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[PCG] Most of Mass Effect: Andromeda was developed in just 18 months, report says

8K views 132 replies 53 participants last post by  brucethemoose 
#1 ·
Quote:
Mass Effect: Andromeda, simply put, did not live up to expectations. It suffered from a number of glaring technical issues, and even more importantly, it failed to capture the sweep and spirit of the original trilogy. An in-depth examination of its "turbulent" development now up on Kotaku reveals a project that was plagued by serious issues almost right from the start, ranging from troubles with technology to sky-high ambitions that simply couldn't be met.

That leads to what is probably the most interesting, and unexpected, aspect of the story: "Almost every" developer who spoke to Kotaku said that most of Mass Effect: Andromeda was developed in the final year-and-a-half of its cycle, between the end of 2015 and its release in March 2017. "It really wasn't until Mac Walters came on board-and that was very much a reaction to the state of the critical path-he was really brought on board to give it direction and get it into shape," one said. "Before that it was quite rudderless."

One developer interviewed for the report disputed that claim, saying that the final release was not too far off from early concepts, but multiple others stated that the crunch cycle was the worst they'd ever endured, and the usual time spent on polish prior to release just wasn't available.
Sauce: http://www.pcgamer.com/most-of-mass-effect-andromeda-was-developed-in-just-18-months-report-says/

Seems spending 3 years on how to shove your political agenda into a video game could be less productive.

Also the bold part is a lie; EA offered to postpone Andromeda, yet BW refused it:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-says-it-would-delay-mass-effect-andromeda-again/1100-6445017/

Nice try to cover their failure though.
 
#3 ·
I got the game after the first few patches. And so far i really like it. my ryder is lvl 40 ive done 4 worlds so far. I think the combat is pretty good as well. cant really complain.
 
#4 ·
This team managed to single handily destroy a well established IP due to laziness, pandering and lying.

This is what happens when you let self loathing, miserable man children and toxic women run a business or team in the entertainment industry.

For all the bullying they did towards those who pointed out the SJW narrative and pandering by calling them gamergaters, racist, oppressive, xenophobic and all the other labels they use to scare people from speaking up, EA have put this series in the bottom draw because of how utterly terrible this entire thing has been.

The chemically balanced can smell the hypocrisy, lies, pandering, forced narratives etc etc from a mile way. Crap like this is more transparent than the wind.and now look, No more mass effect because the "tolerant" and "progressives" showed their true colors.

They all deserve to loose their jobs and never work in the industry again.

But..we all know what happens now. The Stockholm syndrome suffering short attention spanned morons will continue to defend this game and team because "Look over there! PATCHES and RAINBOWS!. See, all is well".
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

This team managed to single handily destroy a well established IP due to laziness, pandering and lying.

This is what happens when you let self loathing, miserable man children and toxic women run a business or team in the entertainment industry.

For all the bullying they did towards those who pointed out the SJW narrative and pandering by calling them gamergaters, racist, oppressive, xenophobic and all the other labels they use to scare people from speaking up, EA have put this series in the bottom draw because of how utterly terrible this entire thing has been.

The chemically balanced can smell the hypocrisy, lies, pandering, forced narratives etc etc from a mile way. Crap like this is more transparent than the wind.and now look, No more mass effect because the "tolerant" and "progressives" showed their true colors.

They all deserve to loose their jobs and never work in the industry again.

But..we all know what happens now. The Stockholm syndrome suffering short attention spanned morons will continue to defend this game and team because "Look over there! PATCHES and RAINBOWS!. See, all is well".
I completely agree, however with the new patch you can finally have sex with Jaal, because you know, that was super important to get into the game. I for one was very attracted this tree on Meridian and was very disappointed when I found out you could not make love to it.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

This team managed to single handily destroy a well established IP due to laziness, pandering and lying.

This is what happens when you let self loathing, miserable man children and toxic women run a business or team in the entertainment industry.

For all the bullying they did towards those who pointed out the SJW narrative and pandering by calling them gamergaters, racist, oppressive, xenophobic and all the other labels they use to scare people from speaking up, EA have put this series in the bottom draw because of how utterly terrible this entire thing has been.

The chemically balanced can smell the hypocrisy, lies, pandering, forced narratives etc etc from a mile way. Crap like this is more transparent than the wind.and now look, No more mass effect because the "tolerant" and "progressives" showed their true colors.

They all deserve to loose their jobs and never work in the industry again.

But..we all know what happens now. The Stockholm syndrome suffering short attention spanned morons will continue to defend this game and team because "Look over there! PATCHES and RAINBOWS!. See, all is well".
See I didn't even know there was major controversy around the game. I knew the facial animation was bad at launch and that this was fixed by a subsequent patch. I thought, they could have made the women look a little bit better looking. But apart from that it was a decent 7.5/10 game. Nothing special.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dantoddd View Post

See I didn't even know there was major controversy around the game. I knew the facial animation was bad at launch and that this was fixed by a subsequent patch. I thought, they could have made the women look a little bit better looking. But apart from that it was a decent 7.5/10 game. Nothing special.
That's just it, the facial animations are not fixed. They still look bad.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by dantoddd View Post

See I didn't even know there was major controversy around the game. I knew the facial animation was bad at launch and that this was fixed by a subsequent patch. I thought, they could have made the women look a little bit better looking. But apart from that it was a decent 7.5/10 game. Nothing special.
7.5/10? So what you're saying is based on the current inflated rating's scheme, it was basically DOA?
rolleyes.gif
 
#10 ·
Once it is bad, it stay bad, no patch will fix that image.

if they want to redeem themselves, it is going to take 2 flawless master piece sequel release to regain back those reputation.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robenger View Post

I completely agree, however with the new patch you can finally have sex with Jaal, because you know, that was super important to get into the game. I for one was very attracted this tree on Meridian and was very disappointed when I found out you could not make love to it.
The quality of movies and music went down the drain once the self obsessed woe is me part of society started using movies and games as a benchmark to compare their own lives against.

They turned games into relationship simulators and digital tinder. They started treating Hollywood like a mental health service and any opportunity they get at Q&As with celebrities they treat it like a counselling session (and dont get shut down like this enough 0:00 - 0:48).
 
#12 ·
Give me a proper Mass Effect 4 with the red choice where
Shepard lives
Have it as the last 10 minutes of the game was the
Indoctrination Theory
I mean the theory of it was a lot better than what we got with.
Ghost Boy
Seriously look up the videos on the theory on youtube, some of them are really good.
 
#14 ·
Overall I liked the game.
It had bugs, issues, but overall story line was ok and gameplay was relatively ok.
I can't say it is worth its full price, but if DLCs increases the story line further instead of being 2 hours time, it might be ok as a full version in the future.
 
#15 ·
@LoLomgbbq: somewhere in the middle lies the balance.

A few months ago I played both F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2 for the first time. The first game is great; the second one is a dumbed down mainstream product, worse in many ways, including the fact that the female soldier character who is part of your team has a 'military' attire that lets you see her navel. I mean... come on. For those who don't know the game series and how out of place this is: they're first-person shooter survival horror games - and the first game obviously has no such nonsense.

Edit: On the other hand, to juxtapose a case where things flow naturally, I just played The Saboteur, where one of your safe houses is a cabaret / brothel, where cabaret / brothel stuff happens. I don't have a single problem with that. It fits the game's setting and duality pretty nicely.

Anyway:

Mass Effect: I never played these games nor do I intend to any time soon.
 
#16 ·
Its hilarious how BW missed so many opportunities to expand the original ME trilogy. What happened during the 2 years while Sheppard was out of commission? (INB4 those half assed comics) That could have its own game. Harbinger was quite the foe, it alone could of had its own game to expand on the history of the reapers. Instead we get the catalyst explain it with a short DLC which mostly focused on chasing reapers via various planets

BW is downright incompetent, they're so focused on showing their beliefs into their games that they ignore the great potential plot they have on their hands. ME in general is a lost cause at this point. This game combined with ME3 is just enough to coffin it.

When you need to release a free DLC to bring closure to the most important title in the trilogy, you truly screwed up beyond redemption.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tpi2007 View Post

@LoLomgbbq: somewhere in the middle lies the balance.

A few months ago I played both F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2 for the first time. The first game is great; the second one is a dumbed down mainstream product, worse in many ways, including the fact that the female soldier character who is part of your team has a 'military' attire that lets you see her navel. I mean... come on. For those who don't know the game series and how out of place this is: they're first-person shooter survival horror games - and the first game obviously has no such nonsense.

Anyway:

Mass Effect: I never played these games nor do I intend to any time soon.


Anyway:

It has nothing to do with balance. Its a video game based entirely about fiction. Why do clothes have to adhere to realism when every other aspect of the game has nothing to do with realism?

A fictional woman wearing whatever it is she maybe wearing, isnt a personal attack on you as an individual. When did people become so offended by the female anatomy? Women have free the nipple marches, then get offended by cleavage on fictional characters.

Wonder Woman the movie was just released. Shes all legs exposed and cleavage abound, yet no one has a problem with that.

The same people who get offended up by this stuff are the same people who have pre-teen anime girls wearing miniskirts with their cleavage hanging out as their online avatar while getting off on fanfiction drawings of the very same characters they're offended by.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

Anyway:

Its a video game based entirely about fiction. Why do clothes have to adhere to realism when every other aspect of the game has nothing to do with realism?

Wonder Woman the movies was just released. Shes all legs exposed and cleavage abound, yet no one has a problem with that.
I just made an edit to my post because I knew it would be misunderstood. Such is the tone of the conversation it seems.
 
#19 ·
I guess I'm the odd one out...

I put a bit over 200 hours into ME:A before I started playing some other games. For me... I hardly ever put that many hours into a game anymore. The only reason I took "time off" was because I had been planning to revisit Fallout 4 for months... and finally did so.

Personally I like a lot of the story... or at least the story you find here and there. Meaning it's not directly the "main story" that I find interesting. Beyond that I kept going back through the game with different builds. Which I actually found interesting to do and that is also very unlike how I find most games.

The only real issue I had with the game was a persistent DX crash that was unique to ME:A (no issues with any other games). I had to solve that on my own but it pissed me off a lot in between the start and the solution. Especially since you can't save during certain missions so a crash was... bad.

At some point I will start playing ME:A again... and I certainly feel I got my moneys worth in the game.

My pet peeve would be... Let's say that they really did make the game in 18 months. If they hadn't spent 6 months on romance options... it probably would have helped the game as a whole. We're on a time sensitive mission to save life as we know it... but we're too busy having sex with everyone and everything....
 
#20 ·
Everyone I know that got this game from one of the devs at a discounted rate of 20 bucks at release couldnt be bothered to finish the game.

I decided to wait on this one to see how it panned out, I just wasnt sure about the premise. Not that it didnt have potential, exploring a completely new space has loads of potential but, the red flags were there.

Im glad some thought it was entertaining, but it just turned out to not be something I would be able to immerse myself into or support as a result.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

The quality of movies and music went down the drain once the self obsessed woe is me part of society started using movies and games as a benchmark to compare their own lives against.

They turned games into relationship simulators and digital tinder. They started treating Hollywood like a mental health service and any opportunity they get at Q&As with celebrities they treat it like a counselling session (and dont get shut down like this enough 0:00 - 0:48).
We were told that the old rich guys in smokey rooms were evil, they only cared about money they said, yet we got good entertainment because it sold. They just tried things to see if they sold. All about the social engineering nowadays and virtually all mainstream entertainment has got this cancer now.
 
#22 ·
I actually quite enjoyed the game.

Then again, I really enjoyed Dragon Age II when it came out and that was supposed to be the death of that franchise.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

When did people become so offended by the female anatomy? Women have free the nipple marches, then get offended by cleavage on fictional characters.
Paraphrasing Anthony Jeselnik now, "people who get offended by jokes are [expletive] stupid". I believe this extends to any form of media and entertainment. PC culture is the embodiment of this.
 
#24 ·
I shut out everyone else's "Lemming Calling" opinions, waited until after the 1'st patch and enjoyed the game thoroughly. My own opinion is that like watching an action movie however good, bad, or ugly, I felt no need to play through it again right away. If they release a DLC I might give it a go. If not no bigee.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoLomgbbq View Post

This team managed to single handily destroy a well established IP due to laziness, pandering and lying.

This is what happens when you let self loathing, miserable man children and toxic women run a business or team in the entertainment industry.

For all the bullying they did towards those who pointed out the SJW narrative and pandering by calling them gamergaters, racist, oppressive, xenophobic and all the other labels they use to scare people from speaking up, EA have put this series in the bottom draw because of how utterly terrible this entire thing has been.

The chemically balanced can smell the hypocrisy, lies, pandering, forced narratives etc etc from a mile way. Crap like this is more transparent than the wind.and now look, No more mass effect because the "tolerant" and "progressives" showed their true colors.

They all deserve to loose their jobs and never work in the industry again.

But..we all know what happens now. The Stockholm syndrome suffering short attention spanned morons will continue to defend this game and team because "Look over there! PATCHES and RAINBOWS!. See, all is well".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robenger View Post

I completely agree, however with the new patch you can finally have sex with Jaal, because you know, that was super important to get into the game. I for one was very attracted this tree on Meridian and was very disappointed when I found out you could not make love to it.
Anyone who uses the term SJW exposes themselves as man children.

Mass Effect is an amusing bad game with some great ideas in it. They screwed up in creating an experience expected of this franchise and they'll never be trusted with a project of this magnitude again. They'll go back to being the support crew for other big EA teams. They weren't even originally a Bioware team. They were an EA team rebranded because they were given a shot at such a big project.
 
#26 ·
The article talks about those stupid choices too. Like things not being nailed down during production like they should, big changes, political fights between studios etc.

Yeah it attributes many of the difficulties to Frostbite, but it also lists the many another factors. That's the whole point of the article.
 
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