Mass Effect: Andromeda Initial Thoughts

Alright so I am writing this on my phone. Computer is broken again. Not sure, I don't know much about computers but it appears that the wifi driver has uninstalled and deleted itself. Not sure why. I reset my computer, like a soft reboot. And that fixed the issue for about a week then it did it again just yesterday so here I am typing up a blog on my phone.... I feel ridiculous. Luckily today is prettty straight forward.

So mass effect andromeda got a good amount of flak for certain things specifically a the animations and human faces and some of the movement animations. It got pretty average scores. Mostly 7-7.5 I think. Which with how they grade video games is pretty average almost low even for such a high profile triple A game. Many fans though are speaking up saying they like the game a bunch and their experience has had the facial animation issues and other bugs, but none of these are game braking and still allow you to enjoy the game; so this is probably one of the biggest differences from how a game is scored to how it is received by the fans. I am definitely on the fan side where there definitely are issues in the game and they do take you out of the experience. But the experience is so big that when that does happen it only affects a small percentage of the game. It is possibly the buggiest game I have ever played. So there is that. I am also worried that as much as I like the characters now that they will end up being shallow and not get much deeper and that the conversation prompts I have know are all I will have in the game. The game itself takes a bunch of leaps of logic that take me out of the game more than some frame rate issues. Like at least try and explain why you and the aliens can understand each other in a scene that makes sense. Don't just off hand ask a character if his translator is working. Also, I am a pathfinder, basically a new job title for this initiative, also I am the first pathfinder to show up. So how about everyone around me stop telling me how to do my job!! A few things like that have bugged me a bunch.  I also just realized, I am not quite sure yet who the bad guy is. Like the Kett and remnant attack me but no real bad guy. I do like the game a bunch though it is fun and there is a ton to do. The booster is fun and adds more dynamic movement to fighting and a little platform stuff which is actually well done.  Each world is very large. I like the characters and their quests seem much more involved than they were in the old games. It is cool interacting with your team and you can flirt with pretty much any of them. No sex yet. Also, I haven't messed with the multiplayer much Xbox live has been having issues this week. I really just love the basic outline for the story. New galaxy. Meet new aliens. Try and make worlds habitable. Really neat idea in its most basic form. 

For a quick second I just want to talk how big games have been getting a bad rap. I love big games. I love getting completely entrenched in a new world or a new area that is different from my own I love having a ton of stuff to do and trying to prioritize tasks and missions and my level and my equipment and trying to make it all work together. I get big plans about how to beat the area I am in and move onto the next area. I work more than full time with a child and another one on the way. I like being able to jump into the game for 30 minutes and do a few quick tasks to make progress or being able to sit down on the weekends and really get lost for a few hours into the main quest and storyline of a game. Also, money is always fairly tight so I can't buy every game that comes out and I really appreciate a game that will give me easily over 50 hours of solid good gameplay. I know you won't hear this a lot but I really think I would include that just a little bit if I was writing a review. I would at least keep it in mind as I score it, not like giving it a whole point, but understanding that most huge open world games can have gameplay as tight as limbo or those other darling indie games or have the amazing graphics like uncharted, the games are designed differently and in mass effect the characters have to be able to have animations for a huge number of possible choices and movements and I kinda forgive the game for that. But that is just me. 

Still lots to play on mass effect so I will probably be taking about mass effect again when I write again. I have also been thinking of talking about my workouts again on this blog but I am not sure yet.