MY BODY IS READY!

Even though I still have about 14 hours 12 minutes before I can get the game in my greedy little hands...

Initial reviews are a touch disappointing, to be honest, but then, it feels like the fact it's a Mass Effect game seems like they are judging it harder than they might otherwise.

And yes, I've gone back to drinking the Bioware Koolaid after DAI. Thoughts, plans, hopes, fears?

Wrapped up the 10 hour trial last night. Game certainly has some warts but the game is great (both single and multiplayer). I've found the reviews to be mostly overly harsh. Sure there are some wonky graphical bits, but the environments are beautiful. The story has a very ME1 feel to it.

Anyway, I'm amped to dive back in!

Yeah, it seems like the reviews I've read are complaining about things that MEA is doing to fix things people complained about in prior games.

Like, "the tutorial in MEA is too long!" Well, dudes, you complained there wasn't much of a tutorial in the first game.

Or, "it's too open-worldy!" after there wasn't much open world stuff in ME2 or 3...

I dunno, I didn't do the 10 hour trial since I knew I wasn't going to have 10 hours to dive in before tonight on my schedule, so I am going in completely fresh... aside from the "first hour gameplay" video. We'll see how bad the glitches are, but I haven't seen anything in clips that's worse than... well, prior ME games, Skyrim/Fallout, etc.

Yeah, I don't get the gripe about the "tutorial being too long" or the "beginning being slow"... uh, yeah, it's setting up what's probably going to be another massive series of games... there's a lot to set up. Probably doesn't help that diehard fans have been following the development so by now we all know what's going down story-wise, at least for the set-up. The open world complaint is weird too. The plot of the game is literally based around exploration and discovery... so an big open world is necessary.

If you're a Bioware/ME fan, you'll enjoy it.

Yeah, that's what I figured. It looks fine to me. And really, as long as the graphical glitches fall into the 'amusing but patchable' and not 'gamebreaking'... well, I may have splurged in my excitement at Gamestop yesterday (they have 20% off all Mass Effect swag, so now I have a cosplay omniblade and Sara Ryder/Peebee Funkopops.)

So I have a feeling ME:A and I are going to have a serious love/hate relationship. There's a lot I like, and it's fun as heck... but there are things that just grate me: the animations/textures are sometimes really wonky, the UI is kind of confusing, and the crafting system is way more complicated/poorly explained than it needs to be....

That being said, I HIGHLY recommend downloading the APEX HQ app. It lets you tinker with your MP load-outs as well as send out strike teams without having to be in the Nexus or Tempest (or even in the game).

Either I'm way more forgiving than I used to be, or I'm just not noticing the wacky animations. Though the textures of some of the Nexus people are a little weird. The Turians look... odd, there.

But yeah, DL'd Apex, will probably start monkeying with MP later this week.

Actually, after playing a while on the XB1... I'm wondering if this is the least glitchy platform. Because it seems like most of the complaints are coming from PS4 players.

The only problem I have is an inability to connect to the MP servers.

Yeah, I haven't run into too many problems. The servers sometimes take a while to connect to, and I've found that if I wait at the start menu for a minute it'll connect.

Anyway, the more I've played the more I've enjoyed it. The story is great, the characters are fantastic, and the combat is a blast. I think the reviewers were overly harsh, expecting too much or something that wasn't there so they blasted it. Reminds me a lot of Fallout New Vegas reviews honestly.

Still working on the first playthrough, been about 35 hours or so. Currently level 46 on a mostly biotic/tech build that just annihilates enemies.

Also, if you haven't finished the Memory Fragments quest or whatever because "meh, it's another side quest," DO EET.

Very big spoilers for it:



Fought my first Architect last night too. That was fun, if a bit paint-by-numbers with the tactics. But then again, deep tactics have never been a hallmark of Bioware games, no matter how hard they tried.