Mass Effect Andromeda officially dead...

[Fred_vdp]

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@holger1405 wrote:

it was not unfinished, even pretty good optimised, at least for Nvidia hardware.   

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I played on AMD graphics (Radeon R9 390) and my experiences were very different. Definitely the worst optimization I've experienced in a triple A game of this generation. The game at medium 1080p runs far worse for me than Battlefield 1 on the highest settings at 1440p. However, I managed to get a performance boost when lowering tessellation samples in my AMD settings. That seems to be the root of the game's performance problems.

I also agree with the opinion that the game was unfinished at release. There are still some major bugs and oversights (e.g. the sprint bug, unskippable loading cinematics) that I wish they would fix, but they never got around to it.

All in all I think it's a good game, though. I think some criticisms are overblown (facial animations), but the aggregated review scores are fair.

[Skauron]

I was one of the few i think that had minimal problems, and the small issues i did find i worked around quickly anyway.  my biggest issues where the first install with the c++ installs stalling the install, but got past that quickly enough.. and then really i only really had one issue that bugged me (and many others) in multiplayer which was the sound issue. (again left to rot unresolved!)

[sblantipodi]

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@Fred_vdp wrote:

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@holger1405 wrote:

it was not unfinished, even pretty good optimised, at least for Nvidia hardware.   

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I played on AMD graphics (Radeon R9 390) and my experiences were very different. Definitely the worst optimization I've experienced in a triple A game of this generation. The game at medium 1080p runs far worse for me than Battlefield 1 on the highest settings at 1440p. However, I managed to get a performance boost when lowering tessellation samples in my AMD settings. That seems to be the root of the game's performance problems.

I also agree with the opinion that the game was unfinished at release. There are still some major bugs and oversights (e.g. the sprint bug, unskippable loading cinematics) that I wish they would fix, but they never got around to it.

All in all I think it's a good game, though. I think some criticisms are overblown (facial animations), but the aggregated review scores are fair.

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Tessellation is something widespread since years now, if your GPU is not able to do tessellation I don't understand why EA should be the coulprit.

[Fred_vdp]

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@sblantipodi wrote:

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@Fred_vdp wrote:

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@holger1405 wrote:

it was not unfinished, even pretty good optimised, at least for Nvidia hardware.   

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I played on AMD graphics (Radeon R9 390) and my experiences were very different. Definitely the worst optimization I've experienced in a triple A game of this generation. The game at medium 1080p runs far worse for me than Battlefield 1 on the highest settings at 1440p. However, I managed to get a performance boost when lowering tessellation samples in my AMD settings. That seems to be the root of the game's performance problems.

I also agree with the opinion that the game was unfinished at release. There are still some major bugs and oversights (e.g. the sprint bug, unskippable loading cinematics) that I wish they would fix, but they never got around to it.

All in all I think it's a good game, though. I think some criticisms are overblown (facial animations), but the aggregated review scores are fair.

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Tessellation is something widespread since years now, if your GPU is not able to do tessellation I don't understand why EA should be the coulprit.

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This is the only game where I have a problem with it. As I said, Battlefield 1 runs much smoother at the highest setting, and that runs on the same engine.

Tessellation is only part of it, however. Even after lowering it, all other Frostbite 3 games runs much smoother for me.

[sblantipodi]

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@Fred_vdp wrote:

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This is the only game where I have a problem with it. As I said, Battlefield 1 runs much smoother at the highest setting, and that runs on the same engine.

Tessellation is only part of it, however. Even after lowering it, all other Frostbite 3 games runs much smoother for me.

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buy a modern GPU that is able to do tessellation before complaining, Andromeda was a modern game.

[Ghostryderflyby]

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@holger1405 wrote:

@Ghostryderflyby

The initial reviews of professional gaming sides and magazines were not bad at all. Not enthusiastic, but not bad either. I think they pretty much got it right, a good game, but not a great one. 

A lot of the hysterical criticism at Andromeda was fuelled by people who had no interest in the game, but rather wanted to push their own agenda, (Anti SJW people and others.)  and the imho completely exaggerated "facial animation" debate. 

Also, with all due respect, you can't know if my experience with the game was atypical. There are simply no numbers available to back your claim (that the majority of people did encounter major problems) up. 

And no, "many post on the internet" are not proof, this game did run or runs on literally millions of machines.

On a side-note, there were enough early driver problems in regards to your 1080ti.

Furthermore, I highly doupt that EA (Or games from studios owned by EA) are in any way more "buggy" then games from other studios. It is in the nature of things that a lot of Bugs are only encountered after release.

No company in the world, not even the mighty Microsoft with the Windows Insider Program can prevent bugs. There are several hundred millions different hard and software configurations out there, no gaming company in the world can test their games at a big enough number of systems to prevent bugs, not even remotely.      

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If you think your experience was the norm and others were just being complainers, I suggest you check out the following links. I personally experienced many of the issues in the videos myself. Even after the patches, there are still issues with Sam or squad mates repeating pre-quest statements for completed quests when passing back through a quest area, or having 2 of the same squad mate aboard the Tempest, one which you can talk to in one location, and another somewhere else on board that you can't. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mass+effect+andromeda+bugs+glitches

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/80-hours-in-list-of-bugs-glitches-and-continuity-errors/td-p/59...

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/bd-p/mass-effect-andromeda-bug-reports-en

Again, just because you lucked out with a "bug free" experience, doesn't make that the norm. I have been a PC gamer for 20 years, and have played hundreds of titles, and MEA was by far the most buggy and unpolished AAA game I have ever purchased. And again, if EA had given it the time it needed for the polish to fix those issues before release, the game would have gotten a MUCH better reception. EA blaming the poor reception on their customers, instead of their poor decision to release an unfinished product, proves their disconnect with their customers.

And again I LOVE the ME series, and would love to have raved over the game. I did give it a 7 in my early review with the bugs, and said if they'd have polished the game and fixed the issues before release, it probably would have garnered a 9. Now instead of acknowledging their screw up, EA is throwing a temper tantrum and punishing their customers/fans by killing the game and possibly franchise. A smart, non vindictive response would have been to fix all of the bugs, do the DLC, and re-release the game with the DLC included. It would have garnered far better reviews and sold more copies, and made their fans happy. Now they've just killed the game, crushed the fans, and left the franchise hanging in limbo. 

You can defend that course of action if you want, but as a fan of the series who wants more ME and MEA, I have to ask, why would you?

[SycrJohnny]

I'm another of the ones with enough luck to experience almost no issues... And I have AMD GPU and CPU

@Fred_vdpThe unskippable loading screens was a design decision, I don't think that is one of the things that qualifies the game as "unfinished"

Anyway, I know that there were a lot issues that made the game worth to delay a little bit, I think that would be wise to do.
The people complaining is something common on the internet, I mean there are whiners everywhere... that just happens and you can't avoid it. I think that the game was a good game, not as great or addictive that the previous mass effect games, but good.

When I bought the collector edition, although not advertised, I hoped for some future dlc included, at least that used to be how bioware sell the collector editions for ME2 and 3 (those were day 1 DLC, but still).

I think the point here is how EA is handling the situation right now, not how the game was launched. A company with such a revenue, is able to keep and improve on a bad launch, and I don't think that the numbers didn't add up with the amount of pre orders and launch sales (I'm guessing here). Anyway, they decided to kill the game, no support, no fixing, nothing new to re-engage the fanbase.

And if you check all the noise that this news as well as all the reviews and the number of people still playing, I think that they could still revert the situation. But this... this feels like a "so long loosers."

[DoctorMcBatman]

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@sblantipodi wrote:

this is something that happen when too many kids bash a game just because others bash it.

this was a very good game, one of the best of 2017 IMHO, it's sad to see no more dlcs, specially for the quarian ark.

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No, this was not a very good game. It was a fine game that everyone expected to be great. Even without the litany of technical/performance issues we encountered on release: it's still just a fine game. Mediocre story, awful writing, ridiculous menus, and uninteresting world design. We go to an entire new galaxy, and we get access to 5 planets? 3 of which are desert planets, and 1 of which is just a rainforest you walk through. And we only meet 1 new race? The pushover Angarans. Oh and the Kett, who totally aren't exactly the same as the Collectors/Geth. At least the Kett's leader isn't some megalomaniac simply bent on power... oh wait.

Then you get to the content on the maps themselves: fetch quests, excessive mining, and very few (if any) random activities/encounters. 

It's like someone said "let's make an RPG that sort of falls short in every way, but isn't terrible." That's ME:A.

There was some good though I'll admit. I thought combat and graphics were mostly excellent.

[SycrJohnny]

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@DoctorMcBatman wrote:

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@sblantipodi wrote:

this is something that happen when too many kids bash a game just because others bash it.

this was a very good game, one of the best of 2017 IMHO, it's sad to see no more dlcs, specially for the quarian ark.

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No, this was not a very good game. It was a fine game that everyone expected to be great. Even without the litany of technical/performance issues we encountered on release: it's still just a fine game. Mediocre story, awful writing, ridiculous menus, and uninteresting world design. We go to an entire new galaxy, and we get access to 5 planets? 3 of which are desert planets, and 1 of which is just a rainforest you walk through. And we only meet 1 new race? They pushover Angarans. Oh and the Kett, who totally aren't exactly the same a the Collectors/Geth. At least the Kett's leader isn't some megalomaniac simply bent on power... oh wait.

Then you get to the content on the maps themselves: fetch quests, excessive mining, and very few (if any) random activities/encounters. 

It's like someone said "let's make an RPG that sort of falls short in every way, but isn't terrible." That's ME:A.

There was some good though I'll admit. I thought combat and graphics were mostly excellent.

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I Agree with most of what you say... Except of the races and amount of planets thing...

I'm getting technical here, but, this just a cluster not a whole galaxy as the other ME had...
I theory, is rather difficult that you have habitable planets in a cluster, not to mention lifeforms... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life)
So I think that having 1 species and 5 planets is not that bad, we could have some more planets, but not too much...

The problem was the lore behind that race... I mean, I finished SP story twice, and the Angaran lore is really poor... I mean, we have more MW species new lore that the local one... Then there is the first contact situation... like it was the first time we encountered the Angaras... but later on we find that they were already in most of the planets that the Nexus races already know, like Kadara, Eladeen... And the Fauna was terrible, there were all the same animal species in all the planets... Like the animals could do space travel...
That is definitively poor writing... too much inconsistencies.

I would love to have more games on the ME:A series to explore the rest of Andromeda... Find new species... New planets, and maybe know the Kett origin and more (trying to avoid spoilers.)

But, sadly, EA told us that we can get that, so...

Another interesting link on extraterrestrial lifeforms https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberlein/2016/01/25/what-are-the-odds-that-aliens-exist (edit)

[holger1405]

@Colonel_Hedgeh...

For the record, I never said people who experienced bugs "were just being complainers".  
In the contrary, I acknowledged that there are bugs and I explained why we will never see a bug free game.
So, it would be nice if you wouldn't try to twist the meaning of my words.

An it is true that me don't experiencing major bugs is not a indicator that this is true for the majority of players, but as said, that is also true the other way around. Fact is that this games runs just fine on countless machines.

If it is true that MEA was "the most buggy and unpolished AAA game I have ever purchased" for you than you're lucky enough to not have played some other games.

Furthermore, I never saw EA or Bioware "blaming the poor reception on their customers", maybe you can provide me with a link?
Still, the costumers are also responsible for the way communication is happening between developers and Gamers.

As an old PC gamer too, playing on the PC for more than 32 years. In the last decade I see an increasing habit inside the gaming community to exaggerate criticism in a way that is just ridicules.
Don't get me wrong, I don't say we can't criticize developers, we can an we should, but they way it is done recently, with a shitstorm about anything even if it is a completely minor issue, is not helping.
It creates a environment were good, constructive criticism are buried beneath hate-post.  

I agree that it would have been better to continue support for MEA and release DLCs for the game, but there is not only one side to blame for the state of affairs we in right now.

Companies don't do "a temper tantrum", they make decisions on their internal numbers regarding the game. (Not only sales and revenue, but also available personal and new upcoming projects etcetera.) All we know so far is that there is no future content for MEA, that doesn't mean that the whole franchise is dead.
Even after all this criticism MEA sold not bad.

We will see if the ME franchise has a future once the smoke is settled and the dust cleared. (Or in other words, after Anthem is released.    )

@Fred_vdp

Yea, that's why I highlighted NVIDIA hardware. I am sorry that you experienced so much issues too.