Mass Effect: Andromeda - Impressions @GI Show

The GI show shared their impression of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Blizzcon among other things.

Game Informer's Ben Hanson, Joe Juba, Suriel Vazquez, and Dan Tack share their exclusive impressions of seeing gameplay and playing BioWare's Mass Effect Andromeda before talking about Blizzcon's highlights (especially Sombra's introduction in Overwatch) and much more.

To jump to a particular point in the discussion, check out the time stamps below...

4:20 - Mass Effect Andromeda impressions
35:02 - Blizzcon 2016 impressions
39:20 - Overwatch's Sombra
46:50 - Owlboy
53:30 - NES Classic Edition
58:50 - Community emails

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More information.

So THAT's where they got the "sidequel" riddles from the devs… The arks leave BEFORE the 3rd game, but basically they are in travel for hundreds of years, so it's ultimately a continuation of the universe.

The Nomad looks cool, but I'll miss the Mako. The Mako was more of a tank whereas this is more of a buggy/sportscar.

Still don't like the jet pack. It's too HALO now, and I have no doubt there will be areas in game that require delicate skill and use of this system, which has always pissed me off in games. I don't like twitchy time sinks.

Have they mentioned VR support? What about old savegames-- do the events preceding game 2, right before the arks launch, have any bearing whatsoever?

I get that the 4 arks are filled with the 4 council races, but I don't understand why they completely redo the governmental organization that has worked so well on the Citadel instead of keeping the representatives, SPECTREs, etc to maintain continuity. If everything was just fine when they launched toward this new galaxy, why reinvent a whole new and untested system right before they leave for a 600-year journey? That seems a bit reckless to me.

ChaosTheory said:

I get that the 4 arks are filled with the 4 council races, but I don't understand why they completely redo the governmental organization that has worked so well on the Citadel instead of keeping the representatives, SPECTREs, etc to maintain continuity. If everything was just fine when they launched toward this new galaxy, why reinvent a whole new and untested system right before they leave for a 600-year journey? That seems a bit reckless to me.

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Huh? They're just flying there in arks. Once they settle in, communism shall flourish in Andromeda.

ChaosTheory said:

I get that the 4 arks are filled with the 4 council races, but I don't understand why they completely redo the governmental organization that has worked so well on the Citadel instead of keeping the representatives, SPECTREs, etc to maintain continuity. If everything was just fine when they launched toward this new galaxy, why reinvent a whole new and untested system right before they leave for a 600-year journey? That seems a bit reckless to me.

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Interesting.
Hard to understand without watching the vid.

To maintain continuity with what? The organization in the MW reflected an order of things the expedition cant take with them.

By the quotation, the travel (one way) takes 600 years. Exploring Andromeda: 300 years (for example) Return travel: 600 years. That is 1 500 years of discontinuity from the MW.
This without factoring in what is known to others: when the expedition returns, the MW no longer exists as it used to (Reapers completion)

It took the exceptional Cdt Sheppard to turn into the first human specter the MW knew.

Pushing an organization that reflects the balance of power in the MW would not be sustainable in an expedition toward Andromeda.

ChienAboyeur said:

Interesting.
Hard to understand without watching the vid.

To maintain continuity with what? The organization in the MW reflected an order of things the expedition cant take with them.

By the quotation, the travel (one way) takes 600 years. Exploring Andromeda: 300 years (for example) Return travel: 600 years. That is 1 500 years of discontinuity from the MW.
This without factoring in what is known to others: when the expedition returns, the MW no longer exists as it used to (Reapers completion)

It took the exceptional Cdt Sheppard to turn into the first human specter the MW knew.

Pushing an organization that reflects the balance of power in the MW would not be sustainable in an expedition toward Andromeda.

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As I understood it, they are scrapping the government that works in the pre-Reapers world and inventing a new system for the journey. I just don't see why they would do that. Knowing that they are basically re-starting the council races (basically, civilization) in Andromeda, you'd think they'd want those onboard to be familiar with how things work, organizationally, so that they can pass on this system when they get to the new world in 600 years-- which I assume they'd be cryo-frozen for. So it's not like they have to 'get along' locked in an ark for 600 years, since they'll basically wake up and start exploring/building when they get there.

It's as if the council basically said, "Despite thousands of years of history showing what systems work and what don't, we're going to assume that's all wrong and make some new shit up for this trip. Good luck!" **pushes launch button**

ChaosTheory said:

As I understood it, they are scrapping the government that works in the pre-Reapers world and inventing a new system for the journey.

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Where was that said? I don't remember reading anything about the Andromeda settlers governments so far, so I don't see how you can say they scrapped the systems they were used to.

ChaosTheory said:

As I understood it, they are scrapping the government that works in the pre-Reapers world and inventing a new system for the journey. I just don't see why they would do that. Knowing that they are basically re-starting the council races (basically, civilization) in Andromeda, you'd think they'd want those onboard to be familiar with how things work, organizationally, so that they can pass on this system when they get to the new world in 600 years-- which I assume they'd be cryo-frozen for. So it's not like they have to 'get along' locked in an ark for 600 years, since they'll basically wake up and start exploring/building when they get there.

It's as if the council basically said, "Despite thousands of years of history showing what systems work and what don't, we're going to assume that's all wrong and make some new shit up for this trip. Good luck!" **pushes launch button**

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Nobody is scrapping anything, this is an exploratory initiative, started by Humans and expanded to include the council races (there is an ARK for each).

This has nothing to do with reorganising government or anything like that.... not sure where you're picking that up from hombre

Details of the makeup of the most interesting ship in the expedition, The Nexus, are vague: but we know that the founder is on there along with Rydad (the N7 guy) and a bunch of Krogan, and a mix of MW races - it's the vanguard for the trip, setting up a beachhead for the AI ARKs to come.

It's quite a good premise if you think about it, it uses the best of the MW galaxy (the cool lore and races) and let's us explore a whole new galaxy without having to canonize an ending; thus leaving our choices in the trilogy in tact for headcanon.

LongMuckDong said:

It's quite a good premise if you think about it, it uses the best of the MW galaxy (the cool lore and races) and let's us explore a whole new galaxy without having to canonize an ending; thus leaving our choices in the trilogy in tact for headcanon.

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I'm not sure it's the best...it's like Bethesda moving TES to another planet ( but smaller degree, with ME focused on characters as much as the world).
No more seeing familiar places and people, what will happen to other races etc.
But it was either abandon it entirely, prequel, or restart of the series with what they could "salvage"...so imo, this was really the only alternative.