BioWare's released the patch notes for Mass Effect: Andromeda's Patch 1.06, likely the first of several meant to address issues pervasive since the game's launch in late March. Patch 1.06 may not at first seem as substantial as many Mass Effect: Andromeda fans would like, but it does cover a lot of important ground. Primarily the patch addresses dozens of significant bugs and errors, but likely of more interest is BioWare's continued effort to improve in-game cinematics.

Exactly which cinematics have been adjusted in Mass Effect: Andromeda, or how they've been adjusted, will be left for players to discover on their own. All that BioWare says on the matter is this:

"In this upcoming patch, we continued to improve our cinematic scenes, particularly in the opening hours of the game."

It's likely that BioWare's referring to several of the cinematics in Mass Effect: Andromeda that grew into memes just hours after the game's launch. Some of those cinematics may include Ryder waking from cryo-sleep, Ryder's introductions to the main staff of the Nexus, and perhaps the asari squadmate Peebee's introduction on the planet Eos. Perhaps BioWare's priorities lie elsewhere, but those scenes would be a good start if the developer wanted to show fans it was delivering on expectations.

As important as the cinematic changes may be in Mass Effect: Andromeda, there are some key bug fixes in Patch 1.06 that should be immediately noticeable to many players. Here are a few key fixes that players have been asking for since launch:

  • Fixed bug causing SAM to repeatedly tell Ryder they had received new email.
  • Dialogue options no longer appear "greyed out" if a character has more to say.
  • Fixed interaction with datapad in the Search for the Remnant Drive Core mission.
  • Taking the left path in the Havarl dungeon will not block progression on Remnant Scanner mission.

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There are several more bug fixes for issues that broke various side-quests in Mass Effect: Andromeda, or bugs that were otherwise were just annoying and glaring. Other changes were important to storytelling that somehow just slipped through Q&A, such as Ryder being allowed to romance both Cora and Peebee, or both Vetra and Peebee in a single playthrough. Other changes are simply for quality of life,  like having an increased number of autosaves, or difficulty being balanced better at higher difficulties. BioWare's hit as many problem areas as possible in Patch 1.06.

Patch 1.06, however, is not the patch that will include some of the content additions that BioWare previous dedicated themselves to. Those include additional romance options, as well as visual updates in general for certain characters. BioWare will also address multiplayer balance in Patch 1.06, but new content continues to be further down the pipeline. As BioWare showed with Mass Effect 3, the company will focus on addressing issues with the game before moving on.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Patch 1.06 should arrive within the coming weeks.

Source: BioWare