Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Cheylus]

Is there any way to buy this game without lining BioWare's pockets (For very, very obvious reasons.). A legal way, that is. Would buying it used work? Are there any alternatives?

Would you be fine giving 'em less money than ordinarily required for instance?
Buying it used might work to give them a huge slap in the face of course, but you might also want to check online vouchers to get those nasty 20% off the retail price and strike them very hard where it hurts. They'll remember it. Or I can buy a copy for you and then you'll repay me (with some interest of course), so only my soul will get dirty by dealing with them.
You can camp twitch streamers for dozen of hours and try to win Andromeda giveaways.
I'm sure BioWare will hold a MEA convention sometimes and give the game for free to some of their fans. You could cosplay yourself in a Dragon Age character to make sure BioWare notice you and maybe give you a copy of a game for free. But do not forget not to express your repulsion at BioWare during said convention (BioWare fans are nothing but "biodrones" after all), or you're fucked.

Of course playing MEA on PC means you'll have to use Origin DRM nonetheless: I have no solution against this moneygrabbing anti-consumer satanistic EA behaviour.

I don't see how you can play the game legally without giving them directly or indirectly some money though... Unfortunately it means you'll give them money anyway, so those greedy incompetent bastards can make yet another game you might want to play (after all).

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

Would you be fine giving 'em less money than ordinarily required for instance?
Buying it used might work to give them a huge slap in the face of course, but you might also want to check online vouchers to get those nasty 20% off the retail price and strike them very hard where it hurts. They'll remember it. Or I can buy a copy for you and then you'll repay me (with some interest of course), so only my soul will get dirty by dealing with them.
You can camp twitch streamers for dozen of hours and try to win Andromeda giveaways.
I'm sure BioWare will hold a MEA convention sometimes and give the game for free to some of their fans. You could cosplay yourself in a Dragon Age character to make sure BioWare notice you and maybe give you a copy of a game for free. But do not forget not to express your repulsion at BioWare during said convention (BioWare fans are nothing but "biodrones" after all), or you're fucked.

Of course playing MEA on PC means you'll have to use Origin DRM nonetheless: I have no solution against this moneygrabbing anti-consumer satanistic EA behaviour.

I don't see how you can play the game legally without giving them directly or indirectly some money though... Unfortunately it means you'll give them money anyway, so those greedy incompetent bastards can make yet another game you might want to play (after all).

Funny.

So, they still get a cut of the profits, even when I buy it used from GameStop?

 

[Arvuti]

Funny.

So, they still get a cut of the profits, even when I buy it used from GameStop?

If your planning on buying used from GameStop or from anywhere else in particular, I sure hope your gaming on console, since PC version is going to be locked to Origin either way.

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

If your planning on buying used from GameStop or from anywhere else in particular, I sure hope your gaming on console, since PC version is going to be locked to Origin either way.

Yup. Xbox One.

 

[RepHope]

Yup. Xbox One.

So I'll have someone to play MP with after all, excellent.

 

[Eredin_Breacc_Glas]

So I'll have someone to play MP with after all, excellent.

I hope you don't mind that children put me to shame, when it comes to shooters.

 

[octavian123]

This guy pretty much mirrors my sentiments about modern open worlds. Finally, SOMEONE WHO GETS IT!

 

[Pug.]

This guy has some pretty good points. I like what he had to say about "natural progression borders." It sort of reminds me of the original Everquest. You could go wherever you wanted - very few zones were shut off to the player - but the levels and abilities of the mobs instilled the fear of god into you and made it clear that, if an entry level player did venture into a place like Velious or Kunark, something bad was probably going to happen. The maps were also rudimentary, there were no journals or logs - we used this thing called paper for that - and there were certainly no quest markers. To be fair, though, a lot of these features can be disabled in games like TW3, and when I did shut off things like the question marks, I found it to be a more immersive experience. Also, he is going a bit too easy on some of the older games. While I will always have a special place in my heart for Morrowind, there were some areas of that game that were desolate as hell, and exploration could be just as tedious as anything that I find in modern AAA titles.

 

[Garrison72]

That guy's really got the nostalgia goggles on, and conflating genres as well. You don't suggest Morrowind and Gothic are in the same vein as Mad Max or AssCreed.

 

[PrincessCiri]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/4pb5el/mass_effect_andromeda_to_ditch_paragonrenegade/

I know a lot of people will be pleased about this. Personally I think whether this is a good step or not depends on how well they implement the new system. Renegade options were important to me because they let me be "evil" (okay maybe not all the time but sometimes hell yes). If BioWare get rid of the renegade and paragon options and instead give us the bland dialogue that DA:I had I will not be impressed.

I've seen developers talk about this being a game where the story is about ~becoming a hero~ and that's the opposite of what I want. The opportunity to become a hero is all well and good, but I want to be able to be a villain too, and being shoehorned into the hero role sounds like a repeat of DA:I where I couldn't do anything wrong.

That said, the removal of the paragon/renegade options might also allow us to roleplay more effectively, since the downside of the renegade/paragon system was that it punished the player for not sticking to one. If BioWare can create something more complex without the obvious signposts to the 'good guy' 'sarcastic asshole' 'rude' dialogue wheel that Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition suffered from, I think it will be a step in the right direction.

 

[arkhenon]

If they have some sort of a karma system, it should be okay. But if they don't keep track of what - for example - different factions think about you, no matter what you do (or even worse, if it doesn't give you an option to disengage from the beaten "good" path) I can see problems arising... We'll see I guess.

 

[Rawls]

I'm not sure that keeping track of karma is necessary, I just think that making certain choices should naturally bar you from future options.

I actually liked the dialogue mechanics in DA:I better than in ME. If they kept that mechanic, added in serious consequences for certain actions in relation to various factions/npcs, and kept an interrupt mechanic from ME linked to a charm or intimidate skill (like ME1), I would be perfectly happy.

 

[Saheer]

I doubt they would leave Mass Effect game without any sort of reputation or karma system. Paragon/Renegade was never really a good one, or at least i didn't like it one bit. To reach some goal, it forced to follow a path and not allowing to act as I would want to in the very situation, thus locking dialogue options for instance.

I hope that there will be reputation system but it does not work through a simple meter but more through actions and consequences of all sides.

 

[Phinnway]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/4pb5el/mass_effect_andromeda_to_ditch_paragonrenegade/

Good. Color coded morality systems were outdated back when KOTOR 1 released - and that was 13 years ago. They just lead to stupid situations - like the player being good for half their playthrough and evil for the second half without any acknowledgement or reaction from NPCs. Another problem is when players pick an option they perceive as good and the game gives them evil points for it, or vice verse. Color coded morality systems need to die in video-games for good.

It's much better when the only "morality system" in the game is the approval of NPCs. Players can judge for themselves whether a choice was right or not based on what NPCs think of the situation. If you really must have a point system to measure your choices than it's much better to use a faction reputation system or a personality system like in Pillar's of Eternity.

 

[toudis815]

Will see what they 'll do with this. Renegade interrupts were really cool, hope they won't force me to be mr. nice guy everytime

 

[Guest 3847602]

I'm also glad to see it's gone, it never made sense to me in the first place - why in the God's name would my dialogue options with a character X be limited and influenced by my responses to character Y or Z when those 3 characters never met each other.
ME2 system was the worst by far, it pushed the players to play either as a pure paragons or pure renegades (don't know which of the two was worse).

 

[PrincessCiri]

It's much better when the only "morality system" in the game is the approval of NPCs. Players can judge for themselves whether a choice was right or not based on what NPCs think of the situation. If you really must have a point system to measure your choices than it's much better to use a faction reputation system or a personality system like in Pillar's of Eternity.

This is why I think Dragon Age 2 did this best. I know DA2 is not considered a good game, but the rivarly/friendship system was awesome, and there was no 'right' or 'wrong' way of doing things, just that if you did things one way, some of your companions would disagree with you and resent you for your choices.

It worked a lot better than in DA:O and DA:I where if you didn't get high enough approval you just lost out on a bunch of companion content. At least in DA2 no matter how much your companions hated you, their companion quests would still trigger.

I would be very happy to see a similar system in Andromeda.

 

[RepHope]

I hope you don't mind that children put me to shame, when it comes to shooters.

Lol not at all mate.

 

[Rawls]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-mass-effect-books-will-bridge-gap-between-tril/1100-6441256/

Looks like they're gonna go ahead and pick a canon ending by the sounds of this. I guess they could leave it ambiguous, but that would seem like a rather large plot whole in a novel.

 

[nfi42]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-mass-effect-books-will-bridge-gap-between-tril/1100-6441256/

Looks like they're gonna go ahead and pick a canon ending by the sounds of this. I guess they could leave it ambiguous, but that would seem like a rather large plot whole in a novel.

I'll put a dollar on them not discussing the endings at all. If they leave before the ending and only address events leading up to the departure, then the ending didn't happen.

In any case, I want Bioware to write themselves out of the hole. Embraces the endings. Which alien species indoctrinated the reapers into believing "We must kill you every 50000 years to save you"