Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)

[LoweGear]

And the final Andromeda Initiative briefing drops, covering Golden Worlds:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/kT6P3wIvp3Y

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Spoiler for Briefing:

Suvi mentions "Turian and Quarian Colonists", which confirms that yes, Quarians will be in the game

[LoweGear]

And here we have a nice look at the Nexus, which also spoils some of the things we can get from research and development:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/2Xe4NoXadPI

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[SidVicious]

Mass Effect: Andromeda PS4 Trophies

https://www.exophase.com/game/mass-e...-psn/trophies/

[LoweGear]

New IGN exclusive featuring explorable areas:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/-tWj7DBdAMA

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Also, exclusive interview with Multiplayer gameplay footage from the PS4 Closed Alpha Test:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/MWzWpSYQEsM

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[SidVicious]

[SidVicious]

Launch trailer:

[LoweGear]

The music didn't really sound much in the twitter preview, but hearing it in the full trailer it actually fits if you consider it as Ryder's theme song.

And while I still think ME2's launch trailer was still the most epic of the Mass Effect launch trailers, this comes in at second place in my eyes.

[SidVicious]

Touring the Tempest and Meeting the Crew:

[LoweGear]

I'm gonna have to watch it again to get some points, but that was a rather informative PAX East livestream of Mass Effect Andromeda, which showed off one of the very early missions:

- The transition between planets and systems really is seamless, and looks a whole lot better than the repetitive Mass Relay cutscenes we got in the trilogy.
- The level they went to was quite large, bigger than most maps in 2 and 3, without being as lifeless as the expanses in 1, and that was just the initial starting area.
- Ledge grabs were confirmed before, but seeing it in action alongside the jet pack was nice.
- Ryder isn't hydrophobic unlike Shepard, aka WE CAN GO ON WATER NOW!
- You can jump up to and walk on top of the Tempest
- Credits only matter on the Nexus, in most other places trading is done via salvage.
- You get 3 skill points per level up it seems.
- You can choose to bully the local fauna XD
- There was a major spoiler in that particular livestream.

There wasn't much combat in the stream, only 4 short skirmishes in the span of the entire hour, but I like that they look to be fulfilling the exploration aspect of the game in spades with the more expansive areas, scanning, and other stuff we can do in just the first starting area alone. It really reinforces that this is an RPG and not just a shooter.

Also, here's the recording of the livestream starting from the appropriate timestamp (SPOILER WARNING!)

[LoweGear]

Gameplay stream featuring Liam's loyalty mission (SPOILERS!)

YouTube

https://youtu.be/nRlAGkMvbRs

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This vid has the best representation of all the improvements they managed to do with the Frostbite engine, as well as how much they've expanded on the combat and squad banter, which actually has kind of a Guardians of the Galaxy-esque quality to it.

[Kyero Fox]

Yea they keep screwing up too. With broken arm motion. STILL Reusing awful animations from Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1.

I'll skip on this, the crew all look awful and uninteresting and if Dragon Age Inquisition was any clue, my hunch is right.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Yea they keep screwing up too. With broken arm motion. STILL Reusing awful animations from Dragon Age and Mass Effect 1.

Don't really see how this is a problem - Haven't really played Dragon Age, but having played three games worth of Mass Effect with more or less similar animations and I simply can't see what's wrong with them keeping them. And I didn't really notice the main animations being bad in the gameplay videos they showed, and I am staying clear of any repetitive discussions about facial animations.

[Rising Dragon]

Images

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Animation: How does it work?

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

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Animation: How does it work?

As I always say in the line of animation work, if you had to pause or freeze frame an animation to find fault in it, then it's nothing to get fussy about. Hell, Overwatch of all games has stretching arms and other animation oddities yet people don't make a huge issue about those.

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

As I always say in the line of animation work, if you had to pause or freeze frame an animation to find fault in it, then it's nothing to get fussy about. Hell, Overwatch of all games has stretching arms and other animation oddities yet people don't make a huge issue about those.

"Stretching arms" (and other stretchy things) are a legitimate animation technique. Have you not heard of "smears" before? They emulate they motion blur the human eye perceives on rapid movement. The "blur" frames often involve the stretching and/or doubling of certain parts being animated.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Tokkan

"Stretching arms" (and other stretchy things) are a legitimate animation technique. Have you not heard of "smears" before? They emulate they motion blur the human eye perceives on rapid movement. The "blur" frames often involve the stretching and/or doubling of certain parts being animated.

Fair point, but my point still stands: an animation flaw that can only be spotted by freezeframing or slo-mo isn't something to worry about in my opinion. It'd be nice to have awesome animations for a game, but it's a good thing that good games are made of of more than just animation - hell, Mass Effect as a whole is pretty much built on games with passable animation and the occasional flaws (the one time I saw Tali perform an Exorcist head spin on me was hilariously creepy), but I've had three games and other similar RPG's to not mind them at all.

Everything I've been seeing about this is makes me excited to play it especially in the gameplay and combat department, and it's looking to improve upon the elements that Mass Effect 1 had - the large-map exploration, crafting systems etc. - that ME2 and ME3 cut out entirely. I'm not letting a little animation niggles stop me from enjoying that.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

As I always say in the line of animation work, if you had to pause or freeze frame an animation to find fault in it, then it's nothing to get fussy about. Hell, Overwatch of all games has stretching arms and other animation oddities yet people don't make a huge issue about those.

This is the 4th game in a Series, 7th if you count Dragon Age that they used several very distinct and awful animations such as the grumpy walk the Big Bad did in the Final Trailer.

As example https://twitter.com/_watsu/status/840267175193661440


Before they add in garbage level of Multiplayer with VERY LIKELY Micro transactions. Maybe they should spend some money on Animation Classes.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Before they add in garbage level of Multiplayer with VERY LIKELY Micro transactions.

As someone who considers himself a singleplayer gamer, I consider Mass Effect 3's multiplayer to be the best online multiplayer experience I've ever had, and in fact I've been playing it again these past few weeks and it's still as fun as I remember it.

Given that Andromeda's multiplayer is going to be extremely similar to ME3 but now with ways to mitigate the microtransaction aspect, and I rather object to it being called "garbage". Hell, as much as I want there to be no microtransactions, if having them means that we can get free multiplayer DLC like they did in ME3, then it's a sin I'll gladly accept.

[Kyero Fox]

I get it, you just can't see how crap Bioware has become.

But atleast know, some of their developers are happy when white people get killed in games, like Manveer Heir.

You're welcome to go and buy it, anyone calling ME3's Multiplayer the bes online multiplayer experience is certainly not gonna have their opinion changed.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

I get it, you just can't see how crap Bioware has become.

All that matters is that when I play their games, I enjoy it, and I certainly do if my replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy recently means anything.

But atleast know, some of their developers are happy when white people get killed in games, like Manveer Heir.

One man in a company does not equal the entire company itself, and his opinion is not the opinion of the entire company, especially when he isn't even a shareholder or anything that significant. Putting Manveer Heir as representative of the entirety of Bioware is a generalization on a rather irrational scale. It'd be different if he was the Bioware's president or the game's lead director or producer or something with the ability to push their racist agenda into the game, but he isn't last I checked, and so his opinion doesn't mean anything. Besides, what does that have to do with Mass Effect: Andromeda's gameplay?

You're welcome to go and buy it, anyone calling ME3's Multiplayer the bes online multiplayer experience is certainly not gonna have their opinion changed.

Some of my fondest multiplayer memories have been with ME3's multiplayer, memories I have not had even with games like Overwatch, and I will not have other people judge whether I had fun with a game or not.