Bioware hired an amateur to do the facial Animations

[Ashton]

It's not even Bioware anymore. Since EA bought them and the founders left, it's been a slow death as more and more of their quality employees left. Worse is that their already diluted talent was further split when Bioware was divided into several dev teams. Is there even a single developer at Bioware Montreal (MEA dev team) that worked on games in their golden Jade Empire/KOTOR era?

This is what's passing as AAA writing at the Bioware brand, what a fucking disgrace

Even trans people find this insulting.

great googly moogly...

 

[Bob Gray]

I'd think you of all people would respect that aliens breakdancing moves, Son.

 

[Madmick]

U seem way too angry/defensive with your response.

Defensive? Bad arguments irritate me, and that was a terrible argument.

Life isn't fair. Some of us are better at certain things compared to others from an individual to a gender respect. That is a fact of life.

When it comes to hard labor there is no denying the fact that men are genrerally better suited for the job even if a woman can do it. I am not some bleeding hard feminist wanker all about equal rights n blah blah blah.

Concession accepted. This was fun.

 

[ThulsaDooom]

It's 4.2, I think that speaks for itself...

User reviews complaining about anti-white male agendas and pro-gay agendas.....yeah, they definitely do speak for themselves. User reviews are good for products like headphones or a washing machine but total fucking dumpster fires when it comes to games. I'd wager a very large percentage of them don't even own the game.

Bioware still does have top tier talent working there like Patrick Weekes. I don't think old guards stay around long at game studios because of the crunch, the pressure and wanting to branch out into other genres and types of games. Jade Empire sucked anyways.

 

[Madmick]

User reviews complaining about anti-white male agendas and pro-gay agendas.....yeah, they definitely do speak for themselves. User reviews are good for products like headphones or a washing machine but total fucking dumpster fires when it comes to games. I'd wager a very large percentage of them don't even own the game.

Bioware still does have top tier talent working there like Patrick Weekes. I don't think old guards stay around long at game studios because of the crunch, the pressure and wanting to branch out into other genres and types of games. Jade Empire sucked anyways.

I've been saying for a good while that unless videogame websites (specifically Metacritic) don't get the bots and trolls and other garbage out of their "User" vote that IMDb is gonna swoop in and devour that huge chunk of pie: all the web traffic. One would have thought by now that corporate America would have figured it out; that we all seek two major collective opinions on our entertainment:

1. Critical Consensus
2. User Vote (i.e. the egalitarian vote)

What we don't seek out is tainted pseudo-political votes. If Metacritic was serious about this they would have rid their User Vote of anonymity a long time ago (like YouTube with their comment section). It doesn't even require a registration. Let their "real" Google identity accounts or Facebook accounts qualify like ESPN or any other website is doing these days.

So long as their vote remains anonymous it will suck because that's just the nature of our demographic. Clearly when you seek out a more balanced reflection of the mainstream with a source like IMDb, particularly because it has the resources and know-how, but isn't nearly as influential yet, and not tainted by these fucking crybabies who sabotage MC votes, you get more reliable numbers.

Well, even IMDb knows this game sucks balls:

• (9.6) Mass Effect 2
• (9.3) Mass Effect
  
• (9.2) Mass Effect 3
  
• (6.8) Mass Effect: Andromeda

The game fucking sucks, Thulsa. I doubt that has anything to do with SJW politics. Apparently there might be something to BioWare losing its touch. It happens all the time. Businesses that were well-managed suddenly become not-well-managed.

Or it could just be a dud. Even Spielberg has a few strikes from taking all those swings at the fences.

 

[RJ43]

I am personally finding it very hard to gauge the usefulness of reviews for this game in particular. You've got the ME fanboys who are going to say they love it. You've got the anti-SJWs saying it's the end of modern civilization, you've got others who just want to see the world burn and dog pile on negative press, you've got the progressives supporting it because it's got every acronym of sexuality represented....

I guess I'll stick with BotW until the smoke clears.

 

[GtehMVP]

I've been saying for a good while that unless videogame websites (specifically Metacritic) don't get the bots and trolls and other garbage out of their "User" vote that IMDb is gonna swoop in and devour that huge chunk of pie: all the web traffic. One would have thought by now that corporate America would have figured it out; that we all seek two major collective opinions on our entertainment:

1. Critical Consensus
2. User Vote (i.e. the egalitarian vote)

What we don't seek out is tainted pseudo-political votes. If Metacritic was serious about this they would have rid their User Vote of anonymity a long time ago (like YouTube with their comment section). It doesn't even require a registration. Let their "real" Google identity accounts or Facebook accounts qualify like ESPN or any other website is doing these days.

So long as their vote remains anonymous it will suck because that's just the nature of our demographic. Clearly when you seek out a more balanced reflection of the mainstream with a source like IMDb, particularly because it has the resources and know-how, but isn't nearly as influential yet, and not tainted by these fucking crybabies who sabotage MC votes, you get more reliable numbers.

Well, even IMDb knows this game sucks balls:

• (9.6) Mass Effect 2
• (9.3) Mass Effect
  
• (9.2) Mass Effect 3
  
• (6.8) Mass Effect: Andromeda

The game fucking sucks, Thulsa. I doubt that has anything to do with SJW politics. Apparently there might be something to BioWare losing its touch. It happens all the time. Businesses that were well-managed suddenly become not-well-managed.

Or it could just be a dud. Even Spielberg has a few strikes from taking all those swings at the fences.

We can't say Bioware has lost its touch, as MEA devs are only Bioware in name. I don't know who's involved in the Edmonton and Texas Bioware studios, but the Mtl team that made MEA are pretty much a new team, which shows in this train wreck.

I agree with you 100% though, metacritic has been a farce for some time now.

 

[ThulsaDooom]

The game fucking sucks, Thulsa. I doubt that has anything to do with SJW politics. Apparently there might be something to BioWare losing its touch. It happens all the time. Businesses that were well-managed suddenly become not-well-managed.

It doesn't suck but people are definitely entitled to their opinions. Breath of the Wild looks maddeningly dull and a joke technically for a 2017 release but I'd never say that game sucks. If people like it, that's awesome and I hope they have a lot of fun. It's simply not for me.

I didn't say the backlash or low reviews are due to the ignorant and completely misguided politics that have infested gaming over the last few years. Bioware has definitely been targeted by these cretins but also by their weirdly obsessive super fans over the years who take any sort of change in development or writing as an affront to their lives. I definitely agree with what you said about user reviews though.

Bioware has probably gone through a massive amount of personnel turnover throughout the years like every other big studio that has expanded into multiple studios. Their new IP being developed by the original studio will be the real test for them. On the other hand, people need to let go. Baldur's Gate and KOTOR came out a long, long time ago.

 

[Scerpi]

Holy el oh el...

She's no Liara or Miranda... lol

If the early videos are to be believed, this game has worse graffics than the 1st game from over 10 years ago.

Also, if I was Jayde Rossi... I'd be a little upset

 

[Scerpi]

Actually, it looks to me that Bioware modeled Ryder after Anita S.

 

[blaseblah]

I found this hugely informative. This is Jonathan Cooper, the lead animator for Mass Effect 1 and 2 on the facial animations debacle.

Spoiler

Jonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
First though; going after individual team members is not only despicable, but the culprits and choice of target revealed their true nature.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Just as we credit a team, not an individual, for a game's success, we should never single out one person for a team's failures.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
That said, animating an RPG is a really, really big undertaking - completely different from a game like Uncharted so comparisons are unfair.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Every encounter in Uncharted is unique & highly controlled because we create highly-authored 'wide' linear stories with bespoke animations.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Conversely, RPGs offer a magnitude more volume of content and importantly, player/story choice. It's simply a quantity vs quality tradeoff.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
In Mass Effect 1 we had over 8 hrs of facial performance. In Horizon Zero Dawn they had around 15. Player expectations have only grown.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
As such, designers (not animators) sequence pre-created animations together - like DJs with samples and tracks.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Here is the Frostbite cinematic conversation tool circa Dragon Age Inquisition. (Source: (link: http://www.frostbite.com/2014/08/creating-biowares-first-rpg-on-the-frostbite-engine/) frostbite.com/2014/08/creati…)




3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
The Witcher 3 added to this with randomly selected body gestures that could be regenerated to get better results.


Cinematic Dialogue In The Witcher 3gameanim.com


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Andromeda seems to have lowered the quality of it's base algorithm, resulting in the 'My face is tired' meme featuring nothing but lip-sync.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
This, presumably, was because they planned to hit every line by hand. But a 5-year dev cycle shows they underestimated this task.


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
(All this is exacerbated by us living in an era of share buttons and youtube, getting the lowest quality out to the widest audience.)


3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
Were I to design a conversation system now, I'd push for a workflow based on fast and accessible face & body capture rather than algorithms.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyacarson



3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
While it hasn't 100% proved this method, Horizon Zero Dawn's better scenes succeed due to a use of facial mocap.



3hJonathan Cooper‏ @GameAnim
The one positive to come out of all this is that AAA story-heavy games can't skimp on the animation quality with a systemic approach alone.

 

[Madmick]

It doesn't suck but people are definitely entitled to their opinions. Breath of the Wild looks maddeningly dull and a joke technically for a 2017 release but I'd never say that game sucks. If people like it, that's awesome and I hope they have a lot of fun. It's simply not for me.

Who would care if you did? You're entitled to that opinion, but this comparison is inappropriate and meaningless. Breath of the Wild is getting a 9.8 on IMDb and a 97 on Metacritic. It's one of the most acclaimed games of all time. It hasn't been poorly received.

 

[RJ43]

It doesn't suck but people are definitely entitled to their opinions. Breath of the Wild looks maddeningly dull and a joke technically for a 2017 release but I'd never say that game sucks. If people like it, that's awesome and I hope they have a lot of fun. It's simply not for me.

Zelda may not be your bag, and I totally get how you'd have that opinion on it's technical standing, but man that game is beautiful a lot of the time and I'm playing it on a freaking Wii U. I would strongly advise against judging that game's visuals and technical ability without giving it a solid hands on yourself. Believe me, I was not a BotW believe until I played it. It's legit and deserves the praise.

 

[CPA]

The complaints that everyone in the game isn't super attractive are so bizarre to me. All the people I work with aren't attractive. All the musicians I like aren't attractive.

 

[Madmick]

The complaints that everyone in the game isn't super attractive are so bizarre to me. All the people I work with aren't attractive. All the musicians I like aren't attractive.

Yet the actors and actresses you watch are almost all attractive, I'm sure. That's clearly what they were going for since all of the people they used as 3D models are absurdly attractive, and so were the characters in past Mass Effect games.

I loved early season of ER because they hired people to act who look like real workers in real ER's. It's part of what made that show so great. But there's a reason that entertainment deals in more physically attractive people, and it's clear what the intent is with Mass Effect.

So the only conclusion one can draw is that they lacked the technical skills (or budgeting acumen) to pull that off. It's a failure.

 

[Concrete]

This is still going?

 

[CPA]

Yet the actors and actresses you watch are almost all attractive, I'm sure. That's clearly what they were going for since all of the people they used as 3D models are absurdly attractive, and so were the characters in past Mass Effect games.

I loved early season of ER because they hired people to act who look like real workers in real ER's. It's part of what made that show so great. But there's a reason that entertainment deals in more physically attractive people, and it's clear what the intent is with Mass Effect.

So the only conclusion one can draw is that they lacked the technical skills (or budgeting acumen) to pull that off. It's a failure.

Is everything OK at work and at home? You come across as negative, argumentative, and spoiling for a fight lately.

 

[Madmick]

Is everything OK at work and at home?

Ad hominem masquerading as concern.

Second time you've tried spinning that wheel. Predictable. This is almost as funny as @SaiWa with his own implied ad hominem (i.e. "you seem defensive") after he wrote this about my friend:

I have a relative that's a male nurse and he loves it. The hours are long but it beats his previous job (GNC store manager). If your friend didn't like the ER department he could have moved to a different dept of the hospital. Or gone to a different hospital. Each hospital operates and are managed differently. There's bullshit and drama of its kind in every field of work. Maybe he had shitty coworkers or bosses? or maybe your friend couldn't hack it cause he's a bitch?... I mean unfair distribution of labor/tasks is something that I believe exist everywhere in every field...

U seem way too angry/defensive with your response.

Life isn't fair. Some of us are better at certain things compared to others from an individual to a gender respect. That is a fact of life.

When it comes to hard labor there is no denying the fact that men are genrerally better suited for the job even if a woman can do it. I am not some bleeding hard feminist wanker all about equal rights n blah blah blah.

At the same time your friend is a complete bitch for bailing out because he always got picked on. He entered a field that's dominated by women and couldn't handle it... booo hooo now he's a teacher aid.. what did those mean nurses make him carry? Boxes of syringes and bags of dirty diapers.. sounds like a hard life...

@blaseblah couldn't resist either:

You apparently know nothing about talking to women. They are some of the easiest people to get along with. Just be friendly and don't be a cunt. And don't bring up your bullshit political opinions around people who don't agree with them.

I remember when men used to talk about women who wouldn't fetch their coffee this way.


You are such spectacular hypocrites.

 

[CPA]

It's not real concern. I'm sorry to disappoint.

I was trying to crack a joke, but I'm either not funny or text on the internet isn't a rich enough medium,

I'm genuinely not always trying to argue, but my perception is that very often, lately, things seem to become a debate with you. You're one of the largest contributors to this forum. All I'm saying is that I've seen a shift in how you post and engage with people.

 

[Madmick]

It's not real concern. I'm sorry to disappoint.

Disappoint? If you worked a bit harder to comprehend the ideas and language being exchanged, here, you might have noticed that I just composed a post revealing how I saw through your hollow gesture.

I didn't need your help in divining your intent. You are transparent to me.