Zero Punctuation: Mass Effect Andromeda

[JamesStone]

I've come to the conclusion that MEA is actually a fantastic thing. The game's many flaws and the drama surrounding it has provided far more entertainment than the game itself would had is not been such a cock up. MEA may fall by the wayside, but we'll always treasure the memes it gave us.

I don't know if I'm going to buy it or not (probably eventually) but I'll always appreciate it for the very vocal minority of dweebs on Twitter that legit got angry at Bioware because they perceived them as making the character models uglier to satiate some invisible Ess-Jay-Dub boogymen. Like, actual human beings were upset they were no longer turned on by the characters.

Kind of lame they got rid of the Renegade/Paragon thing, even if binary choices in games are pretty played out by now.

While I think those people are satires of their own self as much as anyone else, I have to admit the "uglying" of the game is very noticeable.

I think ugly characters add a layer of realism to the game, but Andromeda isn't "ugly". It's Bioware Ugly(tm). Uncanny valley shit. Like every 2 humans is a poorly made Shepard, one of those that looked alright in the character creation screen but turns into a non-euclidian nightmare somehow once you turn that extra degree, or is put against regular light.

It's especially jarring with Ryder, which Bioware used professional models as... well, models, like Vanderloo and Male!Shep, but somehow got fucked up by the game. I somehow find them attractive but there's some creeeeepy shit going on behind that leather mask they call a face that puts me out of it. The graphical improvements only served to catapult this eery effect straight into the heart of a cave deep within the Uncanny Valley.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

That was a fun review, gets me all smiling.

If that's the scene I think it is (shot's too cropped to tell, likely to evoke a derogatory response. Also didn't use the default face) that's not a smile, that's pain. Specifically an expression someone would make when doing that sharp, hissing intake of breath through your teeth.

I know. And she looks fabulous doing it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

All I got from this is that it truly is Dragon Age:Inquisition in space. And that means that it's shit. DA:I had no clear direction. It was a mess of badly implemented ideas that barely held together. But at least the writing wasn't as cringeworthy. It wasn't particularly good either, but compared to what I've seen from ME:A it's a masterpiece. And Bioware doesn't know how to create an open world game. They have to because that's all the rage these days so EA probably ordered them to make it as open world as possible. And that's how we ended up with DA:I which had more filler content than actual content. And it seems like ME:A is the same.

 

[hentropy]

Regarding that.

I feel as if the Bioware fans are looking at the previous 3 games through rose-tinted goggles.

ME:A doesn't look any worse, nor any better than any of the other ME games, and the voice acting isn't a dip in quality either.

I can say I have some perspective on that, as I just got finished playing the original trilogy twice. I started in preparation for this ME:A, but have decided ultimately against buying it right away. Since all the hub-bub about facial animations, I paid close attention to animations in particular through my second run-through.

Was the facial animations kinda bad in the originals? Well, no, not really. The bad shit just really sticks out because most of the normal and neutral facial animations look fine. A realistic looking smile is probably the hardest thing to pull off, people have different smiles for different reasons and having the same weirdly contorted smile to cover the entire range of smiles doesn't work. The body animations for ME3 in particular could use a lot of work, but the facial animations were actually the best in the series overall.

The biggest problem that has already been pointed out with Bioware titles isn't so much that the animations are horrible all throughout, but that they're robotic. They reuse the same animations for many different purposes. James has the same animation for when he's looking over his guns that he has for when he's preparing food. Even ME3 seemed to have a very small number of stock animations for conversations that make everything seem robotic. And it is a problem that takes you out of immersion, but it's not every conversation.

That's the problem with ME:A. It's not that it has wonky facial animations every now and then, it's that every conversation with a human has this creepy, dead-eyed stare and amateur-hour facial animations. You combine that with the phoned-in story concept, the shitty character creator, and the further rolling back of real roleplaying elements and you really start hampering what made ME and Bioware games in general an enjoyable experience. After the shitshow of the ME3 ending, you would think they would work hard to make the next one please fans, instead EA likely mandated that they farm it out to their B-Squad, and if the rumors are true, they even outsourced the animations outside of Bioware entirely. It's very much going in the wrong direction, and shows that they aren't really responsive to what fans want until after the shitty, broken product is done and released.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

All I got from this is that it truly is Dragon Age:Inquisition in space. And that means that it's shit. DA:I had no clear direction. It was a mess of badly implemented ideas that barely held together. But at least the writing wasn't as cringeworthy. It wasn't particularly good either, but compared to what I've seen from ME:A it's a masterpiece. And Bioware doesn't know how to create an open world game. They have to because that's all the rage these days so EA probably ordered them to make it as open world as possible. And that's how we ended up with DA:I which had more filler content than actual content. And it seems like ME:A is the same.

Bioware's problem is that since EA took over, they have shown a total lack of unique vision or belief in their own ideas and have instead been chasing industry trends in search of fat Elder Scrolls/Fallout sales, to the detriment of product quality.

 

[phabiohost]

Only issue with the video is the misinformation about the lore. First the milky way is fucked. The family side quest shows audio logs of the reapers invasion you guys leave before that and most are unaware in fact you get a log from Liara talking about a final stand with a "device" meaning while you guys were on route to andromeda the reapers invaded and maybe we won or maybe we became one more cycle in the chain. All the planets you didn't do work the same way as they did in previous mass effect games. Missing content means that people in the sequels will act differently. You will be treated differently for your inaction. Those who liked the paragon renegade system are apparently not fans of ZP because BINARY MORALS ARE DUMB! Finally most of the stuff like mining is totally optional and I only ever did it on the way to places. didn't even stop to do it proper. All in all *in my opinion* the game was fun. And the combat was amazing. Being able to do so much more than in previous titles really made the combat fun and unique. Like my Flamethrowing Biotic charging energy draining ryder.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Bioware's problem is that since EA took over, they have shown a total lack of unique vision or belief in their own ideas and have instead been chasing industry trends in search of fat Elder Scrolls/Fallout sales, to the detriment of product quality.

Bioware's problem is EA. And Bio only chase trends is because EA won't let them take risks.

 

[Seldon2639]

With the disclaimer that I haven't played the game, one criticism caught my eye and really bugs me:

"What's all this side bollocks for if I can do in the final boss perfectly comfortably without it?"

It's not that it's unfair to note that if the core gameplay loop isn't fun, doing more of it won't be fun either. But the idea that "if I can still beat the boss without doing X, X was unnecessary" doesn't seem very consistent with Yahtzee's prior comments on games like Saints Row IV (with a ton of optional stuff), Far Cry 3, goddamned Skyrim (which is primarily about doing stuff which isn't actually necessary to completing the main plot), and lord knows the Witcher 3.

There are huge areas of the map in Witcher 3 and Skyrim which I can completely avoid if doing a direct "nope, just the story missions please" playthrough.

Again, "the side missions weren't enjoyable" is perfectly consistent. The whole reason people love Witcher 3 is that the side stories are incredibly engaging. But there's a difference between side content not being enjoyable and somehow being superfluous because it doesn't impact whether you can technically finish the game.

Isn't that kind of the definition of a "side mission"?

And I do like looking back on the halcyon days of how awesome paragon/renegade was for creating a sense of roleplaying given how much disdain Yahtzee had for "binary moral choice" in games.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Bioware's problem is EA. And Bio only chase trends is because EA won't let them take risks.

I doubt that EA is making them say all those lies though. Casey Hudson lied about the ending of Mass Effect 3, some tool at Bioware lied about facial animations being better than ever in ME:A, and another tool (or perhaps the same one) said that they've learned a lot from The Witcher 3 and that side quests are going to be meaningful. Yet everyone complains about typical Bioware fetch quests. They just keep lying.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Considering how badly players have been drumming this game, this honestly came across as fairly run of the mill ZP slapping. I was expecting more frothing rage or sheer disbelief.

 

[Jamcie Kerbizz]

So was I just not paying attention when autistic started to mean retarded or have people always been using it like that?

That's a fair question; that bit in the video made me go "Wait, what?"

Pretty sure people have been using it that way for a while. Though of course that doesn't make it any less confusing as to how it fits or why.

Retardadation is any mental disorder/illness that impairs your brain functions. Autism is a form of retardation since by definition it is an abnormal absorption with the self marked by communication disorders, short attention span and inability to treat others as people.

I suppose Ben used 'autistic' to pinpoint Bioware's surprising inability to treat gamers as people and Bioware's ongoing failure to absorb feedback they were recieving after ME3 and DA:I. Thus displaying symptoms of autism.

The way he frames it thou is witty (if deliberate) but confusing (really indirect jab).

 

[Erttheking]

So was I just not paying attention when autistic started to mean retarded or have people always been using it like that?

People will always try and use a term for "the different" as a massive insult to one's intelligence, autistic is just the latest example in a long line.

 

[Allaiyah Weyn]

I haven't seen this many bugs in a game since Ride to Hell & Colonial Marines, but as a fan of glitch compilations & corruption emulators, I find the bugs hilarious & far more entertaining than the game itself.

*Double Draks.
*NPCs floating & going into the T pose.
*NPCs walking way too fast.
*NPCs in drunk animation loops.
*NPCs merging with eachother to occupy the same space.
*NPCs doing weird tribal dances/siezures while they talk.
*NPCs doing exorcism head tricks.
*Characters getting stuck inside furniture (happened a lot in the last game too).
*Mobs freezing in place upon death.
*Mobs flying into space like Team Rocket after being shot at.
*Ryder walking through doors, walls, furniture, & NPCs.
*Ryder falling through the ship into space.
*Ryder's face melting.
*Ryder's eyelashes are there, but the eyelids are gone.
*Object meshes or textures stretching into infinity.

 

[MrFalconfly]

snip

Honestly, I disagree on all points.

I don't think the characters in ME:A are worse than in the original ME trilogy (actually I think they're a bit more likeable). The activities are basically carbon-copy from the previous ME games (said so by others, so I'll believe them), the story is actually more fun, because it isn't about the second coming of Christ only more emo, and I could go on.

As for ME:A being a "scooby gang", I'd rather have that, than be preached to by "our lord and savior Sheppy, and the Brady Bunch".

snip

I disagree.

I've looked at them side by side, I think they look equally bad.

snip

Sorry, but I still disagree.

Mind you, I haven't bought ME:A, nor am I an ME fan in general. What I have done is basically see ME3 and ME:A let's plays back to back, and ME:A isn't really an appreciable downgrade from ME3 (I didn't think the original ME trilogy had the best story either, but then again that may just be me).

 

[Naldan]

All three previous MEs handled the faces way better. Smaller eyes, using eyelids at least a little bit (not everyone, unlike in ME:A, is on crack) and better proportions. Also, the streaming was better as far as I know, meaning pop-ups didn't happen when the player was in the middle of objects still needed to being streamed into the cell the game currently takes place in.

I mean literally adjacent to the player character. Did this happen at launch in any ME? I've only played them way after launch, after many patches. On the 360, though.

About everything else: I've only seen compilations of them. A continuing problem are the eyes. Like, everything about them. And that wasn't the case in any previous ME, at all. And for me, that goes a long way.

 

[esserin]

All three previous MEs handled the faces way better. Smaller eyes, using eyelids at least a little bit (not everyone, unlike in ME:A, is on crack) and better proportions. Also, the streaming was better as far as I know, meaning pop-ups didn't happen when the player was in the middle of objects still needed to being streamed into the cell the game currently takes place in.

I mean literally adjacent to the player character. Did this happen at launch in any ME? I've only played them way after launch, after many patches. On the 360, though.

About everything else: I've only seen compilations of them. A continuing problem are the eyes. Like, everything about them. And that wasn't the case in any previous ME, at all. And for me, that goes a long way.

Well, at least they fixed that up today.

And this is why I never buy games at launch.

 

[hentropy]

snip

Sorry, but I still disagree.

Mind you, I haven't bought ME:A, nor am I an ME fan in general. What I have done is basically see ME3 and ME:A let's plays back to back, and ME:A isn't really an appreciable downgrade from ME3 (I didn't think the original ME trilogy had the best story either, but then again that may just be me).

Well if you think the faces and facial animations were as bad as ME:A, then you're not really paying much attention frankly. The janky and creepy facial animations were obvious from the first gameplay trailer they released, and it looked quite bad to many people who have played the previous games over and over. I don't even thing it's even much of a matter of subjective disagreement, one just looks more like a human. I know someone has probably thrown this [https://youtu.be/XB1vBEaDisI] at you at some point, but you can clearly see the differences between how the original handled faces, which was very far from perfect, and how ME:A handles them, which is downright otherworldly.

The story of Mass Effect was never its strongest suit, it's not a deeply cerebral psy-fi story (it kinda tries to be near the end but fails badly). However, it does its job perfectly in many ways, providing clear and understanable motivation for the player to want to explore and ultimately save this galaxy. Bioware's strength has always been galaxy-building, lore-building (I personally think Dragon Age is the best contemporary fantasy universe), and its characters. The plot is simply an excuse for you to explore these things.

Even with the facial animations, I probably would have gotten ME:A, but they decided to go into some kind of weird mashup of Mass Effect and No Man's Sky. Your motivation is "hey go invade that galaxy that isn't your own and then act surprised when some don't like it." They completely wrote themselves into a corner and they chose the worst possible way to get out of it. It also provides other weird problems, like why the Reapers didn't try to go to other galaxies, as if the Milky Way was the only one that mattered.

 

[Naldan]

...

Heh, and these were taken on the good days. I've seen vids of eyes really showing the whole iris for almost the whole conversation.

Given, now it appears that the only thing they did is to add a shadow instead of sizing down the... eye...sockets... or just at least covering the eye balls with eye lids a bit, but hey. It's way better than before. Thanks for providing the information!

But honestly, I'm interested in the game now more than ever before. Just want to play it as goofy as possible, and that crack-smile-ryder just hits a spot.

 

[Austin Manning]

Granted, some of the detractors may actually be consistent and feel the same with the rest of Biowares games, but if you're coming from the previous ME trilogy, and now start complaining about the facial animations of all things, you aren't being internally consistent.

There's nothing internally inconsistent about expecting developers to improve and hone their craft. Mass Effect 3 came out 5 years ago in 2012, on a previous console generation to boot. The fact of the matter is that there should be a step up in both model and animation quality compared to it as we have better tech now.

For comparison's sake, look at Metal Gear Solid 4 (released in 2008) Metal Gear Solid 5 (released in 2015). While MGS 4 looked good by the standards of the time, MGS 5 massively improved on both the character models and animations used. The result is that the game effectively conveys large amounts of characterization and development (including entire character arcs and a romantic subplot) through nothing more than body language and expression.

If Bioware wishes to be taken seriously as a company focused on storytelling and character development in games, then they need to meet that standard at least.

I've been watching a No Commentary playthrough of it, and I feel that a lot of the complaints people have are kind of petty. Awkward dialog? Who cares. Overlarge UI? I don't think so. Some characters don't blink sometimes? Holy shit.

I understand the cautious optimism people have but I think it's going to be fine. Gamers are just, as a whole, entitled little shits who are overstimulated so any flaws a triple A game has they're ready to pounce on and tear apart. It's just silly.

Refusing to have lower standards does not make someone an "entitled little shit" as you put it. By that logic, everyone who looked at Digital Homicide's work with anything less than enthusiastic support is a shit. You yourself even acknowledged that the game had problems that you'd need to get used to while you played it. I actually agree with you that to an extent we should meet developers half-way when it comes to how they try and portray people given the limits of technology.

This isn't 1999 on the PlayStation though, or 2007 on the Xbox (when ME 1 released). The technical constraints that caused the "Bioware face" don't exist anymore. Indeed, many well made games have come out over the past few years that possess very emotive and natural looking human faces.

There's nothing wrong with you enjoying Andromeda, more power to you if you do. At the same time though, there's nothing wrong with people expecting more from one of the industry's leading developers and refusing to settle for less.

 

[Zydrate]

There's nothing wrong with you enjoying Andromeda, more power to you if you do. At the same time though, there's nothing wrong with people expecting more from one of the industry's leading developers and refusing to settle for less.

I can agree with the "Nothing wrong with expecting more" but there is plenty wrong with the kneejerk memeification and constant "wow this looks like garbage pass" that I keep seeing in comment sections all over Youtube and the internet as a whole.

Bioware is already taking steps to mitigate the wonky animations and frankly, that's enough for me. I'll be happy to see the patch later on. Yes, you could argue that it should have been done already but shit happens and making games is probably really difficult and I'm not really going to be part of the consumer dictation on what they do or don't do because I'm not in the industry, don't understand how it works and neither do most people.