Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Shay Chaise]

I went to an arcade last night and there was an attractive, slim woman with glasses playing Street Fighter Third Strike in a very tight orange dress with her cleavage somewhat on show. She beat me again and again, and although I'm not especially familiar with Third Strike, it was truly comprehensive. She really didn't seem like someone who would play computer games and she was walking around with her young child which also surprised me, and made me question my prejudices.

It seems that there is plenty of room for both men and women in the gaming sphere, no matter how good looking or talented they are.

[Thursday]

lol got rekt by a gril

[Bhazor]

I don't believe you Chaise.

You went to an arcade which had functioning arcade cabinets? We all know arcades are just where you go if you want to be menaced by children from broken homes while playing the 2p machine.

[biggytitbo]

Did you try out any new moves on her?

[Shay Chaise]

I don't believe you Chaise.

You went to an arcade which had functioning arcade cabinets? We all know arcades are just where you go if you want to be menaced by children from broken homes while playing the 2p machine.

Arcade Club in Bury. Almost all original cabinets. Tenner to get in, free play on everything for as long as you like. One the best nights out I've had in ages.

I played:

Out Run Deluxe (proper sit down, moving cabinet job, I couldn't stop grinning)
Turtles (can't imagine how much I would have died for this as a kid)
Warlords (they have two of three machines which exist in Europe)
Point Blank
Time Crisis
Kung Fu Master
Wonder Boy
Police Trainer
SF2/Third Strike/SF4:AE
King of Fighters 98
Hot Rods (four player)
Gauntlet
Robotron

And loads and loads more which I just played for few minutes and then walked off to another cabinet. Absolutely marvellous fun.

Then they also have another floor which was hosting a Third Strike tournament, plus some SFV tournament, and which also has a load of more modern stuff so I had a go on Project Cars and Dirt Rally in VR on the Oculus Rift. I played some Switch Zelda, Switch Bomberman, alongside Neo Geo stuff. They also have a load of ultra high end PCs so I played some BF1 at like 1440 X 60fps which was pretty remarkable to me, even if I can't play keyboard and mouse very well! They also had the Vive and PSVR and a bunch of like SNES and XBox stuff set up on massive CRTs and so on, plus so much other stuff that I just didn't have time to play and I was there for about five hours.

Check out this walkaround for an idea:

https://youtu.be/drLP-cljnf4

[Penfold]

Arcade Club in Bury. Almost all original cabinets. Tenner to get in, free play on everything for as long as you like. One the best nights out I've had in ages.

I keep meaning to go there. I will eventually.

Look out for further updates as this story develops.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Every conversation reads like they mashed together a load of (poorly written) disjointed clips with no regard for tone or setting or relation to one and other, ticked a box that said DONE and then ran off.

[Shay Chaise]

Yeah, the arcade sure is great.

[Big Jack McBastard]

I suppose EA is as much to blame as anything, they're the lumbering evil giant that saps creativity in favour of trying to sell to kids and pumps out this kind of dreck before it's ready, they screwed Spore, The Sim City games and made a mill of every sports title they could. That said BW is full of kids who might well have liked the first ones but have no business trying to actually make one themselves as this mess is proving as more clips come out.

[HappyTree]

Fans and detractors alike [nb]bluntly, I'm a detractor, I think the first Mass Effect was crap and it only got worse over the next two titles[/nb]might enjoy this epic-length retrospective:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792

Not everything he says is fair and he has a pretty strict and boring idea of how a story "should" be written, but it's a really detailed look at the series and most of his complaints are justified.

Really enjoying revisiting the series in this article. Thanks! The way he communicates his gripes is level-headed and fair so even if I don't agree with a specific point it's not unpleasant to read it.

I especially like his take that the rot set in in ME2. Yes. I enjoyed all 3 games but I'm glad they stopped after the 3rd. This 4th game does look as if the rot has rather taken over and the 1st game is indeed the "purest".

It's sad that so much potential to make a really fantastic trilogy went by the wayside. It was still great, but not what it should have been.

[Penfold]

Yeah, the arcade sure is great.

I just read about their recently opened 2nd floor with...

12 X PC's (i7 4.2Ghz /GTX1080SC 8GB /16GB DDR4 RAM/27" Benq 2730 1440p 144hz/ m2 400 /Corsair Keyboards and mice) also we have bought 12 copies of battlefield one/Doom/CS:GO etc - so you don't need to own the games to play on top hardware
The PC's are not hourly you can use them as much as you like (all we ask is that you be 'fair' if people are waiting)
Oculus rift & VIVE both on separate PC's (both i7 GTX1080SC based as above)
3 x PS4 VR setups
10 x xbox one
10 x PS4
Nintendo Switch
classic consoles (with all the best games)
including : SNES,Megadrive, NES, PC Engine, NEO GEO AES, XBOX, Playstation etc. (changes weekly) and all that is available from my personal collection
Exclusive Japanese games - Taiko no tatsujin, Groove coaster 2, Pop n Music, DDR Extreme etc..
Sega vs cabs with CPS2 fighting games etc.. and SF3 3S
Shooters (currently installed are : Cosmo Gang the video, Macross & Truxton)
HOTD 4 DLX - With new modern monitor replacing the horrible rear projection screen
A free to play Pool table
all for £5 extra all day!

Definitely going now.

Anyway, Mass Effect...it does look a bit shit.

South Park is also out soon right?

[Shay Chaise]

Yeah, as I say, it was great just to try some top tier PC gaming, especially with VR. Project Cars was insane compared to PSVR DriveClub, like three generations apart. The classic consoles section is also great, and the couches are really comfy. Oh, and they have a bar so you can get a beer, too. I think I'll go back next weekend, honestly.

[Bhazor]

And slim attractive women to slip in the wank bank.

[Big Jack McBastard]

A company like Bioware isn't like the lazy shill who you sit opposite at work who spends their time playing solitaire and reading FeMail. They are composed of hundreds of people working in a notoriously stressful, insecure and time-intensive industry, and it just seems like they've bitten off more than they can chew.

it feels like an unpleasant and obnoxious extension of consumerism to want a company to be actively punished for putting out a game that doesn't meet expectations.

I had no expectations at all, I didn't even know this was happening up until about a week ago but now I see the 5 year turd they've been baking I feel it's only right for any given consumer to mercilessly rip the piss and highlight how slack standards must be if this cashed up apparently veteran filled organisation is falling far short of previous targets just for their models (never mind the writing) and failing to ensure their game doesn't look like a raggy dogs anus before putting it out.

One of the blurbs written by an ex-employee pointed out that a lot of the people working on this were kids when the original came out, that's cute and all but it's exactly who you don't want making a sequel because it'll be sophomoric shit at best and in what appears to be every respect.

[falafel]

Yeah, I think we're coming at this from irreconcilably different angles. It's anathema to me to view any creative endeavour as a consumer good. Which seems to be where you're coming from. If I did come from a consumer angle, sure, I might get angry with the devs if I paid sixty quid for it. But I have a mental block on seeing things like this as purely functional products, like I got sold a dodgy set of steak knives or something. They tried, maybe they failed (maybe they didn't), the only company I would be angry at is EA, and that is FOR enforcing a consumer focused, fiscal year mentality on a studio.

Probably because I'm a woo-woo gay arts graduate.

[brat-sampson]

Basically unless you're mid-scale enough to make kickstarter or similar work for you or God-tier like Rockstar North/CDPR, you can typically say goodbye to your creative freedoms. Did there need to be a new Mass Effect? No. They barely pulled off the last trilogy and now half that talent's been replaced. It's becoming ever-clearer why we've barely seen anything from the game before a couple weeks ago and it looks so far like it was severely under-nourished and likely rushed out the door to appease EA. That the financial year is coming to a close soon I'm sure is no coincidence.

EDIT: Reviews are out now and it's a mixed bag. I hope I don't sound too negative but it seems to kinda come down to how generous they were feeling...

[HappyTree]

This game had the potential to make me buy a current gen console. It seems that accolade will go to another game, another time.

[Shay Chaise]

Mate.

Zelda.

Switch.

Mate.

[Penfold]

Buddy.

Horizon.

NHL.

Buddy.

[Big Jack McBastard]

Yeah, I think we're coming at this from irreconcilably different angles. It's anathema to me to view any creative endeavour as a consumer good. Which seems to be where you're coming from. If I did come from a consumer angle, sure, I might get angry with the devs if I paid sixty quid for it. But I have a mental block on seeing things like this as purely functional products, like I got sold a dodgy set of steak knives or something. They tried, maybe they failed (maybe they didn't), the only company I would be angry at is EA, and that is FOR enforcing a consumer focused, fiscal year mentality on a studio.

Probably because I'm a woo-woo gay arts graduate.

Oh I'd be with you 100% in an ideal world but Bioware do have previous form for pushing out pap and ignoring (what used to be) their fanbase, the reused environs of DA2 come to mind and didn't they close their forums after the mess of an ending that ME3 got just to shut up the complaints? That said, as has been rightly pointed out, the hand of the awful gameshitting megalith of EA on their back doesn't do anyone any good especially as it needs/ed a complete rewrite, retexturing, remodelling and whatever else it manages to befoul.

There's a litany of promising studios that got absorbed by EA and their output dropped in quality and scope tremendously because of the 'Just fucking release it, money money money' mentality. I just watched the original concept videos for Spore before it got casualised and nerfed into a kid friendly package and what a damn shame it is to witness the work they'd done get bastardised into the Pixar-ish half done title that was Spore, so much potential and innovation thrown out to chase profit.

[Bazooka]

All I want still to this day is KOTOR 3, I don't even care for the films(not even sure why, the universe is great) that much, but the Star Wars universe in game form is bloody fantastic. Even if a KOTOR 3 was built on the KOTOR 1/2 engine I wouldn't care(this will not sell of course).

[BeardFaceMan]

It's anathema to me to view any creative endeavour as a consumer good.

Even if the only point of the creative endeavour is to create a consumer good?

[wasp_f15ting]

I've cancelled my preorder..

I tried it on ea access. Way too clunky in terms of controls, and just lacked the Polish of ME3.

Zelda BOTW will keep me going till the next good rpg comes along.

[brat-sampson]

I mean, Persona's like two weeks away so yeah. In the meantime, if anything, get Nier.

[Bhazor]

So reckon Bioware will get the Maxis treatment? I mean Maxis were way more profitable than Bioware when they were taken out back and shot for the lukewarm Sims 4 reception. So I have to imagine Bioware is on pretty thin ice right now.

[wasp_f15ting]

I was discussing this with friends.

EA take something that is good, chew it up digest it and shit it out as useless crap. This is the second big flop for bioware now. SWTOR cost $200M? this cost $40M and it has been cursed by metacritic now.

This I fear is the death knell for Bioware. All it needed was a few more months of polish and testing.. what utter shite :(

Mass Effect 2 was one of my fave games of all time. The DLCs were great too Lair of the shadow broker being a perfect piece too. What an end to an amazing company :(

[Bhazor]

Don't forget Inquisition. That was a sales flop too.

[HappyTree]

Just reading about all the flaws of ME2. He's right, but I never noticed or cared. The main plot is paper thin and nonsense, but ME2 was all about the recruitment and loyalty missions, which were fantastic. Best standard episode for me was Thane and his son.

Shadow Broker DLC was brilliant, yes. My personal faves were Kasumi and the one that gave you a super swish apartment. It's a shame she was a DLC character and thus had little incidental script to add. She was so mischievous and had the best super power of going invisible. Absolutely hilarious to watch her suddenly materialise behind enemies and kill them, then disappear again. She was a permo team member from the moment I got her on the roster.

I think now we're seeing the inevitable lulz of people loving to pile on this new game. Some of which will be deserved, a lot of which will snowball from that and get hysterical. I think this is just how the internet is these days. KILL KILL KILL!

[Thursday]

Fans and detractors alike [nb]bluntly, I'm a detractor, I think the first Mass Effect was crap and it only got worse over the next two titles[/nb]might enjoy this epic-length retrospective:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792

Not everything he says is fair and he has a pretty strict and boring idea of how a story "should" be written, but it's a really detailed look at the series and most of his complaints are justified.

Surprised how readable this is. spent hours reading this yesterday.

[kittens]

why am i enjoying watching this game get rubbished everywhere? i never played any mass effect games or have anything invested in it, or anything against it, but for some reason i am compelled to read bad reviews and watch those clips of it being bad, just sitting here thinking 'ha ha good' when it makes no difference to me whatsoever. i guess i like seeing things fail. like looking at a carcrash or something i dunno. good post