Early review: Mass Effect: Andromeda is Dragon Age: Inquisition in space

A week of playtime is nowhere near enough to fully review sprawling galactic epic.

Read the whole story

 

[vedekhaliwell]

Having never bothered with Dragon Age, I wish this had not pulled in the DA references; those references were completely lost for me, so no real idea of the power of that reference. I play ME 1 and 2 and 3 so much, the game discs had to be replaced due to scratching. Sloppy, I know.

I am willing to wait to see what Mass Effect has evolved into, letting the "bleeding edge" folks handle this and wait also for the dedicated gaming sites to play through and review it without making other games their reference point.

 

[wintermute2_0]

I have an accessibility question. Can Andromeda be played with a mouse and on-screen keyboard? I have a severe physical disability and I play games using a headmouse and OSK. This worked pretty well for Inquisition, but will it work for ME?

Please say yes.

 

[dfjdejulio]

I have an accessibility question. Can Andromeda be played with a mouse and on-screen keyboard? I have a severe physical disability and I play games using a headmouse and OSK. This worked pretty well for Inquisition, but will it work for ME?

Please say yes.

If the way it worked for you in Inquisition was by relying on that tactical mode where you could more easily give everyone orders and control how quickly time flows, then "no". There is nothing similar to that in Andromeda, and without it, I suspect combat would be tricky.

 

[dfjdejulio]

Having never bothered with Dragon Age, I wish this had not pulled in the DA references; those references were completely lost for me, so no real idea of the power of that reference. I play ME 1 and 2 and 3 so much, the game discs had to be replaced due to scratching. Sloppy, I know.

Do you play WoW?

There's this thing in DA:I, a mission board, that's like the garrison mission board in the previous WoW expansion or the order hall one in the current expansion. It's a mechanic that lets you send troops that report to you out on missions in the world, and then a timer counts down based on real world time elapsed, and after that you get a report and possible rewards.

ME:A adds a mechanic like that to Mass Effect, and IMHO that's really the only compelling reason to compare it to DA rather than just previous ME games.

 

[florinandrei]

Was hoping it would be more like Witcher 3 in space.

I was hoping it would be more like Mass Effect 1/2/3... um... well, in space.

 

[Akemi]

If everything was the same but the gender, the individual designer likely never would be named (instead we'd just be making fun of the animations themselves) and certainly the "trolling" would not be of that sort of personal, threatening nature.

I don't care what gender the lead facial animator was, they should be fired if this is the best they can do.

If Bioware put an unpaid intern (I think that's one of the rumours) in charge of facial animation for their flagship IP, every producer involved with this title should all be fired (out of a cannon... into the sun...)

After so much care and attention to the environments and such, it's a shame to see such a great IP tarnished by this lackluster effort on animations. The original game has better animations, which is a pretty damning statement, especially considering its age.

Think about that statement for a second. If rumors don't meet the sniff test of even being plausible, maybe the rumors shouldn't be believed. Do you believe Electronic Arts would allow BioWare to put an unpaid intern in charge of facial animation on their flagship IP? Do you believe that's how big-name software companies operate in 2017?

Apparently the point of my statement was missed. I do not, for a second, believe anyone would turn over such an important task to an intern, hence the statement about firing the producers out of a cannon into the sun.

I would imagine anyone who's seen in-game footage of the animation will agree it is less than what we've all come to expect from Bioware.

Why? The facial animation looks pretty much par for the course for both Dragon Age and the Mass Effect series. None of them were anything to write home about in that department. Disappointing - yes. Unexpected - no.

 

[craigdolphin]

No combat pause? Faster, twitchier combat? Ugly animations and character models. *sigh* I find myself agreeing with the much-maligned Jennifer Hepler: give me a combat-free story mode if you insist on making combat a COD-style PITA.

Sticking to my plan to buy it second hand for console... eventually.

I used to adore Bioware. But they jumped the shark with DA2 IMO, and what they've done since has been less and less interesting for me.

Here's hoping more competitors emerge like CDPR to compete for WRPG dollars.

 

[lordsutch]

I haven't tried it since all my trial play was on normal (which to me felt about as challenging as running silver on ME3MP), but if you really don't want to bother with combat my guess is if you set the combat gameplay setting to "narrative" and just hide behind some cover, your squadmates can take care of everything on their own once you pick up a full squad in the tutorial mission.

 

[dfjdejulio]

No combat pause? Faster, twitchier combat?

Yes, but...

Myself, I'd go for the full tabletop RPG experience if they'd let me have it, turn-based actions resolved by skill checks and dice rolls, no twitch at all. But, I tolerated the combat in ME3, and even tried my hand at multiplayer.

Yes, the combat in ME:A is a little faster. However, by some quirk, it also seems to be easier for me, even when the combat difficulty is set higher than "narrative".

How can I tell? Multiplayer. In ME3, I do well enough that I can plod along at bronze difficulty and finish missions. In my Geth Juggernaut, I can even solo some bronze missions (depends on the random objectives I get). But, I almost never get more than two or three medals, and I tend to be the lowest-scoring person on the team. Which doesn't bother me.

It wouldn't bother me in ME:A either... but it seems not to be happening as much. I actually seem to be getting a little better as I play, judging both by the number of medals (which might just be "grade inflation" from one game to the next) and by the ranking of the players at the end of the match (which is a bit more objective).

And it's true subjectively as well -- I feel like I'm better able to take out enemies and accomplish goals in ME:A multiplayer than ME3 multiplayer. Maybe it's the map design? Maybe it's the addition of the third dimension with the jet pack? Not sure.

Now, I don't really care much. I'm not a big multiplayer person, and I was satisfied with my performance in ME3. It let me advance fast enough, keep galactic readiness high enough, it was sufficient. So I'm not exactly excited that I seem to do better in ME:A, I just think it's interesting.

 

[DataMeister]

Lee, I'm almost with you on the combat, with one exception. I usually enjoy the fire fights once, but if I fail I just want a screen to pop up with the options to "defeat the bad guy already".

I despise having to replay the same fight over and over again before I can move on with the story. It basically pulls me out of the story and reminds me it is just a game.

 

[DataMeister]

All of the things Lee talks about are true, though I would say that DA:I at least had very interesting characters that you could get attached to, and so far in 10 hours of play I don't care a whit about the idiots that tag along with me and get slaughtered every 5 seconds.

Here's a big huge plot breaking question for the lazy writers of Mass Effect. If I can have a tiny Quantum Entangled Communicator in my brain that instantly connects me to my ship wherever I am, and QECs can communicate instantly across any distance of space, why doesn't the Institute have a QEC connection with the Milky Way?

And another, if somehow magical space telescopes can let the Initiative see the viability of "golden planets" from 2.5 million light years away why couldn't on-board ship sensors detect updates from those planets when they got, oh I don't know, a few dozen light years away? And say "hey look out for that giant scourge thing, let's maybe scan a few other planets since these have gone to shiite."???

When the games plot is broken so badly before the game boots up, there are going to be huge problems.

I never understand people who think technology in sci-fi has no limitations, and that the story and dialogue must hinge on explaining those limitations to the viewer at all times.

You played the game yet? They specifically make a big deal about being "on their own" apart from the Milky Way without any explanation of why that is the case. The Mass Effect series already canonized QECs and the fact that they are (magically) based on real science means that they will work at any distance.

Any distance?

Since in "real science" they don't work at all, how can you make that claim?

Or maybe they work, but the energy requirements increase exponentially with distance?

Quantum Entanglement is a real phenomenon that has been observed in nature. The concept of being able to transmit information using it is thought to be impossible. So it is all "magic" anyway, but when ME2 and ME3 already canonized its use, and you actually have the ability to use a miniaturized QEC in your brain in Andromeda, to simply ignore the possibility of contact at all with the Milky Way is lazy writing.

As I mentioned, they could have said it was destroyed in the crash at least. Or gave some handwavium answer like you suggest with power requirements increasing with each million light years or something. But there is no answer at all, because we are all just supposed to assume that leaving the Milky Way necessitates a complete break from society.

An alternative idea would be to explain that Quantum Entanglement breaks or becomes distorted beyond use when you go out beyond the edge of a galaxy due to gravitational stress differences or something. It could have been a nice science-fictiony story thread to put in. Something which the crew didn't expect would happen and had to research the problem to learn why. It's one of the reasons I like Star Trek over Star Wars; much more of that fictional problem solving kind of stuff.

 

[Causality]

What about the voice acting? I've heard that's... about as good as the lip-synching and animation.

From all I'm hearing, it sounds like a game that changed directions halfway through development and had too many things trying to do too many things with it - trying to please the hardcore console gamers and hardcore PC gamers both to such an extent, that they're just... letting both sides down.

I still hope it's good. I miss Mass Effect. Those were two very fine games.

It's not even developed by any of the original ME teams. They shipped it off to a C-team in Montreal that's just calling itself Bioware because that's the company on their checks.

 

[dfjdejulio]

All of the things Lee talks about are true, though I would say that DA:I at least had very interesting characters that you could get attached to, and so far in 10 hours of play I don't care a whit about the idiots that tag along with me and get slaughtered every 5 seconds.

Here's a big huge plot breaking question for the lazy writers of Mass Effect. If I can have a tiny Quantum Entangled Communicator in my brain that instantly connects me to my ship wherever I am, and QECs can communicate instantly across any distance of space, why doesn't the Institute have a QEC connection with the Milky Way?

And another, if somehow magical space telescopes can let the Initiative see the viability of "golden planets" from 2.5 million light years away why couldn't on-board ship sensors detect updates from those planets when they got, oh I don't know, a few dozen light years away? And say "hey look out for that giant scourge thing, let's maybe scan a few other planets since these have gone to shiite."???

When the games plot is broken so badly before the game boots up, there are going to be huge problems.

I never understand people who think technology in sci-fi has no limitations, and that the story and dialogue must hinge on explaining those limitations to the viewer at all times.

You played the game yet? They specifically make a big deal about being "on their own" apart from the Milky Way without any explanation of why that is the case. The Mass Effect series already canonized QECs and the fact that they are (magically) based on real science means that they will work at any distance.

Any distance?

Since in "real science" they don't work at all, how can you make that claim?

Or maybe they work, but the energy requirements increase exponentially with distance?

Quantum Entanglement is a real phenomenon that has been observed in nature. The concept of being able to transmit information using it is thought to be impossible. So it is all "magic" anyway, but when ME2 and ME3 already canonized its use, and you actually have the ability to use a miniaturized QEC in your brain in Andromeda, to simply ignore the possibility of contact at all with the Milky Way is lazy writing.

As I mentioned, they could have said it was destroyed in the crash at least. Or gave some handwavium answer like you suggest with power requirements increasing with each million light years or something. But there is no answer at all, because we are all just supposed to assume that leaving the Milky Way necessitates a complete break from society.

An alternative idea would be to explain that Quantum Entanglement breaks or becomes distorted beyond use when you go out beyond the edge of a galaxy due to gravitational stress differences or something. It could have been a nice science-fictiony story thread to put in.

There's plenty of scifi that uses exactly that kind of explanation. QECs depend on quantum entanglement, which is fragile, and in general has to be created by the particles interacting with each other (ie. starting out at the same location).

In some Stross novels, going to FTL automatically disentangles the endpoints so they don't work anymore, so, you can have FTL communication between two endpoints, but only via devices that only ever travel apart from each other at sublight speeds.

Obviously that explanation won't work in the Mass Effect universe, since we've got examples of QECs working when an endpoint jumps to FTL, but there are plenty of other easy explanations.

Off the top of my head: maybe they naturally decay over time, and it's not a problem as long as you can bring the two endpoints near each other once every, say, decade or so, or keep up a fresh supply of entangled pairs by replacing the "QEC cartridge" once in a while. By either of those methods, if the endpoints are too far away from each other for too long, you have no more entangled particles to use and you're done.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

You seriously need to get those insecurities looked at.

 

[althaz]

Also glad the game doesn't force you to play as a girl

And the problem with that is..?

I thought you'd never ask! I don't like playing as a girl in games that are made for males, which to me are action games with lots of killing. There's a reason you don't see Barbies with ak47's or G.I. Joe's with a hairbrush. Boys and girls play differently, something a lot of video game developers have forgotten

Oh get over yourself and your forced gender roles. My seven-year-old likes stuffed animals as well as his Halo toys, and pink is one of this top three favorite colors. So fucking what?

And one of his Halo action figures is Spartan Olympia Vale, and he has zero problem/confusion with the fact that she has lady parts under her armor instead of man parts. Because, after all, when we're playing with Halo action figures, we're not talking about genitals, we're talking about defeating the Covenant.

I don't like forced gender, I prefer choice. For me it's a matter of immersion. I strongly identify with my gender and I can't get into a game being

I don't know of any BioWare game (Ever? Maybe Planescape Torment?) that didn't give players this binary choice. There was, as everyone already knew, zero chance that players would not get to choose a male or female protagonist in this game. At this point they should probably be adding more than two options, but that is a totally unrelated conversation so I'll just put a pin in that for now.

Anyway: It's almost like you brought it up totally out of nowhere to pretend like you had a point. Get off the cross.

a) Planescape Torment wasn't a Bioware Game (it was Black Isle, who served as publishers for Bioware games and it used Bioware's Infinity engine, but Bioware had nothing to do with it).
b) MDK2 didn't have a female option (you could be a dog though), IIRC and I'm not sure about Shattered Steel (haven't played it), but the rest of Bioware's games let you choose your gender.

 

[althaz]

I have an accessibility question. Can Andromeda be played with a mouse and on-screen keyboard? I have a severe physical disability and I play games using a headmouse and OSK. This worked pretty well for Inquisition, but will it work for ME?

Please say yes.

This game seems like it will be *much* harder to play than DA: I. Primarily because the basic gameplay is that of a shooter: you move between cover, point your cursor at enemies and pull the trigger. Unlike DA:I where you target people and then queue up attacks/special moves.

 

[Digital Dud]

A week of playtime is nowhere near enough to fully review sprawling galactic epic.

So either Ars writers are lazy or the other reviewers out there are full of shit.

 

[FighterforJC]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

So you'd like to see, like, Nate Croft: Tomb Raider?

Hey, I had no problem playing as Nathan Drake.

Uncharted already is a male version of tomb raider. Though I still wish that the latest tomb raider had an option to play as a guy. Personally it only matters to me in action type games. I don't have a problem using girl fighters in fighting games or games like until dawn

It's Tomb Raider. What, do you think women can't be archaeologists?

archeologists, yes. Indiana Jones , no. Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

 

[GreyAreaUK]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

So you'd like to see, like, Nate Croft: Tomb Raider?

Hey, I had no problem playing as Nathan Drake.

Uncharted already is a male version of tomb raider. Though I still wish that the latest tomb raider had an option to play as a guy. Personally it only matters to me in action type games. I don't have a problem using girl fighters in fighting games or games like until dawn

It's Tomb Raider. What, do you think women can't be archaeologists?

archeologists, yes. Indiana Jones , no.

What led you to that utterly misguided opinion?

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

They should. Kids of both sexes would love them. Probably quite a few adults as well. In fact all you're really saying here is that lots of toy makers are assholes, and that you identify with them.

 

[FighterforJC]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

You seriously need to get those insecurities looked at.

It's not insecurities. To me gender is tied to play style. There nothing wrong with any play style, but I won't be buying a Barbie if I want my toys to fight each other and neither would I buy GI Joe's to make them have tea with​ each other

 

[Drethon]

Some of the issues I've seen online with character models / animations / facial presets, etc. are pretty horrifying, and could point to some combination of poor resourcing and/or politicized design choices on the part of Bioware Montreal.

To be totally clear, the GamerGate/"Men's Right Advocate" argument that the person in charge of the facial animations on Mass Effect: Andromeda was a woefully-unqualified woman chosen solely for the role solely due to political correctness reasons, and that's why the animations suck so bad...it just isn't true. It's "alternative facts." It's Pizzagate. It's a completely false narrative being pushed for culture-war reasons.

I'm with ShakesMcQueen..this is really happening? If so, what the actual fuck?

Perfect storm. Highly visible issue with AAA game, witch hunt to find who was responsible for the animation dev work, and a young fan bragging on her LinkedIn about some intern work she may or may not have done for Bioware that gave the impression that she was the one responsible for the shoddy animations.

Plus typical internet mob mentality to swarm and attack any targets of opportunity.

I've known aviation companies to put interns in charge of developing critical tests for an airplane under development. Then a year later a qualified engineer finds the intern did absolutely nothing, and the tests got signed off on.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

You seriously need to get those insecurities looked at.

It's not insecurities.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you on that.

 

[mel_gibson]

I liked the "Star Control II" feel of the last Mass Effect game. How goes it on this one?

 

[caldepen]

Spend an hour perfecting my hero in the customizer screen and then start the game only to find he looks like an asshole? Yep, I'm in a Mass Effect game*!

*I say that lovingly though.

 

[FighterforJC]

Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

They should. Kids of both sexes would love them. Probably quite a few adults as well. In fact all you're really saying here is that lots of toy makers are assholes, and that you identify with them.

. No what I am saying is that despite the opinions of the very vocal minorities, most normal people acknowledge that boys and girls are different. Understanding this principle is what has kept toy companies in business for many decades. I'm glad bioware realizes this as well. Also who gave you the power to decide what others should like?

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

They should. Kids of both sexes would love them. Probably quite a few adults as well. In fact all you're really saying here is that lots of toy makers are assholes, and that you identify with them.

. No what I am saying is that despite the opinions of the very vocal minorities, most normal people acknowledge that boys and girls are different. Understanding this principle is what has kept toy companies in business for many decades. I'm glad bioware realizes this as well. Also who gave you the power to decide what others should like?

'vocal minorities'.
'normal people'.

You are a sexist idiot.

And, for the record, boys and girls aren't different except in fairly trivial physical ways.

 

[Mitlov]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

So you'd like to see, like, Nate Croft: Tomb Raider?

Hey, I had no problem playing as Nathan Drake.

Uncharted already is a male version of tomb raider. Though I still wish that the latest tomb raider had an option to play as a guy. Personally it only matters to me in action type games. I don't have a problem using girl fighters in fighting games or games like until dawn

It's Tomb Raider. What, do you think women can't be archaeologists?

archeologists, yes. Indiana Jones , no. Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

Action figures about glamorous lifestyles cone in both genders (or did you forget about Ken)? Fighting action figures come in both genders (such as Spartan Sarah Palmer and Spartan Olympia Vale from Halo). The world hasn't ended.

 

[jackthecat]

I struggle to understand the unfocused vitriol directed at ME: Andromeda.

Hello. I play a lot of games. I’ve been playing video games for the past 20 years, and I can still remember my heart pounding when I bought my first game (can’t believe it’s been 22 years since Westwood released Command and Conquer…). I’ve sailed and plundered the Caribbean with Sid Meier’s Pirates, defeated Napoleon in Fields of Glory, and critical hit my share of orges with the looking glass rifle in Arcanum (IMO still the best game no one has ever played). As of this morning, according to Origin and Steam, I have allocated/misallocated the following number of hours in the following games:

Mass Effect (143 hrs)
Mass Effect 2 (188 hrs)
Mass Effect 3 (247 hrs)
Rainbow Six Siege (864 hrs)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (13 hrs — thirteen hours isn’t a typo and I’m going to make a point. I played it for its visuals and game mechanics, both of which were perfect - but what a snore. )

With my gaming resume/rap sheet out of the way, let’s get right to the point — I’ve been struggling to understand unfocused vitriol directed at Bioware for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Like most of you, I haven’t been fortunate enough to have access to a reviewer’s code, so my experience has been limited to the 10 hour early access and advanced previews available on social media and YouTube.

During my 10 hour preview, I’ve encountered specific issues like the dreaded mo-cap T pose (Dr. T’Perro looked like she was being biotically crucified by my Ryder for failing to properly secure my twin’s cryopod), skin textures on Suvi (I’d be pleasantly surprised if there’s a lupus backstory), and some cringe worthy dialogue on the Nexus — but nothing to elicit the blatantly false, unfocused and nonconstructive vitriol from the “counter-SJW” crowd (I had to google/urban dictionary SJW to even understand their commentary).

Jennifer Hepler didn’t design the lazy three color storyboard ending for Mass Effect 3, but she was targeted for harassment. I don’t think Allie Rose-Marie Leost designed/implemented the unnerving human eyes/orbital socket modeling in Andromeda, but she was targeted for harassment.

There’s been false allegations that customization excluded skin tones/facial structure that are stereotypically Caucasian, yet both my Ryder twins are rather… Scandinavian.

As a parting blurb, I think we could all occasionally use a reminder that games, like commercial art, face unique developmental challenges whereby the publishers/development studios/producers/writers/technical development team struggle to juggle multiple conflicting interests and priorities. Writers want to tell a story and artistically present the truth, but they shouldn’t write themselves out of a job by failing to meet deadlines tinkering with the perfect story never told.

The first game where I defeated space pirates and romanced team members was Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. It was a pioneering game that pushed the boundaries and was basically Mass Effect before Mass Effect, unfortunately the development was so high that it never paid for itself, and Looking Glass Technologies was not able to finance the expected and planned sequel. Alternatively, I can also remember my disappointment when Electronic Arts pushed Westwood to prematurely release its sequel, Tiberium Sun, and that premature release effectively killed Westwood.

I hope Andromeda isn’t the end of the Mass Effect IP at Bioware. But if it is, I don’t think it was caused by inclusion and aspirational values akin to helping a Salarian cure the genophage or brokering peace between the Geth and Quarians.

Ah, Arcanum. Definitely agree with you.

Along with Planescape: Torment, now there's a game crying out for a modern remake and/or sequel.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRachael]

I can't read this (no peeking)!
I am a stalwart at professing " Never pre-order a game! It's a scam for your money! Wait till the title settles and price drops!" ... I'm also a hypocrite!

I can't believe the hype ... and the aggression toward people about this game (the animation, face expressions, harassing someone that wasn't involved in the character design...).

That said, I am awaiting delivery for my Win10 game rig ... running an OC'd 1080 GTX SC... it will look great at 1440p but run over 100fps at 1080p...

Here is to mating with another species!

 

[FighterforJC]

My comment on not being forced to play as a girl wasn't an intent to troll but a genuine sigh of relief in light of the recent influx of games that force you to play as a girl.

So you'd like to see, like, Nate Croft: Tomb Raider?

Hey, I had no problem playing as Nathan Drake.

Uncharted already is a male version of tomb raider. Though I still wish that the latest tomb raider had an option to play as a guy. Personally it only matters to me in action type games. I don't have a problem using girl fighters in fighting games or games like until dawn

It's Tomb Raider. What, do you think women can't be archaeologists?

archeologists, yes. Indiana Jones , no. Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

Action figures about glamorous lifestyles cone in both genders (or did you forget about Ken)? Fighting action figures come in both genders (such as Spartan Sarah Palmer and Spartan Olympia Vale from Halo). The world hasn't ended.

Ken is a token male in a girl's toy line. Nobody buys a Ken doll to make him fight another Ken doll. As for the Halo toys I wouldn't consider them action figures per se that kids actually play with, but collectibles for adults who love the video games.

 

[ChaosDancer]

I'm still immensely irritated that gaming companies think timed releases in different countries, in this age of digital releases, is still an OK thing to do. I don't get the game for another two days.

VPN to South Korea mate and you can play it now. It downloads a 20 MB file and then off to play, no multiplayer unfortunately as the damn peer to peer is shit at the moment but the single player is all free (Also a pleasant surprise, bioware confirmed that they don't give a shit if you do it).

Afterwards just alt tab go offline in origin and you can keep playing with no worries and the vpn shut down

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Ken is a token male in a girl's toy line. Nobody buys a Ken doll to make him fight another Ken doll. As for the Halo toys I wouldn't consider them action figures per se that kids actually play with, but collectibles for adults who love the video games.

And you'd be wrong.

Again.

 

[vedekhaliwell]

Having never bothered with Dragon Age, I wish this had not pulled in the DA references; those references were completely lost for me, so no real idea of the power of that reference. I play ME 1 and 2 and 3 so much, the game discs had to be replaced due to scratching. Sloppy, I know.

Do you play WoW?

There's this thing in DA:I, a mission board, that's like the garrison mission board in the previous WoW expansion or the order hall one in the current expansion. It's a mechanic that lets you send troops that report to you out on missions in the world, and then a timer counts down based on real world time elapsed, and after that you get a report and possible rewards.

ME:A adds a mechanic like that to Mass Effect, and IMHO that's really the only compelling reason to compare it to DA rather than just previous ME games.

No, I do not play WoW as I loose interest in games from time to time and cannot stand paying for something I am not using. It is why I ditched paying for television.

But I do not really care for something making me more like a General with armies at hand. I would want to explore said worlds myself and gather whatever the items/upgrades are. I only made one trip [ME] to Hagalaz after Liara became the Shadow Broker, so never checked on the benefits and credits I could have created, same with the movies upstairs. I had a Collector Base to get to.

 

[FighterforJC]

Toy makers know this, which is why they don't sell Barbies with mini guns

They should. Kids of both sexes would love them. Probably quite a few adults as well. In fact all you're really saying here is that lots of toy makers are assholes, and that you identify with them.

. No what I am saying is that despite the opinions of the very vocal minorities, most normal people acknowledge that boys and girls are different. Understanding this principle is what has kept toy companies in business for many decades. I'm glad bioware realizes this as well. Also who gave you the power to decide what others should like?

'vocal minorities'.
'normal people'.

You are a sexist idiot.

And, for the record, boys and girls aren't different except in fairly trivial physical ways.

Some parents might be inclined to brainwash their kids that boys and girls are not different, but it doesn't change the fact that they are. Give any random boy and girl the exact same toy and watch how differently they play.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Some parents might be inclined to brainwash their kids that boys and girls are not different

That's not brainwashing.

That's equality.

 

[FighterforJC]

Some parents might be inclined to brainwash their kids that boys and girls are not different

That's not brainwashing.

That's equality.

Being different has nothing to do with equality or superiority or inferiority.

 

[FighterforJC]

Ken is a token male in a girl's toy line. Nobody buys a Ken doll to make him fight another Ken doll. As for the Halo toys I wouldn't consider them action figures per se that kids actually play with, but collectibles for adults who love the video games.

And you'd be wrong.

Again.

How?

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Some parents might be inclined to brainwash their kids that boys and girls are not different

That's not brainwashing.

That's equality.

Being different has nothing to do with equality or superiority or inferiority.

And yet you seem think the sex of a child should determine the toys they are allowed to play with, or will want to play with.

Frankly I'm done with you.