculous hate*... yet you are the only guy saying the game is a *masterpiece*. Do you know the definition of "masterpiece"? Probably not.
I must admit I have not seen such passionate "fanboy-ism" in quite some time. Sure, some people are upset with animations and not only... maybe too much! Let's say they are "haters" or maybe just *disappointed fans*. But going to the extreme opposite and saying that the game has 0 issues and is a masterpiece.. is just plain shocking. You could be fed *anything* and still claim that it tastes like roses.
Yet I don't see both parties coming together and trying to find common ground. Something like: this is good, this is bad, this could be good, this could have been worse...etc
This is not even a discussion - it's flame wars where no one is right about anything. Not even the moderators of this site
"More, players are limited by only having three active abilities, which I find ridiculously few. However, I understand that between jetpack, evasion, scanning, consumable wheel, etc. BioWare had only that much buttons left for console-players and it obviously traveled into PC version as well."
This is plenty enough reason for me not to purchase the game. Cater to console players, lose your PC players, hope they're enough for you to stay afloat.
Well, no, most people were comparing the game with previous Mass Effect games. You probably haven't played those, so you wouldn't know. The *ridiculous hate*... yet you are the only guy saying the game is a *masterpiece*. Do you know the definition of "masterpiece"? Probably not.
I must admit I have not seen such passionate "fanboy-ism" in quite some time. Sure, some people are upset with animations and not only... maybe too much! Let's say they are "haters" or maybe just *disappointed fans*. But going to the extreme opposite and saying that the game has 0 issues and is a masterpiece.. is just plain shocking. You could be fed *anything* and still claim that it tastes like roses.
Yet I don't see both parties coming together and trying to find common ground. Something like: this is good, this is bad, this could be good, this could have been worse...etc
This is not even a discussion - it's flame wars where no one is right about anything. Not even the moderators of this site
Most comparisons have been bad, be it ME games W3, Horizon, Zelda etc... The best comparison would be DA:I really. As there were many of the same complaints for that one, about it losing a lot from the series proper in moving to a open world format. Especially in areas like writing/story telling.... The plus on it's side is it was coming off the heels of DA2 which was panned heavily, helping some positivity surround DA:I. As it wasn't the horrible corridor design used in DA2.
The problem with animation comparisons with games like W3, Zelda, as well as Horizon is, those games have one choice as far as playable faces goes. This alone means far more attention to detail can be applied to facial animation. What looks good on one face, isn't going to be problematic with another (uncanny valley).
The problem with comparisons to quality in those respects to ME 1-3 is those games have a sole focus on story, they're not trying to be bigger as games like ME:A, DA:I are trying to be. This alone pushes certain features into a mediocre state, as they need time to focus on everything else.
Adding these two things together explains why we're seeing less overall quality in a title like this. It's the same issue Bethesda faces in their games, and why they're more problematic than many other franchises. Take the character creation out of those games and you'd see the level of detail in other areas (such as animation) heighten... that's just the way of things...
Want bigger games with options?, you have to settle for lesser quality in certain areas. Want great animations? you have to sacrifice options... Want deeper game-play and larger worlds? You have to sacrifice pacing in the story (urgency goes out the window).
In short many things could be better, yet making them better, sacrifices something else.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
"More, players are limited by only having three active abilities, which I find ridiculously few. However, I understand that between jetpack, evasion, scanning, consumable wheel, etc. BioWare had only that much buttons left for console-players and it obviously traveled into PC version as well."
This is plenty enough reason for me not to purchase the game. Cater to console players, lose your PC players, hope they're enough for you to stay afloat.
Except consoles are not the reason. What they did was they got rid of traditional Bioware pause-to-use-abilities-and-set-up-combos during combat system. They made it more real time action than any of the previous DAs or MEs. If you played ME3 multiplayer, that is what this plays like except now it also plays that way in single player mode with the only exception being tab to change weapons (you can also use the mouse wheel) and equip consumables like incendiary ammo for example.
People might not like the new system, but it's not because of consoles.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
In my book ME:A is a good game. Nothing revolutionary, nothing mind blowing but purely a very enjoyable story and action packed gaming experience despite all its flaws. Being a huge part of the supposedly immersive narrative the Sims-like facial animations are among the biggest problems with this game so far but still they can't negate all the good stuff I've already encountered during my journey since the game's launch. I'm happy with my purchase.
Of course this game can't beat The Witcher 3 nor can The Witcher 3 beat Mass Effect: Andromeda because they are both outstanding titles in my collection and they are not even comparable as a whole. I'm happy that both of these games exist regardless the fact that The Witcher 3 has far superior facial animations (in fact they're probably far the best compared to any of the RPG games out there) and lighting during its cut scenes while ME:A leaves us with a lot to be desired on the same department. But still ME:A is a great game for me with engaging combat and story elements.
I played the Origin 10 hour trial, and the poor animations and bugs coupled with spotty voice acting are not overblown issues. The dialog/writing is also pretty bad - it reminds me of a juvenile scifi novel or fanfic. Taken together, it's difficult to engage with the story and connect with the characters, which is really disappointing for a Bioware game.
On the flipside, the combat and especially the character customization are pretty good. (but you can't modify your party member's gear - wut?)
I find the comparisons to Dragon Age Inquisition especially interesting because I thought that was a good game that was worth full price.
Andromeda is a 6/10 for me right now and I did not buy after my trial expired. I'll wait for the price to drop for $20 or $30.
One last thing - the reviewer wrote "if you play(ed) Mass Effect and / or Dragon Age for graphics, you’re doing it wrong." When you say "[game's] flaws don't matter because this franchise isn't about those things" you are outing yourself as a total fanboy. Flaws do matter.
I have played and enjoyed the Mass Effect games, however this one is a travesty. There is no excuse for this game to have been released in the state it is in. Bioware needs to apologize to the gaming community for this crap.
Finally picked this up, so far I give it a "T" for tedious. Most mmo pve is less of a yawn fest and have more compelling stories. Sometimes the banter between team members is interesting, that's about it.
Comments
That said, there are very real differences in human perception and they explain why some people don't notice the animations and others can't help but notice them.
My brother will watch videos with the popup blocker bar across the top and the mouse cursor sitting in the dead center of the screen. He's one of the most oblivious people I've ever met.
I'm on the extreme opposite end where I can't help but notice things that are out of place. I see things that normal people can't like the blood cells moving through my eye. The poor animation in Andromeda is a very real obstacle to my enjoyment of the game.
The guy hasn't worked for Bioware in years & his explanations are just bad.
Hype train -> Reality
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
A bit late of the reply and I've read enough of the material to actually feel like I need to warrant some points that the community portion of developers, professionals and reviewers really are divided from as far as the playerbase and I think its this divide that really makes the whole case become a problem that creates and leads to a bigger problem.
Granted a bit of a late reply (I got back from vacation okay..so yeah not doing this on the phone then) but these are my opinion of the whole debate on what you've mentioned about the attack on the lady:
1- There was never an acknowledgement about the fact that sh-t travels upward and not downward EVER! Yes I know it takes a lot of ppl to make a game and develop it but she was hardly alone in being blamed for one aspect of the game as far as history is concerned; she has Luke Smith from Bungie on Destiny and Hiromichi Tanaka for the first release of FF14 proceeding her in terms of "their fault". I could even apply it politically and say how ppl are blaming Trump and Ryan for the failure on the Health Care Bill that just failed. Yes they were part of teams and it involved many many ppl but saying it shouldn't apply in her case ignores that it works that way for a lot of businesses and venues in life and we shouldn't be making an exception without a warranted case.
2- I will acknowledge that the harassment vented toward her was bad and horrible, but it wasn't the worse [which doesn't lend it to making it acceptable either, I am aware of that] and placing it as misogynistic doesn't make it that the gamers were being sexist either. I don't go around and correct my cisgender, female friend when she calls a player who killed in a game a "bitch" and I don't petend to be appalled that her lesbian sister uses words that feminist find offensive.
Like I said, it doesn't make it right ever, but I also wouldn't take the criticism as a means of inferring that the gamer community should be painted as male-dominated, anti-feminist community. I'd place it more simply that they were awaiting a game and were pissed massively that something that they felt was simple wasn't addressed. And I get it isn't simple but goes to my next point.
3- Horrible company relations and outreach. It became evident that she wasn't involved in the project in any way, shape or form but that also falls on Bioware to make a community engagement effort and, frankly, except for Square Enix's FF14 and CCP's EvE Online, the majority and trend in all of this it to create horrible community feedback areas that leave gamers/users more frustrated that there is no outlet to create feedback.
I once met a developer from the abandoned WISH mmorpg that never came to be years ago and one thing he mentioned that's relevant is that players sometimes want stuff that isn't feasible but don't care and so having a community management and team that addresses it and has experience with the player end but also isolated from them at some level is critical. They need to confront controversies initially and head on and early but not feel that they have to cater to every need and also have the leeway of expression and validating points on either division. Bioware sucks at that but that's also the trend more than the exception and I think this is more important to address than the case of misogyny in the gaming community if only because the issue of misogyny gets addressed issue by issue rather than as a community; with the former painting gamers as horrible ppl vs it being the exception than the norm.
4-I think the whole critique of the gaming review should also tend to critique the game on terms of what players value versus the game as a whole and reflect that. Demon's Soul was given a pretty bad rating in a lot of areas and not given serious reviews by a lot of major magazines until well after its release and only when a 2nd run of the game came out.
So all I'm saying is that there are things that players value more and, at the same time, value less than reviewers. It'd be nice if we could get on the same page but that also means having that dialogue and commenting on the merit of it.
Just my 2 cents and, again not a necro troll/feedback reply but was on vacation and typing this crap on phone is a pain!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is your argument.
Well, no, most people were comparing the game with previous Mass Effect games. You probably haven't played those, so you wouldn't know. The *ridiculous hate*... yet you are the only guy saying the game is a *masterpiece*. Do you know the definition of "masterpiece"? Probably not.
I must admit I have not seen such passionate "fanboy-ism" in quite some time. Sure, some people are upset with animations and not only... maybe too much! Let's say they are "haters" or maybe just *disappointed fans*. But going to the extreme opposite and saying that the game has 0 issues and is a masterpiece.. is just plain shocking. You could be fed *anything* and still claim that it tastes like roses.
Yet I don't see both parties coming together and trying to find common ground. Something like: this is good, this is bad, this could be good, this could have been worse...etc
This is not even a discussion - it's flame wars where no one is right about anything. Not even the moderators of this site
This is plenty enough reason for me not to purchase the game. Cater to console players, lose your PC players, hope they're enough for you to stay afloat.
The problem with animation comparisons with games like W3, Zelda, as well as Horizon is, those games have one choice as far as playable faces goes. This alone means far more attention to detail can be applied to facial animation. What looks good on one face, isn't going to be problematic with another (uncanny valley).
The problem with comparisons to quality in those respects to ME 1-3 is those games have a sole focus on story, they're not trying to be bigger as games like ME:A, DA:I are trying to be. This alone pushes certain features into a mediocre state, as they need time to focus on everything else.
Adding these two things together explains why we're seeing less overall quality in a title like this. It's the same issue Bethesda faces in their games, and why they're more problematic than many other franchises. Take the character creation out of those games and you'd see the level of detail in other areas (such as animation) heighten... that's just the way of things...
Want bigger games with options?, you have to settle for lesser quality in certain areas. Want great animations? you have to sacrifice options... Want deeper game-play and larger worlds? You have to sacrifice pacing in the story (urgency goes out the window).
In short many things could be better, yet making them better, sacrifices something else.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
People might not like the new system, but it's not because of consoles.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Of course this game can't beat The Witcher 3 nor can The Witcher 3 beat Mass Effect: Andromeda because they are both outstanding titles in my collection and they are not even comparable as a whole. I'm happy that both of these games exist regardless the fact that The Witcher 3 has far superior facial animations (in fact they're probably far the best compared to any of the RPG games out there) and lighting during its cut scenes while ME:A leaves us with a lot to be desired on the same department. But still ME:A is a great game for me with engaging combat and story elements.
On the flipside, the combat and especially the character customization are pretty good. (but you can't modify your party member's gear - wut?)
I find the comparisons to Dragon Age Inquisition especially interesting because I thought that was a good game that was worth full price.
Andromeda is a 6/10 for me right now and I did not buy after my trial expired. I'll wait for the price to drop for $20 or $30.
One last thing - the reviewer wrote "if you play(ed) Mass Effect and / or Dragon Age for graphics, you’re doing it wrong." When you say "[game's] flaws don't matter because this franchise isn't about those things" you are outing yourself as a total fanboy. Flaws do matter.