It gets much better onwards also. Glad your seeing past the weak start also.
Mass Effect 4
- Thread starter Tinman
- Start date
It gets much better onwards also. Glad your seeing past the weak start also.
I have not seen an angry joe review in a long time.
I used to like him , until I noticed how he acts as if his opinion is the only one that counts.
I accept his opinion of a 6 or 7. I disagree. for me its a 9.
The writing is great
The story is great
The charecters are amazing
The bugs are anoying
He says ''those who claim otherwise have no clue what they are talking about'' well , maybe. but I look at it this way.
MGSV had (or the MGS games in genral) some of the worst writing I have seen.
On top of that it was full of plot holes and lore errors. but my opinion on it should not matter because I never liked MGS. but I find it wrong that MGS gets all the praise
Then we have ''neir'' or what ever its called.
The game has itself bad writing , but because it from time to time asks deep questions it gets praised.
It feels to me that for MassEffect to get proper praise it would need to be 10hrs long , have women all dress like miranda or samara (the two worst outfits in the series from my point of view) and have NPCs say ''but what is life?!'' and a few hours afterwards ''I feel emotions !''
Or beyond two souls etc..
ME:A is a great game. its flawed , but I have had so much fun with the game , more fun than with most games.
I have been told I am delusional , but I am? I had fun , I am having fun.
And its not like if I love the game because of the name on the box , because I hated MassEffect Paragon lost to the point of feeling sick.
I dont want to upset anyone with critisim of those other games , but I feel that others got away with a lot whiles mass effect is getting dirt all over because of a few online vids and bugs (that can/will be fixed)
In my opinion , my crazy unpopular one is this : if a fan likes it , then its good.
I dont like zelda. I think its lore is stupid , and writing pointless... but fans love it , so I assume its a great game. just not for me.
Same with the witcher , it sounded like my cup of tea , I hated it. I dont act as if its bad (just maybe it gets away with a lot)
So all in all , I hate ratings and never rate anything because my opinions can change every day based on my mood and my ratings of MassEffect games change based on what topic we are talking about. (because as much of a fanboy of MassEffect I am , I can not stand some of the female outfits. even tali who I think is the best female char ever , I hate how they made her breast stand out , its pointless. but still love the desine of her outfits and most other chars.)
Sorry for the bad grammer and all that jazz
EDIT :
I have to say , I dont like what he said about the multiplayer.
I love the multiplayer , and having a PvP mode would be fun... but against the idea and themes of MassEffect. (if they do a first contact war game , then maybe)
Its funny that its okay for CoD to be the same every year , its fine for battlefield to be the same every two years...
I just find that across the board a lot of the complaints to be hypocritical or even bully like.
The animations are bad
Some claim to have bugs , I have not had any but I belive those who say they do
But nearly everything else is subjective. I think that its all down to another stupid bandwaggon. (I would love to see how different the reviews would be without the gifs and vids... I think it would still be lower than ME3 but higher than it is now)
MassEffect 2 had the same issue (just not as bad) with a few outlets only playing the intro mission and claiming the story was about an AI uprising and alien abductions.
I love reviews , when they dont put scores. (Like total buiscuit. I have disagreed with him many times but never does his opinion feel like a pathetic witchhunt)
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By the way there is something I want to talk about.
The internet claims that ME:A was made by one studio , the B team of bioware (or the Z team as the apex of the internet like to call them)
This is sort of true , but its not like that at all.
First lets remeber obsidian. those guys make good games , yes? yeah... all the games they made are like ME:A. they all have TONES of content and are mostly unfinished KOTOR2 , that spy RPG they made , FNV , etc
My point? they used to be called ''the B team of bioware'' even if they had nearly nothing to do with bioware. so the resault was , great games with no polish.
However what happened with ME:A is different. The leads are mostly left overs from ME2 and 3. true the writers are new , but the lead writer is a vet.
The same thing happened with ME2 and 3. most of the devs left to work on other things , leaving only some of the leads. (no one ever mentions that ME2 and 3 is made by mostly different devs , funny)
True the difference between ME:A and 3 is bigger , there are less vets on the game. But the fact everyone forgets to mention is : three studios worked on the game. some say to fix the issues , others say because the project was big.
So what I am saying is , ME:A is KOTOR 2 to KOTOR 1. but KOTOR 2.
By the way , I am not insulting any of the older games , obsidian or anything. I am just stating that all the drama about ''the B team'' or different devs is nothing new , for RPGs or Bioware or even MassEffect.
The last bit , is the most anoying is whe the devs are called ''SJWs'' a term that means everything and nothing.
Bioware make games about progression , working as one and racism for the most part (that and fighting impossible odds) MassEffect has been about inclusion and progression from day 1. the game talks about racism. yes it might start off as turian Vs Human , or Quarian Vs everyone else , they are epic stories but lets not forget that they are to a point metaphores for real life issues.
A few other myths about the game : there are no white player charecters...
Not true. the two default are white
And at least two presets start of white and all of the presets can be made white
And even if you could not be white , is it a big deal?
Then the about Bioware making all the women ugly because ''SJW''
No... no...no...
The girls in ME:A look fine. femryder is cute and looks like a real girl. I have seen conversations that I hope are by 12yrs old calling her ''average'' and I think thats the point. you are an explorer not a top model.
Now some my wonder where have all the mirandas and samaras gone? to have them you need a fully built society. samra is an acient warior , mirianda is an officer in a pro human terrorist group , who value the human form a bit too much.
If a game in the andromeda galaxy happens say 900yrs after the game , then yes you will see femme fatals and all that.
But as it stands its military outfits and armours for everyone until cities and safezones are made.
(and lets not forget that ash's ME3 outfit is a lore error)
Anyway , all that rubbish to say. the game has flaws. but its funny that all its flaws are in games that are considered to be perfect by today's audiance.
Of course like I said before , the animations are bad. some of them are terrible.
But thats the only objective flaw the game has , the rest is subjective.
I guess I just hate how much of an echochamber the internet is now. you can ruin a game with a gif. and I do think Bioware allready being hated and targeted for social reasons before ME:A did not help.
Of course someone is going to ask me about the racist dev on ME:A , I have been told he ruined the game... fun fact about him ; he worked on ME3 as well. so if he ruined ME:A for you , I guess he ruined ME3 retroactively.
But I think he horrible tweets and rude remarks and blocking me , because I tried to help him. I felt sorry for him. and still do. even if he offended me. (I think the bit he blocked me for is when I said something about being bullied due to mental issues , as he has said a few times whites never suffer)
But what is his role at bioware? I dont know , but he does gameplay. thats it. no story stuff. no quest stuff. nothing like that. and there are many others on the team that share his job. so his impact is : zero.
From what I can gather he is just a troll and trying to be as racist as revenge. horrible , unforgivable. yet I understand.
Dont get me wrong. he offended me. a lot. but he did not do much to the game.
But look , he is only one guy out of all of them : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7YHFX9XkAEr6Y7.jpg:large
The internet claims that ME:A was made by one studio , the B team of bioware (or the Z team as the apex of the internet like to call them)
This is sort of true , but its not like that at all.
First lets remeber obsidian. those guys make good games , yes? yeah... all the games they made are like ME:A. they all have TONES of content and are mostly unfinished KOTOR2 , that spy RPG they made , FNV , etc
My point? they used to be called ''the B team of bioware'' even if they had nearly nothing to do with bioware. so the resault was , great games with no polish.
However what happened with ME:A is different. The leads are mostly left overs from ME2 and 3. true the writers are new , but the lead writer is a vet.
The same thing happened with ME2 and 3. most of the devs left to work on other things , leaving only some of the leads. (no one ever mentions that ME2 and 3 is made by mostly different devs , funny)
True the difference between ME:A and 3 is bigger , there are less vets on the game. But the fact everyone forgets to mention is : three studios worked on the game. some say to fix the issues , others say because the project was big.
So what I am saying is , ME:A is KOTOR 2 to KOTOR 1. but KOTOR 2.
By the way , I am not insulting any of the older games , obsidian or anything. I am just stating that all the drama about ''the B team'' or different devs is nothing new , for RPGs or Bioware or even MassEffect.
The last bit , is the most anoying is whe the devs are called ''SJWs'' a term that means everything and nothing.
Bioware make games about progression , working as one and racism for the most part (that and fighting impossible odds) MassEffect has been about inclusion and progression from day 1. the game talks about racism. yes it might start off as turian Vs Human , or Quarian Vs everyone else , they are epic stories but lets not forget that they are to a point metaphores for real life issues.
A few other myths about the game : there are no white player charecters...
Not true. the two default are white
And at least two presets start of white and all of the presets can be made white
And even if you could not be white , is it a big deal?
Then the about Bioware making all the women ugly because ''SJW''
No... no...no...
The girls in ME:A look fine. femryder is cute and looks like a real girl. I have seen conversations that I hope are by 12yrs old calling her ''average'' and I think thats the point. you are an explorer not a top model.
Now some my wonder where have all the mirandas and samaras gone? to have them you need a fully built society. samra is an acient warior , mirianda is an officer in a pro human terrorist group , who value the human form a bit too much.
If a game in the andromeda galaxy happens say 900yrs after the game , then yes you will see femme fatals and all that.
But as it stands its military outfits and armours for everyone until cities and safezones are made.
(and lets not forget that ash's ME3 outfit is a lore error)
Anyway , all that rubbish to say. the game has flaws. but its funny that all its flaws are in games that are considered to be perfect by today's audiance.
Of course like I said before , the animations are bad. some of them are terrible.
But thats the only objective flaw the game has , the rest is subjective.
I guess I just hate how much of an echochamber the internet is now. you can ruin a game with a gif. and I do think Bioware allready being hated and targeted for social reasons before ME:A did not help.
Of course someone is going to ask me about the racist dev on ME:A , I have been told he ruined the game... fun fact about him ; he worked on ME3 as well. so if he ruined ME:A for you , I guess he ruined ME3 retroactively.
But I think he horrible tweets and rude remarks and blocking me , because I tried to help him. I felt sorry for him. and still do. even if he offended me. (I think the bit he blocked me for is when I said something about being bullied due to mental issues , as he has said a few times whites never suffer)
But what is his role at bioware? I dont know , but he does gameplay. thats it. no story stuff. no quest stuff. nothing like that. and there are many others on the team that share his job. so his impact is : zero.
From what I can gather he is just a troll and trying to be as racist as revenge. horrible , unforgivable. yet I understand.
Dont get me wrong. he offended me. a lot. but he did not do much to the game.
But look , he is only one guy out of all of them : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7YHFX9XkAEr6Y7.jpg:large
For me it is a 6 or 7. I wholeheartedly disagree that it could be a 9.
The writing is not great
The story is not gret
The characters are not amazing
The bugs are annoying
I am fine with that.
But I do find the story very intresting and I love the new characters , a lot.
And the lore is just perfect , it even fixes old forgoten plot holes from the comics and books
But what is it that makes you think that way?
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I find the majority of the writing very generic and clichéd. Some of the dialogue is just terrible and feels really poorly forced ie "Speedbumps!" or "Need a hand?", that sort of faux-sarkiness that never feels right wherever it's used. And then there's the weird pausing between responses that makes it feel really disjointed and amateur. It's a shame because if it was tightened up and a bit better quality it could be quite a decent game.
I do like the art design they've gone for although I do think using bipedals for alien races is unachieving.
It's one of those games I look at and feel disappointment every time I think of what it could be, because there are bits that are great when taken by themselves but it is really let down by the sum of its parts.
Jenner
I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
I think Angry Joe was quite fair in that review.
I finished the game last night. I would agree that it's probably a 6 or 7 out of 10. (Probably a 7). It's a really fun game, but it's uneven and has a lot of problems. There is a lot of unfounded hate out there for it, which is unfortunate. However, it's definitely a bit of a disappointment as well. The writing and characters are just not as good as the trilogy. The amount of bugs and such is a problem, too.
I finished the game last night. I would agree that it's probably a 6 or 7 out of 10. (Probably a 7). It's a really fun game, but it's uneven and has a lot of problems. There is a lot of unfounded hate out there for it, which is unfortunate. However, it's definitely a bit of a disappointment as well. The writing and characters are just not as good as the trilogy. The amount of bugs and such is a problem, too.
I do agree that the combat talk is a bit off in ME:A. (wierd thing is my ryder stoped saying ''speedbump'' I think what he/she says it based on what you pick in conversations the most)
But the actual story I found good (I dont like the kett's look but like how they are inverted reapers) as for the other two races I loved the plot twists around them.
I was very attached to all the cast , and whenever I did not like them it was due to ingame reasons , not outside things (like writing etc)
I play mostly for the lore and the immersion. on that end I was blown away. all the conections , finishing off old plot points , setting up new ones , and exploring aliens of the older games in more depth did it for me. I love it.
I do agree some of it is less good than the older games , but I still think its up there with the best.
For all the praise games like zelda , MGS , Nier , TW1 get ME:A does writing and lore better (in my opinion)
The cast are young (fort he most part) and not part of the military. how they act reflects that.
I love all MassEffect (apart from that horrible anime paragon lost and a few comics) and I would put ME:A before ME3.
As for the aliens , there are a few reasons why they are bipedal.
The first is how they do rigs. there is a reason why the elcor do nothing in ME3.
Then there are a few lore reasons , life , organic life in MassEffect is often bipedal. it seems most intelegent life is that way. is it lazy? yes. is it a narative shortcut? yes. but its an issue thats in ME1 as well.
Because in ME1 all the non Bipedal races are background elements that serve no prupose other than lore.
I play for the story and lore. the fact that the gameplay is awesome just makes me stay longer.
I understand why some might not like the game. but I think its up there with the greats. and most of the stuff the game does wrong , others do worst... yet get no flack
I think ME1 and 2 had the best writing.
ME3 had its work cut out for it due to it mostly being about finishing old work.
The writing in ME3 is good. but at times was bad. like ME:A its uneven (they made mordin's most popular line into a catchphrase)
ME3 had other issues like the amount of animation bugs that on day1 and still to some extent today are worst than ME:A
-Turian ship flying backwards
-360 headspin
-Holding gun wrong (ME:A does that one)
-The eye twitch (ME:A does that one)
The lore errors in ME3 such as
-Ash's alliance officer dress being nothing like an officers dress. it was like something out of the witcher. it felt like it was from a B-movie. in lore alliance officers have officer outfits that follow standard rules. my head canon is because of her maybe being a futur specter they let her get away with it.
-Krogan timeline is messed up a bit. but only a minor issue (could just put it down to an NPC being ignorant)
Then there are the personal issues I have that are just personal and most dont care
-Tali being ''hot'' I hate that. she should look how she was planned : pale , no hair and ill looking.
-EDI having a sexy body... the story would have been sweeter if there was no body in it.
-The endings , not because of the RGB thing , because ME2 did that too. but because the original plan was better than what we got.
-Wrexs personality transplant
I liked the game for what it was. a new start in an ''old'' universe.
I never buy into hype and just waite for games.
And for writing I was happy there was no james vega style lines that tell us things we allready know about.
I might sound like I am hating on ME3. I am not. I just dont get the ME:A hate.
If you want bad mass effect read MassEffect : deception (dont... its terrible) or watch MassEffect : paragon lost. it starts with a lore error and ends with a big one
That's just dropping a specific advantage of the medium video game (complete artistic freedom in species design) for having easier motion capture (using humans). Saves the effort of animating non-bipedals and as we know animation is known weakness of the Montreal team.
The animation issues is down to an algorithm issue.That's just dropping a specific advantage of the medium video game (complete artistic freedom in species design) for having easier motion capture (using humans). Saves the effort of animating non-bipedals and as we know animation is known weakness of the Montreal team.
They wanted to animate every single conversation and encounter by hand. that turned out to be a terrible idea (who would have guessed that 65,000 lines was a lot to animate)
But 3 studios worked on the game. not just one.
As for animations , they do a good job.
The animations are not whats at fault , ironically.
You know in skyrim , the NPCs open and close the mouth based on the sounds it hears? some sounds move them in a different shape , etc. well ME:A uses that sort of tech mixed with limited , unfinished (I think) hand made work.
The resault is : sometimes horrible , sometimes amazing , sometimes inbetween both.
Now saying that because its a video game they can do what they want is 100% untrue. they still have to animate things. remeber in ME1 2 and 3 all the elcor and hanar did nothing but stand there in one place. thats because it would have been too hard to animate.
The game has tones of monster that are not two legged. just non of them are conversation type charecters.
Rigs limit what you can do. in ME1 krogan where ment to be more animal like , but they just could not pull it off so they edited the krogan to fit the human rig. thats why in mass effect everyone looks human(ish)
There is also a lore reason , and I think they should stick to it as its been established
You have now mentioned that one animated error three times. How was that error, which most never noticed, even remotely comparable with the facial animations that everyone instantly sees its an issue? It really seems you actually are being way harsher on ME3 than ME:A. Anyway, tomorrow EA will announce their planned fixes for ME:A, lets hope they are more critical than you are.
Sorry , the turian ship just hurt me.
I think it upsets me because it can be seen as a lore error.
I think ME:A has a lot of animation issues. I mean peebee holding her gun backwards was wierd... on top of that its not even ''her'' gun.
I am more of an oral person , find it hard to express my self on paper. (aspergers and all that)
I LOVE ME3. I love ME:A.
I think they are both flawed in different ways. they are both awesome in my mind.
I guess my issue is I look at things from a ''in universe'' stand-point. facial animations being off to me is graphical. so I am not that bothered by it.
But if you want my list of things I dont like about ME:A here it is :
(My number one is stupid and no one will care , but I am like that)
-Blood colours are wrong for the most part.
*Krogan with sometimes yellow , sometimes red. however in the case of the krogan it could be a genetic thing given that it was the same in ME2... so I will give it a pass
*Human dead body with blue blood
*All NPCs blood colour turns to green after a while
*some animals blood colour switches after death
-Some ships that are ment to be alien are using the ut-47 model. and the other way around (sometimes however its on purpose.)
-eyes dont look wet... I think this is a big issue , just making them more reflective could help.
-Animations during conversations are off
-Animations during unimportant conversations (Like talking to a unnamed NPC) are horrible
*Korgan putting his hand into his head... (thats not a good idea , dont try that at home)
*Turian holding data-pad wrong
Most of those issues fall into animation. thats why I have not mentioned them.
I have reported all of those and some more to Bioware via the EA bug report and hope to see some improvement.
I am harsher than I sound on ME:A. its just that in terms of narative and interaction I like it more than ME3.
That being said if I had to give you a rating of all the games It would go like this :
ME1 9/10
ME2 9/10
ME3 9/10
ME:A 8/10
Its lower at the moment. on day 1 ME3 would have been an 8. DLC removed a lot of my complaints. (patches as well)
If I am harsh , its only because I love the games.
My opinion on ME:A is all over the place.
I love it. I like the writing , I love the chars , like the main plot , LOVE the side plots (like the one about the milky way stuff and first contact with aliens and the side quests about space racism)
There are things I dont mention with ME3 like they got the ratio of humans working in C-sec wrong , that sort of thing. I dont mention it because even if it upsets me... its not worth being upset by.
That and , ME3 during a phase when I had to stop taking medication for my depresion , resaulting me in being very , very , very miserable. maybe that has a lot to do with it.
Anyway , if I upset anyone sorry.
EDIT :
I know its odd that I say that I like ME:A more than ME3 , yet give it a lower score.
One of the reasons I hate scores.
If ME:A fixes all its issues via patches , my score will change. or it might get lower if they dont.
My opinions on games changes a lot. the core opinion might not change , but everything around it will.
I get the feeling I am not making any sense... but thats emotions for you.
Emotionaly I would score them differently. for example emotionaly ME2 is on top.
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Ha. That was quite funny. Love his reviews for that. But again the same pick up points, the same clips that are all over the net but not at all representative of the game as a whole.
This is still a solid 8 game for me. Can't understand this tirade by the main media. Maybe it's just me and lots of other people who are wrong.
A lot of the walking bugs that are shown off only happen if you hammer the left and right button.Ha. That was quite funny. Love his reviews for that. But again the same pick up points, the same clips that are all over the net but not at all representative of the game as a whole.
This is still a solid 8 game for me. Can't understand this tirade by the main media. Maybe it's just me and lots of other people who are wrong.
I had a lot of wierd facial animations , but nothing like in the vids. (what I had was limited to eyes being half closed during some bits)
Oh and I have found a lot of mentions about the wierd pauses. when I got the game I only had 8gigs of ram. I had pauses in conversations all the time , but when I upgraded to 18 that went away.
It was worth it.
To be honest you can make any game look bad.
I could make Elite dangerous look like the worst looking game ever if I focus on areas that I know have low quality textures (like the back of the APS , near the door , or the vultures front pods)
Not saying that some of the bugs are not an issue. they are. but they did not take me out of the game , and non of them as bad as in those videos.
As for the wierd smile , I think they tried to do the smile some do before crying but just did not hit the spot.
Not defending any of the flawed animation or anything , just dont think I have seen anything as bad as in the vids.
I do agree that addison has wierd lines , but I saw that as just being a wierd person.
I did a double check about the writers... I wonder why so many claim all the writers left... most of the ME:A writers worked on ME2 or in the case if they did not on other books and games
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I finished the main quest , doing all side quest ATM.
I do agree kadara is amazing. It has that old dealing with the seedy underworld feel that I love from bioware. making the most of a bad situation. that sort of thing.
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Hope you like them. they are awesome. true classics IMO.
Is there away to get around the long conversations?