Mass Effect 5: 10 Perfect Ways Bioware Can Save The Franchise

4. Don't Outsource The Facial Animations

Want a reason why Andromeda's launch day facial animations looked so hilariously terrible? It came down to EA literally and actively telling Bioware's coders that facial animation was not a priority. You can check out the full report from Bioware staffers discussing the issue here, but sufficed to say, the big takeaway is that EA Bucharest were given the job of sorting the faces out, rather than keeping it in-house.

This practice apparently wasn't due to money, it was simply a case of EA telling those involved that things such as gunplay, vehicles etc. were more important than how characters conversed with one another. Liam Robertson (from the linked clip) mentions that Bioware staff “actively went out of their way to offer their services to do additional work on the human character assets, and were turned away."

Going forward the solution is simple: Develop your technology in-house, with a dedicated team that understand your engine from top to bottom. Bioware's engines have been shaky when it comes to conversations at the best of times, but Mass Effect 5 is going to need to have L.A. Noire-levels of realistic facial movements, just to leave all those Andromeda gifs in the dust.