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Mass Effect Andromeda officially delayed until 2017

Discussion in 'Gaming Forum' started by Unlucky 13, May 11, 2016.

  1. texanphinatic

    texanphinatic Senior Member

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    I think your squadmates are hardier than you regardless of choices - because they are AI. Biggest things for combat are to use the cover system well, avoid prolonged exposure and use your jetpack well (horizontal is great too).

    I personally love a sniper/AR combo early, and pair that with biotic talents like singularity, throw and shockwave. Unshielded enemies are easily kept at a distance by the biotic powers, and sniper can pick them off. A good AR (or even a rapid fire SMG style pistol) will chew through the shields of the tougher guys fairly quick, allowing you to gun them down or again use biotics to fling them away.

    Barrier is also a nice defensive biotic talent. Lastly, Cora has a nice defensive shield talent that may be worth investigating if you normally leave her on the sideline.

    Lastly, I did find around level 20ish that I was getting better armor/weapons and maxing out skills to the point that I was dying way less. Even tougher enemies didn't bother me so much. I'm around 40 now and death is a rarity. :) Think I play on the normal setting though - I like just a hint of challenge to keep me honest, but not enough to really slow me down/frustrate me. I play more for story and feels than to pretend I am some kind of pro gamer.
     
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  2. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Yeah, I've invested pretty heavily thus far for all of the squadmates who have defensive abilities. Cora seems really hearty and hardly ever gets knocked out. Vetra does sometimes. I've barely used Drak so far due to being in areas where others might have had a role play reason to be in. As I hang out in places where I'm just exploring or going back, I plan to use him more.

    Not complaining about how tough the squad seems to be. Just feels like the opposite of ME2 & 3, where I was tough as nails and they got knocked down left and right early in the game. I was able to get a set of Pathfinder N7 Lev 3 armor today, and I'm planning on investing in Barrier for sure, but I think that its one that I have to unlock by spending points in that category first, and I haven't spend a single one in anything other than combat yet. Working on it.
     
  3. texanphinatic

    texanphinatic Senior Member

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    Yeah I love biotics in all the ME games, way better than plain ol' soldier boy. :D
     
  4. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Got a laugh today. While in the middle of a mission, I got a trophy for reaching level 25 after killing an enemy. "You're almost there!" Almost where? Are they suggesting that the old level cap of 30 is something special? Because I think I'm hitting 70 at least, lol. I'm guessing that I'm about a third of the way through the story. Feels like the Priority Mission that I'm in is the end of the game's first act. I saw the major plot twist coming. (No spoilers)
     
  5. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    50 hours in, level 32, and I just completed my first loyalty mission (Cora). I was really surprised that it took that long before one was available. Hers seemed to be the one that would lead to more interesting other things happening in the story, so I went with it.

    I stand by my earlier comments about the graphics. I hasn't gotten better, and is more in line with Fallout 4 than the other PS4 RPGs. However, there is a TON of meat on the bone with this game, and an enormous amount of things to do and places to explore. And even if the story is a little bit predictable, its still pretty good and I'm enjoying opening it up as I go.
     
  6. danmarino

    danmarino Tua is H1M! Club Member

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    So I've never played Mass Effect. After reading some of the reviews form you guys I'm strongly considering it. Should I start with an earlier game, or just jump right into the most recent?
     
  7. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    There are enough differences in how the games handle that you won't lose a lot of "training" if you haven't played the previous ones. There are also no characters from the other games directly related to this one, though a few are referenced. What you would lose is a deep intoroduction to the lore of the ME universe, how it got to where it is, who the different races are, and what their typical backgrounds and motivations are. Not to spoil anything, but the characters of this one have no knowledge of what happens in ME3 either.

    ME2 is a superb, epic game. A HOFer, and one of the best games from the PS3 era. ME3 direclt builds off of that, but isnt as well thought out or diverse a game as its predecesor. You can buy the trilogy for PS3 or Xbox 360 for about $30 usually, and I would recommend it, but if you don't, then I still think that you can enjoy the new one a lot without doing so.
     
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  8. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Its weird to me that I keep seeing people who play through the game without doing the side missions, and just plow through the main story. Over the last two days, I took on one of the companions side missions, which led me to a new location. That in turn led me to find several other side missions in that zone, which were cool, fun and gave me deeper info about the game's story than I had, and it all took me about six hours to play through. Why pass that up?
     
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  9. BlameItOnTheHenne

    BlameItOnTheHenne Taking a poop

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    Pretty sure those people who pass up loyalty missions are in the strong minority as they're a staple in the ME franchise. I did them all but I certainly didn't attempt to complete other side stuff. There are just way too many of them and most of which are nothing more than fetch quests.
     
  10. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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  11. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Main development studios almost never make DLC. Secondary studios make DLC with some input from the main studio. DLC is treated as development training cycles for smaller studios so their staff can move up to main games at bigger studios.
     
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  12. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    OK, thats cool. I was actually unaware. Either way, putting ME on ice to focus on a project that is rumored to be online multiplayer focused bums me out regardless.
     
  13. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Look at it this way: Mass Effect has avoided the fate of Assassin's Creed, which is trying to dig itself out of its own hole.

    Though I question the need for Andromeda in the first place. ME3 wrapped up a trilogy. What else is there to do in this game universe? Andromeda should have been a new IP with new ideas. Sometimes, things just need to end.
     
  14. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I strongly disagree. Part of the beauty is the familiarity with the existing universe that they've created. I love the comfort that it brings. I'll play the games for the next 20 years if they're solid and they keep making them. Same for Dragon Age.
     
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  15. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    The gaming industry is already way too reliant on play-it-safe sequels.
     
  16. Deerless Dice

    Deerless Dice Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    ME 1 has great characters but the game play is the weakest of the trilogy . ME2 has the best balance in terms of game play and interesting characters. 3 has the best game play but the characters aren't nearly as interesting.

    Personally I say play them in order but it's fine to start with 2. The games have lots of replay ability with the renegade and paragon system, so you can go back to 1 and import your character and replay 2 as a total prick (or goodie too shoes, whatever you didn't the first time) , and then import and play 3.
     
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  17. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    That depends what you want out of gameplay. I like the game play in ME 1 the most.

    Edit: Even though I have actually played through ME 1 from beginning to end, I also think it has a better story than ME 2. I played through parts of ME 1 a lot, due to the fact that it was my job to, and I never got bored of it. A very fun game. ME 2 disappointed me a little.
     
  18. Deerless Dice

    Deerless Dice Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I like 1 very much but it's combat is hard to go back to after 2 and 3, especially with the improvements to biotics. The inventory system is a giant mess and there is lots of planetary exploration with little pay off. ME2 improves on most of those, with the exception of the inventory system that got completely neutered. The the story in 1 is better than 2, but I think 2 has better companions.
     
  19. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I liked the combat better in 1 because it felt more like a RPG than an action game.

    I think I like everything better in 1 except for the graphics. The companions were O.K. in two, just didn't feel as close to them as I did in 1. I like 2 a lot. I didn't think it was as big of a disappointment as Dragon Age 2, however, I still prefer 1.
     
  20. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I think that I must be one of the few people in the world who like Dragon Age 2, for all the crap that it gets. I enjoyed the story and characters of DAO, but found the graphics to be poor, the controls and interface to be clunky, and the combat to be both crude, hard to control and maddeningly difficult. On top of all that, it crashed a lot and actually broke my first PS3 to the point that I had to send it away for repairs. DA2 had it shares of flaws (including using a pregen character), but I felt that the characters were more clearly defined, the graphics were a huge step up from the original, the combat (while simple) felt like I had control over what I was doing, and there were a large number of sidequests and things to do. I enjoyed it, and knew it inside and out.

    Now, since I actually played both of those before ever getting into Mass Effect, starting with the second one, perhaps my prespective is skewed a little compared to people who played them all from the very start. I also understand that PC gamers in particular seem especially attached to the original game of each series, and actually angry that the ones after that were made with consoles also in mind rather than porting the games to the PS and XBOX later.

    To me, it felt like ME2 was a great game that picked up with graphics and gameplay right where DA2 left off, just in space! I loved the story, and it was so much fun, especially the first time through, to explore the galaxy, find new places and recruit the squad in the order that I chose. It was amazing. ME3 was obviously the direct continuation of that game (as opposed to DA2 which was a game in the same universe, but with mostly different characters and 10 years later), and the continuation of the story. But they made too many changes for my liking, and the focus on the monster/zombie enemies was absolitely not my cup of tea. I like fighting humanoids.
     
  21. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I liked DA2. It is just, I enjoy RPGs for RPG elements. They took away the different environments as many were the same dungeon with just parts closed off, and the ability to find loot then outfit your characters. That made 99% of the loot I found feel worthless.

    I loved the character interaction and I thought the story was bold for a RPG.
     
  22. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I agree. But thankfully, they fixed almost everything in DA:I. Probably my favorite squad/companion based RPG in the last two console generations, and one of my favorites of all time. Its such a shame that they didn't transfer all of those improvements into ME:A.
     
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  23. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    DA:I did a great job of taking the things that were good in DA:I and DA:II.
     
  24. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Patch notes 1.08

    When I do a second playthrough, I'm glad to have a somewhat more robust character creator.
     
  25. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

    Long, very detailed read about what went wrong with ME:A. Long story short, they made some really big plans early on that they couldn't make happen for a variety of reasons, and the actual production of the game was then crammed into less than two years instead of 4+ like it should have been. Its never said implicitly, but it sounds to me like the choice to incorporate a lo of the basic elements of Dragon Age: Inquisition into the ME universe and "make it work" was a very late one when their original plans fell through, and had they simply chosen to go that route from Day One, the end product would have been terrific. They aimed too high, and went kersplat.

    The only good news from the whole thing is the bit at the end where resources are now being funneled into DA4. With ME on ice, my guess is that a lot of their big eggs are now in that basket, and they're going to make very certain that it lives up to expectations.
     
  26. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    http://www.criticalhit.net/entertainment/rumour-mass-effect-andromedas-story-dlc-cancelled/

    Take this with a grain of salt, but apparently EA/Bioware outsourced the planned story content for the game to an Austrailian outifit named Sinclair, and then has since cancelled those plans. It may turn out that there will now be zero DLC for the game, instead of the planned and traditional three.

    If so, a big :censored::tantrum::thumbdown: to the people in charge who are making these calls.
     
  27. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    ME:A will receive no more single player updates

    Translation: "we've taken the primary dev team off the game, handed duties off to a farm system, and we're tired of not making money on this game."
     
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  28. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    No surprise at this point, but still sucks.
     
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  29. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    ME:A really illustrates just how little publishers really care about quality, fidelity, fans, and dedication. Rather than make sure they weren't releasing a pile of crap, they just pushed it out, and rather than fix it, they basically circular filed it.

    The Mass Effect brand will live on, but don't expect ME:A2, or another big budget AAA Mass Effect game. It's much safer to crap out another Madden.
     
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  30. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I wonder now, is there's any chance that another studio can get the rights from EA? Another developer who actually cares about what they're doing could work wonders with the ME universe. Its too bad that Bioware is under EA's thumb.
     
  31. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Unlikely, because EA can make money for years off the Mass Effect name without actually releasing anything new. They can do HD remakes on the next console generation, they can do spin-offs on mobile, etc etc.

    Mass Effect as a franchise with integrity and self-worth died when Andromeda was SJW'd.
     
  32. eltos_lightfoot

    eltos_lightfoot Well-Known Member

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    Can't believe I pre-ordered this crap. Never again, EA. I keep hoping for ME2 again. ME3 wasn't bad, but this? Yeah....................
     
  33. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Happy N7 Day, everyone!

    https://www.ign.com/articles/mass-effect-legendary-edition-announced-for-2021-mass-effect-remaster

    The poorly kept secret is the remaster of ME1 through ME3, titles the Legendary Edition. It will be out in the Spring for both current consoles, with "forward compatibility enhancements" on the next gen ones as well. More details to come later. I've never played ME1, so I'm very curious to see what they've done.

    https://www.ign.com/articles/a-new-...in-development-at-bioware-with-a-veteran-team

    The unexpected news is that there's also a new ME game in development. It's being worked on by a veteran team at Bioware, and is being billed as "the next chapter in the Mass Effect" universe. Its believed to be years away, with Bioware first focusing on Dragon Age 4. We all know how mess up the development cycles have been for their recent titles, so fingers crossed that EA allows them to do it right.
     
  34. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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  35. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    The Legendary Edition is apparently being released on March 21, according to an Asian retailer.
     
  36. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I look forward to see how they integrate loot boxes*

    *hopefully a joke.
     
  37. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Hopefully so. From what I've read, it seems unlikely that they'll include the online aspects of 3 into this one, but I guess we'll find out.
     
  38. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    https://www.ign.com/articles/mass-e...-a-remake-but-much-more-than-a-basic-remaster

    The Legendary Edition will officially released in May, barring delays. IGN has a pretty good broad rundown of what to expect. Not surprisingly, the original game got the most attention, with the goal to make all three games look consistent and at a miniumum to the level of ME3, but ideally more like a PS4/XBOX 1 game. However, while they say they've cleaned up a lot of the things that made ME1 hard to play, they intentionally left some in to appease fans of that game.

    As someone who loves ME2 and ME3 but has never played the original, that's a bit of a letdown for me, because I was hoping to be able to enjoy the story of that game up close for the first time with gameplay more akin to the others. I guess we'll see what happens with it.

    It also sounds like everything will be "sped up", with the game running more smoothly, not crashing, and much quicker load screens.

     
  39. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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