Bjorn

Mass Effect Andromeda - Thumb Drive Engaged!

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Official Blog Post

 

 

 

But more interestingly, there was apparently a leak a few days before E3 with some info that sounds pretty accurate (based on what was revealed).  The thing I'm by far most interested in is multiplayer, which the leak had some information about:


 

One game feature talked about in the survey includes Strike Team missions, which will take several forms.

This includes: 

  • Settlement defense
  • Remnant artifact recovery 
  • Strike Team training 

Players will also be given the choice to tackle Strike Team missions with a single-player squad, or with a multiplayer roster of characters. 

 

It will also be possible to recruit up to three friends to play the missions, with the more online team members involved increasing the in-game challenge and reward. 

 

The Report continues: 'These missions will play out using the Next Mass Effect’s multiplayer Horde mode (more details on this later). These missions will include a variety of thematically appropriate objectives, like defending a Settlement against Khet attacks, or recovering a Remnant artifact off of a planet before an outlaw gang gets there first. 

 

'By taking an active role in strike team missions, you can earn special Single-player rewards in addition to the usual multiplayer specific characters, weapons, weapon mods, and pieces of equipment which can be customized between missions. 

 

'Additionally, players who join another person’s Strike Team mission will receive bonus in-game currency and multiplayer XP for helping others with their missions.'

 

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I had quite a bit of fun with the trilogy, but it pretty much wrapped itself up. It seems like the newer title is a separate part of the universe, which I appreciate, but I guess I just don't care as much as I did about the trilogy. 

 

I'm sure Bioware will put out another pretty enjoyable RPG, and that I'll end up picking it up and enjoying myself, but I don't have a burning desire for more Mass Effect content. I didn't play much of it, but I did enjoy ME3's multiplayer, so that might be the most interesting thing to come out of a new Mass Effect game.

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I really love the world they built but the narrative was super done after 3. Exploring a totally new galaxy seems a way that could keep build on what came before while introducing a whole bunch of new interesting stuff. I just hope it's not ultimately about defeating an apocalyptic threat again.

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oh, I think there is plenty of room, in that ME's world is sufficiently Star Trek-y. You have a lot of races that have a storied history. I think you could start a cool thing from the end of the 3, with the rebuilding. 

 

You could easily run it down a path similar to Ian M Bank's Culture series, like Player of Games, where the player, another Specter person is sent to solve X crisis in the name of the council. blah blah. The Krogan cure the phage and strike out for revenge. Lots of room! 

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That music makes me really hope that this game has a Firefly flavour. I want a space smuggler RPG.

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I am so excited for another Mass Effect. It's probably my favorite new IP from the Xbox 360 generation.

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We have so few grand scale space opera type games, that I'm pretty much insta-hyped for anything else in the ME universe.  Plus I fell head over heals for the MP of 3.

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The thing that makes me apprehensive about this game is that it's being made by the studio that developed the Arrival and Omega DLCs. I'm not sure what the consensus are on those, but I thought they were by far the worst pieces of content for their respective games (long before I knew who developed them). I'm sure some people from the original ME team have moved over, but still. Doctors are gone, Hudson gone and Karpyshyn gone.

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I, too, am excited for a new IP in the ME universe but I am apprehensive about how it'll end up ... I was just too burned by the way the ending was handled.

The multiplayer in ME3 was kind of enjoyable, though looking back now, I am unsure how much of my enthusiasm was derived from fanboi hype than any considerable gameplay achievements or merits. In saying that, it did feel awesome being able to play another race. It's a shame there wasn't quite enough map and enemy variety to keep things interesting beyond a dozen or so hours.

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I, too, am excited for a new IP in the ME universe but I am apprehensive about how it'll end up ... I was just too burned by the way the ending was handled.

 

I agree that the ending was ultimately disappointing, but I never did understand the level of vitriol it generated.  Ending something well is fucking hard, and the bigger/longer a story is, the harder it is to wrap it up well.  The more time has passed, I've actually felt like the ending was probably just about the only way the story could end (a series of choices disconnected from your actions), and the actual outcome was surprising and made sense, that destroying the relay network and destroying the entire structure of the known galaxy was the only way to stop the Reapers.  The structure and context could have been improved, but realistically any other solution would have been unfeasible or would have pissed people off for other reasons. 

 

The multiplayer in ME3 was kind of enjoyable, though looking back now, I am unsure how much of my enthusiasm was derived from fanboi hype than any considerable gameplay achievements or merits. In saying that, it did feel awesome being able to play another race. It's a shame there wasn't quite enough map and enemy variety to keep things interesting beyond a dozen or so hours.

 

I put hundreds of hours into MP.  The expansions steadily added more diversity, but mostly I just still think it's the best horde mode in any game ever.  And the play style differences between the different races/classes is staggering, something almost no other class based shooter pulls off to the same scale. 

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I agree that the ending was ultimately disappointing, but I never did understand the level of vitriol it generated.  Ending something well is fucking hard, and the bigger/longer a story is, the harder it is to wrap it up well.  The more time has passed, I've actually felt like the ending was probably just about the only way the story could end (a series of choices disconnected from your actions), and the actual outcome was surprising and made sense, that destroying the relay network and destroying the entire structure of the known galaxy was the only way to stop the Reapers.  The structure and context could have been improved, but realistically any other solution would have been unfeasible or would have pissed people off for other reasons. 

 

 

I put hundreds of hours into MP.  The expansions steadily added more diversity, but mostly I just still think it's the best horde mode in any game ever.  And the play style differences between the different races/classes is staggering, something almost no other class based shooter pulls off to the same scale. 

 

It probably had lot to do with day 1 DLC too... back then it was a lot touchy subject, so two combined probably gave lot of haters ammunition.

 

About the MP, can it be enjoyed alone?  Kinda weird question perhaps but I would love to scratch my horde mode itch (KF2's monster designs allude me a little bit still).

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It probably had lot to do with day 1 DLC too... back then it was a lot touchy subject, so two combined probably gave lot of haters ammunition.

 

About the MP, can it be enjoyed alone?  Kinda weird question perhaps but I would love to scratch my horde mode itch (KF2's monster designs allude me a little bit still).

 

MP can be solo'd, I've done it up to the 3rd difficulty tier (out of 4).  It's definitely a serious challenge though.  I don't know if I would say that it was enjoyable if you didn't already really enjoy it with other people.  The game is balanced for 4 players and the difficulty is fixed, there's no scaling for number of players.  You also start with level 1 characters, basic weapons and getting a few classes leveled up without any help would be quite a chore. 

 

There are still people playing to this day.  And if you were playing on PC, cheat engine can be used to give yourself free credits to unlock things faster.  Normally I wouldn't be an advocate of that, but the unlocking curve for MP is on the scale of hundreds of hours to unlock everything, and I think at some point in a game's lifespan that become an unreasonable expectation of a new player. 

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If I get the same sense of Scifi-ic awe from discovering a Mass Effect Drive, I'll be happy. 

 

The original will always be one of my favourite games, but they'll have to really pull it out with this for me to be astounded. I'm sure it'll be great fun though and I'll buy anything with Mass Effect on it. 

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Somehow I missed a new video for Andromeda was out.
 



Most noteworthy thing is the likely revelation of the protagonist's name.

 

Rider/Ryder is briefly visible on a dog tag, likely an homage to Sally Ride as Shepard was an homage to Alan Shepard.

 

Edited to add: I'm super happy an official video used FemShep as a voiceover rather than ManShep.  FemShep's voicework was always way better anyways. 

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I sure hope the game delivers on the feeling and sentiment from that video as opposed to the Save The UNIVERSE!!!!! from the original trilogy.

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Agreed.  Exploration and interactions with the crew were by far the best aspects of Mass Effect.  The entire overarching story could have been dumped without any real impact on the quality of the game. 

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I'm getting exactly what I want, a game in the Mass Effect universe that isn't attached to Shepard. I can't wait.

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It sounds like this is an answer to what people like Chris Remo were bringing up, like they were hoping the ME series would be about exploring that universe. Instead the first three games were the typical saving the universe plot.

 

I somehow missed this game's announcement entirely; someone in an IRC channel I'm in brought my attention to it.

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I just dont think I can slog through another bioware conversation simulator. I liked the combat and exploration so if the game drops the need to talk at length with everyone maybe i will get it.

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I wouldn't mind another conversation simulator, but I would prefer that stuff to be more dynamic or have new dimensions I had to consider as opposed to whatever it is I want to say.  I'm a little worried after the response to DA2 that Bioware isn't willing to do more personal stories and it'll eventually become about saving the universe,  Do people still play ME3's multiplayer?  I got really into it for a while but eventually fell out for various reasons, and I'm looking forward to getting back into that.

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Bjorn post incoming...

 

  B)

 

 

I wouldn't mind another conversation simulator, but I would prefer that stuff to be more dynamic or have new dimensions I had to consider as opposed to whatever it is I want to say.  I'm a little worried after the response to DA2 that Bioware isn't willing to do more personal stories and it'll eventually become about saving the universe,  Do people still play ME3's multiplayer?  I got really into it for a while but eventually fell out for various reasons, and I'm looking forward to getting back into that.

 

The lady and I get nostalgic for it now and again and might play for an evening, but we haven't played regularly most of this year.  Warframe is definitely our new co-op space jam.  That said, if you wanted to play some, feel free to drop me a line and one or both of us would likely be willing to jump in for a few matches.  The last couple of times we played, there were still people playing in public matches, thought not a bunch.  We saw the same handful of people multiple times in an evening, but it was enough to usually have a team of 4. 

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