Mass Effect Andromeda Will Have Witcher-Like Meaningful Side Quests

Mortuorum

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Darth Rosenberg said:
Steven Bogos said:
Either way it looks like Andromeda is going to be bigger and better than any prior Mass Effect game.
C'mon, man, you're a better writer than that... That reads like a paid-for preview or PR. Unjustified, empty hype is the last thing this industry or medium needs more of. [...]
Well, it's going to be bigger, certainly. Better? I'm skeptical.

Better... how? My hands-down favorite of the trilogy was Mass Effect 1, despite the horrible inventory system and Mako missions. The story was and remains unique to RPGs - a hard science fiction setting with a story that made sense. ME2 and ME3 were fun, but from a story perspective they were a huge disappointment, particularly ME2.

If it's the same writing team on ME:A (and I believe it is), I'm not holding out a lot of hope for a return to the franchise's roots. I'm sure we'll get great characters and beautiful locations... and a story that makes no sense and disintegrates into a steaming mess instead of reaching a satisfying conclusion.
 

Bedinsis

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MC1980 said:
Yeah, if you're a smartalec and want to argue in bad faith.
You're the one arguing in bad faith(EDIT: a visit to wikipedia revealed that -i did not know what that meant. Apologies for an honest mistake). You assume that Nimcha had bad intentions. From where I sit it's possible that Nimcha thought the most important aspect of the ending was the lack of clearly game-defined morality in the ultimate choice. I haven't played any Bioware game but it is my understanding that they usually use strictly defined Good path/Bad path choices(Open palm vs. Closed Fist; Jedi vs. Sith). Having a game that actually has some ambiguity in its final choice can be compelling enough if hard coded moral choices is where you're coming from. I understand that a choose-an-ending-o-tron 3000 can be disappointing but if it is not a deal-breaker but having a strictly defined moral label on the choices would be then it is not bad faith to address that point.
MC1980 said:
The crux of the argument was that the devs promised it wouldn't be a simple choice between A, B, C endings, yet it totally was, and even then all the endings were mostly the same.
Thank you for clarifying. It was not obvious from fix-the-spade's original post.
MC1980 said:
That was the object of the original posters complaint. So the original comment didn't phrase it 100% correctly, whoop-de-fucking-doo. Nimcha here decided to contribute with a completely pointless tangent that doesn't in any way refute anything said, thinking he really showed him what for. All it was was a slight correction of terms. Guess what, no one gives a fuck, rebuke the actual argument.
If the most important aspect is the lack of attributed morality in the choice then it wasn't a pointless tangent, and it refuted the crux of the argument. What Nimcha thought of the discussion is irrelevant, but I think you're reading too much into his/her posts.

Regarding the point that choices only matter as much as they are able to show-case the result of the choices... yeah, that's the ideal scenario, and it's using the medium at it's strongest. However if the lore up to that point has been strong enough then the very little visual difference between the endings can be enough for the player to reflect upon his/her choices and consider what their entire adventure has lead them to choose and what their choice meant. That enough can carry enough meaning for it to be meaningful, regardless of the small differences. You might consider it cheating to claim that it's the player that has to derive meaning, but the meaning of the game itself is non-existant; all that has happened is that a whole bunch of ones and zeros has switched values.
 

CritialGaming

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This is a Bioware game right? MAss Effect.....let's see....yep still Bioware. That means this claim to "meaningful" side quest is nothing but hype bullshit. Bioware can tell some great main stories, but their side quest game is weak.
 

CritialGaming

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undeadsuitor said:
CritialGaming said:
This is a Bioware game right? MAss Effect.....let's see....yep still Bioware. That means this claim to "meaningful" side quest is nothing but hype bullshit. Bioware can tell some great main stories, but their side quest game is weak.
Idk man. Techinically the "loyalty" quests in 2 and 3 (and the dragon age games) were considered side quests since you didn't have to do them. And they were good and meaningful.

I mean sometimes Bioware learns the wrong lessons from their failures but they've shown the desire to at least attempt to improve in some fashion every game. Maybe this is the time they learn about non companion side quests. I mean maybe.
we can only hope. If they give me a Mass effect game with Witcher side quests then I will be a very happy man.
 

Nimcha

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It must be nice to have such little imagination. A tip for when you're next playing an RPG: the idea is that you participate in the story. If the story fails to immerse you then the game is not for you. It happens.
 

Stemer

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SlumlordThanatos said:
When talking about CDPR vs. Bioware, remember that Bioware has been making great story-driven games for longer than CDPR has even existed. The Witcher is a high bar to aim for, but then again, what Bioware needed was to realize that their most recent games aren't nearly as good as their classics, like the original Mass Effect, DA: Origins, Balder's Gate, and so on.
What does it matter how long Bioware has been making games, it's just the company name. A lot of the people who worked on the classics have left for other jobs and well you know, people in creative fields can end up losing the skills that made them special in the first place. Francis Ford Coppola made what are widely regarded as some of the best films ever 40 years ago, but nobody's queuing up to see his new movies.

Also on the subject of time Mass Effect 2, the last Bioware game to get near-universal praise is now 7 years old. At this point I'm really doubtful Bioware can turn it round.
 

Anomynous 167

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You know guys, Bioware ain't trying to reach the bar of Witcher 3. They're trying to go for the first Witcher's standard of sidequests.
 

Dragonbums

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Will all the meaningful side quests involve banging aliens? This is important to me. I want to RP my main being on the quest for space dongs.
 

The Lunatic

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Maybe they'll have a side quest that explains why all the characters in the game look like they've had their faces caved in by a shovel.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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The Lunatic said:
Maybe they'll have a side quest that explains why all the characters in the game look like they've had their faces caved in by a shovel.
It was a long trip from Earth to Andromeda. You can only play "Headbutt the Krogan" for so long.

OT; I wonder if Preston Garvey has somehow sneaked aboard, and will tell you your Settlements are in trouble, or send you out somewhere to establish a new outpost. I did like the side quests in Witcher 3, but what took me out of that game was the Skald region, and all the random loot locations out in the middle of the ocean. Took me almost 9 hours to get all that random side loot. Though selling it did make me more money than what I know what to do with.

Oh yes, sidequests. As long as they aren't "Go there, get 50 flowers and/or ore." It's hard to mess up sidequests.
 

Metalix Knightmare

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Valok said:
Yeah.. and Mass Effect 3 has 16 meaningful, different endings right?

It is LOOKING good but that's the thing isn't it? It always looks good. I'll keep an eye on trustworthy reviews because my faith on Bioware is pretty much zero after that disaster.
Thing of it is?







They aren't even managing THAT much. At least as far as character design.