"We're going to go down a new path, and goddamn it you're going to like it because we're (insert company)" is not the winningest strategy in the world, no.
If you told me that the next BioWare game was going to be some weird bastard hybrid of The Division and Destiny I would've looked at you like you were crazy.
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited July 2017
As someone who played Destiny(mostly year 1) I'm actually pretty interested in Anthem.
SP content for Destiny was a big failing to a lot of folks even if we liked the other stuff and if Bioware can succeed where they failed I'll actually be pretty up for it.
Dragkonias on
0
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I suppose out of all of the studios in EA I suppose BioWare would be the studio best equipped to tackle the shooter MMORPG format, but yeah, it's a super rough market and it remains to be seen how Another One Of Those will hold up in the market. It looks super shiny, maybe it'll be inspired enough to have some originality
Re: Andromeda, I still believe that the ME1 open-world formula that it tries to iterate on is a valid approach to the series, but it can't be plagued by management problems, needs more bespoke dedication to detail in locales and needs more time in the oven. I'm fully willing to wait until they can commit the entirety of their studio manpower and budget to their DLC
I suppose out of all of the studios in EA I suppose BioWare would be the studio best equipped to tackle the shooter MMORPG format, but yeah, it's a super rough market and it remains to be seen how Another One Of Those will hold up in the market. It looks super shiny, maybe it'll be inspired enough to have some originality
Re: Andromeda, I still believe that the ME1 open-world formula that it tries to iterate on is a valid approach to the series, but it can't be plagued by management problems, needs more bespoke dedication to detail in locales and needs more time in the oven. I'm fully willing to wait until they can commit the entirety of their studio manpower and budget to their DLC
The problem that Andromeda had was that the basic concept that they started with was fucking terrible. They wanted to procedurally generate a Bioware-style RPG, but that directly goes against the care and detail that people want from a Bioware game. No-Mass Skyffect?
And that was something that plagued the project from the beginning. It smells like a directive from management. That they cobbled together a 7+ game that feels like Mass Effect in 18 months when that vision didn't pan out is actually kinda incredible.
Montreal was set up to fail and they did the best they could anyway.
I suppose out of all of the studios in EA I suppose BioWare would be the studio best equipped to tackle the shooter MMORPG format, but yeah, it's a super rough market and it remains to be seen how Another One Of Those will hold up in the market. It looks super shiny, maybe it'll be inspired enough to have some originality
Re: Andromeda, I still believe that the ME1 open-world formula that it tries to iterate on is a valid approach to the series, but it can't be plagued by management problems, needs more bespoke dedication to detail in locales and needs more time in the oven. I'm fully willing to wait until they can commit the entirety of their studio manpower and budget to their DLC
The problem that Andromeda had was that the basic concept that they started with was fucking terrible. They wanted to procedurally generate a Bioware-style RPG, but that directly goes against the care and detail that people want from a Bioware game. No-Mass Skyffect?
And that was something that plagued the project from the beginning. It smells like a directive from management. That they cobbled together a 7+ game that feels like Mass Effect in 18 months when that vision didn't pan out is actually kinda incredible.
Montreal was set up to fail and they did the best they could anyway.
I dunno. Schreier's original Andromeda postmortem article made it sound like all of the No Man's Sky-esque stuff was just Montreal biting off way more than they could chew. If anything, it sounded like EA or the BioWare higherups should have stepped in sooner to reign them in.
As someone who played Destiny(mostly year 1) I'm actually pretty interested in Anthem.
SP content for Destiny was a big failing to a lot of folks even if we liked the other stuff and if Bioware can succeed where they failed I'll actually be pretty up for it.
My guess is that you're pretty much exactly the target audience for Anthem - I'm presuming that you're someone who was interested in Destiny, but who wants more single player content.
The problem is that there is a portion of Bioware fans whose response to this direction is "Thank you, but no." How big that portion is, I have no idea. I know that it's not zero, but beyond that, who knows?
What I generally want out of an AAA game:
An engaging story where I play as the hero. Not as "a" hero. "The" hero. I don't ever want to be the sidekick of L33TDuDe69.
Dialog, character building, with NPCs that have their own motivations.
Gameplay and loadout that's based around personal preference, rather than loot drop treadmill roulette.
Long term replay value based on making alternate choices, rather than an endgame that acts as a loot treadmill.
I want to enjoy and appreciate the protagonist.
A game that is fully single player. I hate waiting on other people, I hate making other people wait on me. I hate it when some dumbass runs up to a monster and gets eaten, and they explain that it was so that they could get a cool screenshot. I hate it when I can't just run up to a monster to get eaten because I'm trying to get a great screenshot because it holds back the progress of the other people. I simply cannot enjoy a multiplayer game the way I enjoy a single player game. Also, the ability to play offline is 100% critical. I want to be able to play on my laptop while visiting family or on a business trip.
Basically, I want a big budget blockbuster movie where I get to be the star. When I think of the games of the last few years I've enjoyed the most, they fit most of those criteria - Dragon Age: Inquisition, Tomb Raider 2013, Tomb Raider 2015, Alien: Isolation, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Prey, Horizon: Zero Dawn. But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
I'm sad and disappointed that my favorite studio is going from "must preorder" to "hard pass," I'm going to regret all of the games that they'll never make because they've gone down a different path, but I have no standing to say that they must go back to making games for me. It's quite possible, maybe even probable, that by moving in this direction they're chasing a larger, more lucrative market. Which is ultimately fine. I don't need to buy their games, they don't need my money.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
This seems like a bit of an overreaction. They're trying one new thing amidst Inquisition, MEA, and future DA4, all presumably in the "for you" category. It didn't work out, but a new studio was spun-off solely to keep making "for you" Mass Effect games, so it doesn't seem like they're making a fundamental sea change.
Now personally I share your skepticism, because I'm not a fan of Destiny/Division/etc. games and prefer single-player concentrated story with a discrete beginning and end, and when I imagine quests or characters in Anthem, I see more of the forgettable in-game fly-over-shoulder zoom convos asking for bear asses and less cinecam. That said, my friends and I did enjoy playing through the story of the Borderlands games, I had no faith in the idea of multiplayer in Mass Effect either, and it's much too early to say anything interesting about Anthem (maybe it'll even have an interesting story!), so I'm willing to wait and see.
(I'd also accept them going back and making another Jade Empire.)
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I'm sad and disappointed that my favorite studio is going from "must preorder" to "hard pass," I'm going to regret all of the games that they'll never make because they've gone down a different path, but I have no standing to say that they must go back to making games for me. It's quite possible, maybe even probable, that by moving in this direction they're chasing a larger, more lucrative market. Which is ultimately fine. I don't need to buy their games, they don't need my money.
I agree with everything you said except for this. I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt--I'm just not saying "Bioware I want to suck your teets of gamingness" anymore. So maybe preorder, maybe not. Maybe get all the DLC day one, maybe not. Maybe don't get any DLC.
Previously it was order the deluxe edition and get DLC the minute it dropped.
So it goes.
Orca on
0
Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
Sure would be less confusing if EA hadnt renamed two other companies into also being named Bioware.
With Anthem as EA's big play I would absolutely not be surprised if they're moving their eggs into the one basket and shelving the item that made bad PR for them
It's disappointing but it is what it is and I would rather not have them continue to produce DLC if their human resources allocation is just as distracted as it was for the main game.
BioWare has had a stellar track record with Mass Effect DLC and it would be awful if we had to settle with 'mediocre' because of the same reasons that Andromeda was a diminished product
I think that putting more eggs in the Anthem basket is a bad, bad PR move. There's a portion of Bioware's audience (myself included) that sees Anthem as Bioware doubling down on the mistakes they've made over the past five years - they just don't seem to get why some people want to play their games. Or they assume that we'll learn to like their direction.
Anthem isn't meant for us as the primary audience. It's pretty obvious they had the Destiny crowd specifically in mind when they revealed the game play trailer. Most of the people in the Anthem reddit are huge Destiny fans and keep comparing both games, this is by design. Don't forget that Bioware has done this before with The Old Republic.
I suppose out of all of the studios in EA I suppose BioWare would be the studio best equipped to tackle the shooter MMORPG format, but yeah, it's a super rough market and it remains to be seen how Another One Of Those will hold up in the market. It looks super shiny, maybe it'll be inspired enough to have some originality
Re: Andromeda, I still believe that the ME1 open-world formula that it tries to iterate on is a valid approach to the series, but it can't be plagued by management problems, needs more bespoke dedication to detail in locales and needs more time in the oven. I'm fully willing to wait until they can commit the entirety of their studio manpower and budget to their DLC
The problem that Andromeda had was that the basic concept that they started with was fucking terrible. They wanted to procedurally generate a Bioware-style RPG, but that directly goes against the care and detail that people want from a Bioware game. No-Mass Skyffect?
And that was something that plagued the project from the beginning. It smells like a directive from management. That they cobbled together a 7+ game that feels like Mass Effect in 18 months when that vision didn't pan out is actually kinda incredible.
Montreal was set up to fail and they did the best they could anyway.
I dunno. Schreier's original Andromeda postmortem article made it sound like all of the No Man's Sky-esque stuff was just Montreal biting off way more than they could chew. If anything, it sounded like EA or the BioWare higherups should have stepped in sooner to reign them in.
Okay, looking at that article, they hired a crazy person as their director. That is on EA and Bioware.
One lingering question for the Andromeda team was how they could possibly implement a BioWare-caliber story in a game with procedurally generated planets. Some teams felt perpetually understaffed, and there were technological difficulties. BioWare’s level designers used a tool called WorldMachine that could simulate erosion and build realistic mountains on each planet, but other teams had trouble figuring out how to generate high-quality worlds without getting in and doing it by hand. “Unfortunately that was the only team that was able to figure out how to do stuff more procedurally,” said a person who worked on the game. “No one else had the resources.”
They were under-staffed and took on a ridiculous task that they knew was a ridiculous task. Hundreds of explorable worlds? You can't procedurally generate a good story. You just can't. Casey Hudson was in on the initial meetings; I have my gripes with that guy, but he should have known better.
You're right, the higher-ups should have stepped in sooner; did the new director lie to them, give them false progress reports? What about Montreal's pedigree of making Omega, easily in the bottom three ME DLC with Pinnacle Station and Firewalker, led them to believe that they could operate without supervision? These are experienced game developers; I'm having a hard time believing that the industry leaders in making western AAA RPGs got boondoggled for three and a half years.
The buck stops at the top. Don't blame the worker bees if the queen sends them in the wrong direction.
But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
This seems like a bit of an overreaction. They're trying one new thing amidst Inquisition, MEA, and future DA4, all presumably in the "for you" category. It didn't work out, but a new studio was spun-off solely to keep making "for you" Mass Effect games, so it doesn't seem like they're making a fundamental sea change.
Change is slow, but it's happening. For example, combat in Andromeda feels like it's built around trying to emulate a frantic PVP pace, and I prefer slower, more deliberate combat. After being in a great place with regards to inventory in Mass Effect 2 and very good in Mass Effect 3, Andromeda is basically a loot treadmill game. Andromeda is built around big, open worlds, not tightly crafted episodes.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
This seems like a bit of an overreaction. They're trying one new thing amidst Inquisition, MEA, and future DA4, all presumably in the "for you" category. It didn't work out, but a new studio was spun-off solely to keep making "for you" Mass Effect games, so it doesn't seem like they're making a fundamental sea change.
Change is slow, but it's happening. For example, combat in Andromeda feels like it's built around trying to emulate a frantic PVP pace, and I prefer slower, more deliberate combat. After being in a great place with regards to inventory in Mass Effect 2 and very good in Mass Effect 3, Andromeda is basically a loot treadmill game. Andromeda is built around big, open worlds, not tightly crafted episodes.
I'd say that Andromeda is more a research/crafting treadmill than a loot treadmill, since you can (and should) build better stuff than you can find, at essentially all times.
+5
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
As someone who played Destiny(mostly year 1) I'm actually pretty interested in Anthem.
SP content for Destiny was a big failing to a lot of folks even if we liked the other stuff and if Bioware can succeed where they failed I'll actually be pretty up for it.
My guess is that you're pretty much exactly the target audience for Anthem - I'm presuming that you're someone who was interested in Destiny, but who wants more single player content.
The problem is that there is a portion of Bioware fans whose response to this direction is "Thank you, but no." How big that portion is, I have no idea. I know that it's not zero, but beyond that, who knows?
What I generally want out of an AAA game:
An engaging story where I play as the hero. Not as "a" hero. "The" hero. I don't ever want to be the sidekick of L33TDuDe69.
Dialog, character building, with NPCs that have their own motivations.
Gameplay and loadout that's based around personal preference, rather than loot drop treadmill roulette.
Long term replay value based on making alternate choices, rather than an endgame that acts as a loot treadmill.
I want to enjoy and appreciate the protagonist.
A game that is fully single player. I hate waiting on other people, I hate making other people wait on me. I hate it when some dumbass runs up to a monster and gets eaten, and they explain that it was so that they could get a cool screenshot. I hate it when I can't just run up to a monster to get eaten because I'm trying to get a great screenshot because it holds back the progress of the other people. I simply cannot enjoy a multiplayer game the way I enjoy a single player game. Also, the ability to play offline is 100% critical. I want to be able to play on my laptop while visiting family or on a business trip.
Basically, I want a big budget blockbuster movie where I get to be the star. When I think of the games of the last few years I've enjoyed the most, they fit most of those criteria - Dragon Age: Inquisition, Tomb Raider 2013, Tomb Raider 2015, Alien: Isolation, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Prey, Horizon: Zero Dawn. But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
I'm sad and disappointed that my favorite studio is going from "must preorder" to "hard pass," I'm going to regret all of the games that they'll never make because they've gone down a different path, but I have no standing to say that they must go back to making games for me. It's quite possible, maybe even probable, that by moving in this direction they're chasing a larger, more lucrative market. Which is ultimately fine. I don't need to buy their games, they don't need my money.
Well...I mean not like they don't still have that kind of game coming out in Dragon Age.
Also, maybe its cause I have a long memory but honestly a lot of the complaining look like the complaints that happened when ME1 and even moreso ME2 came out. On how they're making a shooter to appeal to etc, and I want a traditional cRPG.
And I'm not saying you're wrong or that Anthem will be for you. Just saying this isn't the first time they're entered new(for them) gaming territory.
But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
This seems like a bit of an overreaction. They're trying one new thing amidst Inquisition, MEA, and future DA4, all presumably in the "for you" category. It didn't work out, but a new studio was spun-off solely to keep making "for you" Mass Effect games, so it doesn't seem like they're making a fundamental sea change.
Change is slow, but it's happening. For example, combat in Andromeda feels like it's built around trying to emulate a frantic PVP pace, and I prefer slower, more deliberate combat. After being in a great place with regards to inventory in Mass Effect 2 and very good in Mass Effect 3, Andromeda is basically a loot treadmill game. Andromeda is built around big, open worlds, not tightly crafted episodes.
I'd say that Andromeda is more a research/crafting treadmill than a loot treadmill, since you can (and should) build better stuff than you can find, at essentially all times.
Yeah, but then you have to battle with the interface.
So apparently BioWare will be having an Andromeda panel on July 8th at one of the comic cons. I'm guessing if there is going to be a DLC announcement for anything, it will be there.
See, I just disagree with the idea that time in the oven would have fixed this game. How does the detective vision make sense? How does crafting make this game better? How do layers and layers of menus to select a quest or see what new gun mod I have make sense?
You would think that the simplicity they moved towards in ME2 and parts of ME3 would have been the way to go. Future society is more organized and not layered. Why would a space captain have to manage his armory or nomad mods? Cut out the work and focus on the combat and story. That is ME to me and a better way forward.
See, I just disagree with the idea that time in the oven would have fixed this game. How does the detective vision make sense? How does crafting make this game better? How do layers and layers of menus to select a quest or see what new gun mod I have make sense?
You would think that the simplicity they moved towards in ME2 and parts of ME3 would have been the way to go. Future society is more organized and not layered. Why would a space captain have to manage his armory or nomad mods? Cut out the work and focus on the combat and story. That is ME to me and a better way forward.
It had time in the oven. Lots of time. Five years! The problem was that the creative direction was screwy, and nobody, not the originators of the IP, not the Bioware leadership, not the EA suits, none of them stepped in to say, "Ah, maybe concentrate on making it a playable game before spiraling into procedurally generated Quixotic dreams?
We didn't need hundreds of explorable planets! We didn't need thirty explorable planets! Seven was just fine!
+11
FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
See, I just disagree with the idea that time in the oven would have fixed this game. How does the detective vision make sense? How does crafting make this game better? How do layers and layers of menus to select a quest or see what new gun mod I have make sense?
You would think that the simplicity they moved towards in ME2 and parts of ME3 would have been the way to go. Future society is more organized and not layered. Why would a space captain have to manage his armory or nomad mods? Cut out the work and focus on the combat and story. That is ME to me and a better way forward.
It had time in the oven. Lots of time. Five years! The problem was that the creative direction was screwy, and nobody, not the originators of the IP, not the Bioware leadership, not the EA suits, none of them stepped in to say, "Ah, maybe concentrate on making it a playable game before spiraling into procedurally generated Quixotic dreams?
We didn't need hundreds of explorable planets! We didn't need thirty explorable planets! Seven was just fine!
Absolutely. Five years is more than enough time to create the most awesomest MASS EFFECT ever, if you don't spend 70% of it chasing your own tail.
I'm starting to realize that the default state for established fandoms is rage.
We're all bitching about Discovery, half of Potterheads kind of want Rowling dead, every development in any Star Wars movie is met with cries of "Doom!," and Final Fantasy is basically a case study in endemic hatred.
And then, every once in awhile, we're all united by how neat something is- at least until the knives come out and it all starts again.
And I think that nicely describes part of the problem on the fandom side.
See, I just disagree with the idea that time in the oven would have fixed this game. How does the detective vision make sense? How does crafting make this game better? How do layers and layers of menus to select a quest or see what new gun mod I have make sense?
You would think that the simplicity they moved towards in ME2 and parts of ME3 would have been the way to go. Future society is more organized and not layered. Why would a space captain have to manage his armory or nomad mods? Cut out the work and focus on the combat and story. That is ME to me and a better way forward.
It had time in the oven. Lots of time. Five years! The problem was that the creative direction was screwy, and nobody, not the originators of the IP, not the Bioware leadership, not the EA suits, none of them stepped in to say, "Ah, maybe concentrate on making it a playable game before spiraling into procedurally generated Quixotic dreams?
We didn't need hundreds of explorable planets! We didn't need thirty explorable planets! Seven was just fine!
It still could have used that time in the oven. It just needed that time at the end of the 18 months where they threw out whatever they had from the previous 42 months that wasn't working out. The game we got after the first few patches is a much better game (especially on the MP side) than the game was at release. It just might not be the game you want.
I saved Sloane from Reyes, because when I realized he'd been playing me from the beginning, it raised the possibility that he might in truth be an even worse person than her. I couldn't trust anything about the person I thought I'd come to know, after all.
So yeah, "devil you know" mixed with a nice dose of "you seriously owe me now." I also pushed consistently for reconciliation / rehabilitation for Outcasts, which I couldn't honestly do unless I was willing to extend that to Sloane. "Nexus saved our leader despite everything" seemed like a really nice way to start getting into the hearts & minds of the regular Outcasts, and the game left me with a sense that it was probably going to work.
aye i dinnae understand why folk would think that
reyes would be better for kadara than sloane.
1) hes a smuggler who lies about his identity and has no problems with murdering business rivals, this is not an improvement over sloane
2) his organisation takes prisoners because ??? and then beats them
3) the collective have a literal secret torture and murder chamber out in the badlands
also he has a funny looking neck, always a sign of poor character
My Andromeda Loot Crate arrived today. I got it because while the idea of getting a random mishmash of pop culture stuff holds no appeal to me I thought it would be cool if it was an assortment of things directly related to a thing I like a lot.
Turns out nope! Just a box of crap.
I guess the hoodie is nice, I might wear that once it stops being hell weather season. Everything else, though...
2 Blasto themed cereal bowls, 2 glasses for whisky or something I dunno with a Vortex label on it, a little hot wheels-sized Nomad, an Andromeda Initiative sew-on patch, 2 Andromeda Initiative coins, and a couple of pins.
Loot Crate is bad it turns out, even if it's all from a series you really enjoy. At least it was a one-off purchase and not part of their subscription.
At least my Sara Ryder action figure will be coming in August and I know that'll be cool.
Out of the Mass Effect N7 crate, besides the hoodie I liked the Volus plush, the shot glasses, the datapad notebook, and the backpack (although the backpack is pretty cheap feeling). And that was only a few dollars more than this crate.
Out of this, besides the hoodie I guess I'll use the glasses because I like having some dedicated mixed drink glasses, they don't really seem Mass Effect themed.
I think I need to level up a weapon based class. I'm in reach of maxing my uncommon, so I should (eventually) have decent enough weapons to make it work, and I've got the sneaking suspicion that Platinum is going to be 'weapon based with huge burst damage capacity or GTFO'.
I HATE (and suck at!) sniping, so I'm thinking maybe a Turian Solider packing two high RoF fuck off assault rifles, Revenant and Cyclone? Fortify to 5, max Turbocharge and the passive, dump whatever's left in grenades?
Out of the Mass Effect N7 crate, besides the hoodie I liked the Volus plush, the shot glasses, the datapad notebook, and the backpack (although the backpack is pretty cheap feeling). And that was only a few dollars more than this crate.
Out of this, besides the hoodie I guess I'll use the glasses because I like having some dedicated mixed drink glasses, they don't really seem Mass Effect themed.
The pins and coin are nice, at least.
Honestly, I loved my Andromeda loot crate. The hoodie, bowls, and glasses will all get a lot of use from me. The hot wheels car just brought out my 9 year old self playing with hot wheels cars on the kitchen floor, and thus is great. The patch will go on my black quick travel bag once I pick up some more super glue as I'm currently out. The coin goes nice on my desk at work with other random geek stuff that looks mature enough that HR ignores it.
Really, the Pins are the only thing that I was meh about in it. Just a great crate all around for me.
I don't drink, I don't have cereal or other foods I'd use a plastic bowl for, I have nowhere to display coins or pins, and nothing to put a patch on. So for me it was $66 for a hoodie and a toy car.
I'm starting to realize that the default state for established fandoms is rage.
We're all bitching about Discovery, half of Potterheads kind of want Rowling dead, every development in any Star Wars movie is met with cries of "Doom!," and Final Fantasy is basically a case study in endemic hatred.
And then, every once in awhile, we're all united by how neat something is- at least until the knives come out and it all starts again.
And I think that nicely describes part of the problem on the fandom side.
I have no opinion about Discovery, I appreciate Rowling and hope she continues to write, I remain optimistic about Star Wars, and the last good Final Fantasy game was VI!
Shadowhope on
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
You can't find something to eat with a bowl? Try harder! :P
Plastic bowl. I'm not sure it's microwave safe, and everything I eat out of bowls that size is heated in them.
I'll find something to use them for. It's just a disappointment. Maybe I was expecting too much, it was my first loot crate after all.
It's funny, I really enjoyed Andromeda itself. It took a blind box loot crate to give me my first (yes, actually) disappointment related to the series.
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Thing is that from a certain perspective, people who enjoy or dislike A Thing only to a moderate or non-committal degree aren't going to be the ones frothing with rage about other people's opinions or taking the time and effort coming up with treatises on why The Thing is the best or worst Thing to have come out since the last Thing
So the most vocal opinion we're going to hear about that Thing could very well only be the extreme ones at the ends of the bell-curve while the majority of consumers shrug and move on to some other Thing, probably shinier and with more allure than the previous 1982 incarnation even though most of it consists of cheap scares and is painfully derivative of the previous
I mean, uh
Like, for me, BioWare titles will always pique my interest because honestly out of all the EA franchises that exist I haven't seen such severe stylistic changes from each following entry. Are they generally trying to follow the money rather than some genuine desire to take risks with their genres? Perhaps, but to some degree I admire their elements of experimentation and their efforts to try and fit previously square pegs into slightly rounder holes.
The most iterative title that modern BioWare produced was Mass Effect 3 as a follow-up from Mass Effect 2 - every other game I can think of differs drastically in some format. I suppose in many regards it's a liability, but I've never said "boy they sure shit out the exact same game as the one last time" like I have for a whole bunch of other EA games.
I like their willingness to flip some of the script even though its probably driven by finances. I want them to improve on core ideas, for sure, but the most disappointing parts of games like Inquisition and Andromeda were the elements directly borrowed from Origins and Mass Effect 1. I don't know, I guess it cuts both ways.
My Andromeda Loot Crate arrived today. I got it because while the idea of getting a random mishmash of pop culture stuff holds no appeal to me I thought it would be cool if it was an assortment of things directly related to a thing I like a lot.
Turns out nope! Just a box of crap.
I guess the hoodie is nice, I might wear that once it stops being hell weather season. Everything else, though...
2 Blasto themed cereal bowls, 2 glasses for whisky or something I dunno with a Vortex label on it, a little hot wheels-sized Nomad, an Andromeda Initiative sew-on patch, 2 Andromeda Initiative coins, and a couple of pins.
Loot Crate is bad it turns out, even if it's all from a series you really enjoy. At least it was a one-off purchase and not part of their subscription.
At least my Sara Ryder action figure will be coming in August and I know that'll be cool.
I did a few loot crates and realized this as well. I might as well spend the price of a loot crate on one piece of memorabilia I actually want, rather than 6 pieces, 2 of which don't completely embarrass me and 4 of which I'll throw away.
Thing is that from a certain perspective, people who enjoy or dislike A Thing only to a moderate or non-committal degree aren't going to be the ones frothing with rage about other people's opinions or taking the time and effort coming up with treatises on why The Thing is the best or worst Thing to have come out since the last Thing
So the most vocal opinion we're going to hear about that Thing could very well only be the extreme ones at the ends of the bell-curve while the majority of consumers shrug and move on to some other Thing, probably shinier and with more allure than the previous 1982 incarnation even though most of it consists of cheap scares and is painfully derivative of the previous
I mean, uh
Like, for me, BioWare titles will always pique my interest because honestly out of all the EA franchises that exist I haven't seen such severe stylistic changes from each following entry. Are they generally trying to follow the money rather than some genuine desire to take risks with their genres? Perhaps, but to some degree I admire their elements of experimentation and their efforts to try and fit previously square pegs into slightly rounder holes.
The most iterative title that modern BioWare produced was Mass Effect 3 as a follow-up from Mass Effect 2 - every other game I can think of differs drastically in some format. I suppose in many regards it's a liability, but I've never said "boy they sure shit out the exact same game as the one last time" like I have for a whole bunch of other EA games.
I like their willingness to flip some of the script even though its probably driven by finances. I want them to improve on core ideas, for sure, but the most disappointing parts of games like Inquisition and Andromeda were the elements directly borrowed from Origins and Mass Effect 1. I don't know, I guess it cuts both ways.
What about those of us who write treatises on why it's neither the best or worst thing ever? Huh?
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
So, MP patch notes are out. Characters are no longer capped at X, and get bonuses (minor?) to relevant stats with extra ranks. Of course that means no more, 'Yay, done with class I'll never play hooray unlock (thing I want badly!)'.
There are also THREE new versions of EVERY uncommon, rare, and UR weapon - one that gives health on kills with it, on that gives DR close to teammates, and one that creates biotic combos on weak point kills. Looks like exact matches to Rank X stats of the base guns at Rank I, so probably only drop once you max the base type out.
Basically an absolute fuckload of bloat for no discernible benefit, while making it much less likely you'll get any specific thing. Awesome.
Oh, and you can buy a random UR character for 960 mission funds in the shop now.
Posts
If you told me that the next BioWare game was going to be some weird bastard hybrid of The Division and Destiny I would've looked at you like you were crazy.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
SP content for Destiny was a big failing to a lot of folks even if we liked the other stuff and if Bioware can succeed where they failed I'll actually be pretty up for it.
Re: Andromeda, I still believe that the ME1 open-world formula that it tries to iterate on is a valid approach to the series, but it can't be plagued by management problems, needs more bespoke dedication to detail in locales and needs more time in the oven. I'm fully willing to wait until they can commit the entirety of their studio manpower and budget to their DLC
The problem that Andromeda had was that the basic concept that they started with was fucking terrible. They wanted to procedurally generate a Bioware-style RPG, but that directly goes against the care and detail that people want from a Bioware game. No-Mass Skyffect?
And that was something that plagued the project from the beginning. It smells like a directive from management. That they cobbled together a 7+ game that feels like Mass Effect in 18 months when that vision didn't pan out is actually kinda incredible.
Montreal was set up to fail and they did the best they could anyway.
I dunno. Schreier's original Andromeda postmortem article made it sound like all of the No Man's Sky-esque stuff was just Montreal biting off way more than they could chew. If anything, it sounded like EA or the BioWare higherups should have stepped in sooner to reign them in.
My guess is that you're pretty much exactly the target audience for Anthem - I'm presuming that you're someone who was interested in Destiny, but who wants more single player content.
The problem is that there is a portion of Bioware fans whose response to this direction is "Thank you, but no." How big that portion is, I have no idea. I know that it's not zero, but beyond that, who knows?
What I generally want out of an AAA game:
Basically, I want a big budget blockbuster movie where I get to be the star. When I think of the games of the last few years I've enjoyed the most, they fit most of those criteria - Dragon Age: Inquisition, Tomb Raider 2013, Tomb Raider 2015, Alien: Isolation, Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Prey, Horizon: Zero Dawn. But the thing is, no one does all of those things together quite as well as Bioware. Mass Effect 2 just about perfectly hit my personal preferences in what I want from a game. And Bioware is drifting away from that. They're no longer making games for me.
I'm sad and disappointed that my favorite studio is going from "must preorder" to "hard pass," I'm going to regret all of the games that they'll never make because they've gone down a different path, but I have no standing to say that they must go back to making games for me. It's quite possible, maybe even probable, that by moving in this direction they're chasing a larger, more lucrative market. Which is ultimately fine. I don't need to buy their games, they don't need my money.
This seems like a bit of an overreaction. They're trying one new thing amidst Inquisition, MEA, and future DA4, all presumably in the "for you" category. It didn't work out, but a new studio was spun-off solely to keep making "for you" Mass Effect games, so it doesn't seem like they're making a fundamental sea change.
Now personally I share your skepticism, because I'm not a fan of Destiny/Division/etc. games and prefer single-player concentrated story with a discrete beginning and end, and when I imagine quests or characters in Anthem, I see more of the forgettable in-game fly-over-shoulder zoom convos asking for bear asses and less cinecam. That said, my friends and I did enjoy playing through the story of the Borderlands games, I had no faith in the idea of multiplayer in Mass Effect either, and it's much too early to say anything interesting about Anthem (maybe it'll even have an interesting story!), so I'm willing to wait and see.
(I'd also accept them going back and making another Jade Empire.)
I agree with everything you said except for this. I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt--I'm just not saying "Bioware I want to suck your teets of gamingness" anymore. So maybe preorder, maybe not. Maybe get all the DLC day one, maybe not. Maybe don't get any DLC.
Previously it was order the deluxe edition and get DLC the minute it dropped.
So it goes.
Okay, looking at that article, they hired a crazy person as their director. That is on EA and Bioware.
They were under-staffed and took on a ridiculous task that they knew was a ridiculous task. Hundreds of explorable worlds? You can't procedurally generate a good story. You just can't. Casey Hudson was in on the initial meetings; I have my gripes with that guy, but he should have known better.
You're right, the higher-ups should have stepped in sooner; did the new director lie to them, give them false progress reports? What about Montreal's pedigree of making Omega, easily in the bottom three ME DLC with Pinnacle Station and Firewalker, led them to believe that they could operate without supervision? These are experienced game developers; I'm having a hard time believing that the industry leaders in making western AAA RPGs got boondoggled for three and a half years.
The buck stops at the top. Don't blame the worker bees if the queen sends them in the wrong direction.
Change is slow, but it's happening. For example, combat in Andromeda feels like it's built around trying to emulate a frantic PVP pace, and I prefer slower, more deliberate combat. After being in a great place with regards to inventory in Mass Effect 2 and very good in Mass Effect 3, Andromeda is basically a loot treadmill game. Andromeda is built around big, open worlds, not tightly crafted episodes.
I'd say that Andromeda is more a research/crafting treadmill than a loot treadmill, since you can (and should) build better stuff than you can find, at essentially all times.
Well...I mean not like they don't still have that kind of game coming out in Dragon Age.
Also, maybe its cause I have a long memory but honestly a lot of the complaining look like the complaints that happened when ME1 and even moreso ME2 came out. On how they're making a shooter to appeal to etc, and I want a traditional cRPG.
And I'm not saying you're wrong or that Anthem will be for you. Just saying this isn't the first time they're entered new(for them) gaming territory.
Yeah, but then you have to battle with the interface.
You would think that the simplicity they moved towards in ME2 and parts of ME3 would have been the way to go. Future society is more organized and not layered. Why would a space captain have to manage his armory or nomad mods? Cut out the work and focus on the combat and story. That is ME to me and a better way forward.
It had time in the oven. Lots of time. Five years! The problem was that the creative direction was screwy, and nobody, not the originators of the IP, not the Bioware leadership, not the EA suits, none of them stepped in to say, "Ah, maybe concentrate on making it a playable game before spiraling into procedurally generated Quixotic dreams?
We didn't need hundreds of explorable planets! We didn't need thirty explorable planets! Seven was just fine!
Absolutely. Five years is more than enough time to create the most awesomest MASS EFFECT ever, if you don't spend 70% of it chasing your own tail.
And I think that nicely describes part of the problem on the fandom side.
aye i dinnae understand why folk would think that
1) hes a smuggler who lies about his identity and has no problems with murdering business rivals, this is not an improvement over sloane
2) his organisation takes prisoners because ??? and then beats them
3) the collective have a literal secret torture and murder chamber out in the badlands
also he has a funny looking neck, always a sign of poor character
So you can stare longingly into his sexy, sexy eyes :P
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
Turns out nope! Just a box of crap.
I guess the hoodie is nice, I might wear that once it stops being hell weather season. Everything else, though...
2 Blasto themed cereal bowls, 2 glasses for whisky or something I dunno with a Vortex label on it, a little hot wheels-sized Nomad, an Andromeda Initiative sew-on patch, 2 Andromeda Initiative coins, and a couple of pins.
Loot Crate is bad it turns out, even if it's all from a series you really enjoy. At least it was a one-off purchase and not part of their subscription.
At least my Sara Ryder action figure will be coming in August and I know that'll be cool.
Out of this, besides the hoodie I guess I'll use the glasses because I like having some dedicated mixed drink glasses, they don't really seem Mass Effect themed.
The pins and coin are nice, at least.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I HATE (and suck at!) sniping, so I'm thinking maybe a Turian Solider packing two high RoF fuck off assault rifles, Revenant and Cyclone? Fortify to 5, max Turbocharge and the passive, dump whatever's left in grenades?
Honestly, I loved my Andromeda loot crate. The hoodie, bowls, and glasses will all get a lot of use from me. The hot wheels car just brought out my 9 year old self playing with hot wheels cars on the kitchen floor, and thus is great. The patch will go on my black quick travel bag once I pick up some more super glue as I'm currently out. The coin goes nice on my desk at work with other random geek stuff that looks mature enough that HR ignores it.
Really, the Pins are the only thing that I was meh about in it. Just a great crate all around for me.
I have no opinion about Discovery, I appreciate Rowling and hope she continues to write, I remain optimistic about Star Wars, and the last good Final Fantasy game was VI!
And those glasses are perfect for some ice cream. Just the right size to remind me of the ice cream shops when I was a kid.
I miss the days when Carvel and Friendly's were all fancy like.
Plastic bowl. I'm not sure it's microwave safe, and everything I eat out of bowls that size is heated in them.
I'll find something to use them for. It's just a disappointment. Maybe I was expecting too much, it was my first loot crate after all.
It's funny, I really enjoyed Andromeda itself. It took a blind box loot crate to give me my first (yes, actually) disappointment related to the series.
Yup, but it's a super-generic font, and not that large, either.
Oh yeah, I remembered that the N7 box also had some socks in it that I like.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
So the most vocal opinion we're going to hear about that Thing could very well only be the extreme ones at the ends of the bell-curve while the majority of consumers shrug and move on to some other Thing, probably shinier and with more allure than the previous 1982 incarnation even though most of it consists of cheap scares and is painfully derivative of the previous
I mean, uh
Like, for me, BioWare titles will always pique my interest because honestly out of all the EA franchises that exist I haven't seen such severe stylistic changes from each following entry. Are they generally trying to follow the money rather than some genuine desire to take risks with their genres? Perhaps, but to some degree I admire their elements of experimentation and their efforts to try and fit previously square pegs into slightly rounder holes.
The most iterative title that modern BioWare produced was Mass Effect 3 as a follow-up from Mass Effect 2 - every other game I can think of differs drastically in some format. I suppose in many regards it's a liability, but I've never said "boy they sure shit out the exact same game as the one last time" like I have for a whole bunch of other EA games.
I like their willingness to flip some of the script even though its probably driven by finances. I want them to improve on core ideas, for sure, but the most disappointing parts of games like Inquisition and Andromeda were the elements directly borrowed from Origins and Mass Effect 1. I don't know, I guess it cuts both ways.
I did a few loot crates and realized this as well. I might as well spend the price of a loot crate on one piece of memorabilia I actually want, rather than 6 pieces, 2 of which don't completely embarrass me and 4 of which I'll throw away.
What about those of us who write treatises on why it's neither the best or worst thing ever? Huh?
There are also THREE new versions of EVERY uncommon, rare, and UR weapon - one that gives health on kills with it, on that gives DR close to teammates, and one that creates biotic combos on weak point kills. Looks like exact matches to Rank X stats of the base guns at Rank I, so probably only drop once you max the base type out.
Basically an absolute fuckload of bloat for no discernible benefit, while making it much less likely you'll get any specific thing. Awesome.
Oh, and you can buy a random UR character for 960 mission funds in the shop now.