[Luis Dias]

I won't pre order this. Sorry. Too many bad vibes.

I'm sure it will be somewhat "alright" and I'm sure I'll play it. I'm 100% sure, actually. But I don't know, I'm getting really bad vibes from all the interviews and written pieces... and all the videos about it. I just don't feel the game.

[666maslo666]

There is a way to have dense asteroid fields and realism - planetary rings. As a bonus you get beautiful background for free.

[SkycladGuardian]

Not even planetary rings are that dense.
Trailer looks nice though. Might buy it on a sale with all DLCs/expansions. But I really should work on my ~150 games backlog...

[666maslo666]

Not even planetary rings are that dense.

Interesting, do you have a source?

[LaineyBugsDaddy]

Yeah, every high resolution NASA photo of Saturn's rings ever. Try doing a little of your own homework, lazyass.

[Azrael15]

Andromeda is on track to looking like Bioware's worst release at best and an absolute trainwreck at worst. It looks like the most cynical of cynical cashgrabs ever since Hudson and Walters blew up the ME money train with the ending of ME3. There's just nothing here that looks interesting, particularly when compared to all the RPGs that've come out since ME3 was released. Andromeda looks like a rehash of everything that got burnt down by the end of ME3, set in a 'new galaxy' (that's already populated with all your favorite species!) so that developer and publisher can ignore one of the biggest debacles in gaming history.

It's a Bioware game, so, it's going to get glowing reviews and heaps of fan praise but, honestly, nothing released about this game so far has been exciting and their marketing strategy (two minutes at this Nvidia show, wow, let's talk that up for over a week, now, look at our voice actors being QUIRKY) is bizarre to say the least.

[Luis Dias]

That's harsh. Mass Effect 3 was an astounding game, with problems. The biggest wasn't even the ending, but the overall grimdark tone. I have a few more complaints, but overall? If that's a failure, I want more failures.

I do have a bad feeling about Andromeda.

[Azrael15]

That's harsh. Mass Effect 3 was an astounding game, with problems. The biggest wasn't even the ending, but the overall grimdark tone. I have a few more complaints, but overall? If that's a failure, I want more failures.

I do have a bad feeling about Andromeda.

You are correct. The ending is just the biggest, most obvious problem (when I called ME3 a debacle, I meant specifically the ending and the response to it - the rest of ME3 is just kind of middling). A much more pervasive problem is the tone which snaps between anime ninjas and apocalyptic space battleships at a pretty frantic pace.

[Luis Dias]

Well. Again, I disagree. I have no qualms with anime ninjas and space battleships. If anything, anime has proven these things are awesome, and Kai Leng was ok-ish. At worst, he was forgettable.

The real problem in ME3 is a constant, dim, unwavering sense of grimness and darkness and emo self-pity and self-congratulatory bull**** that pervades the entire story. "Oh I can't even imagine how you must feel" was probably said a 100 times. "Only you can do it Shepard, I know it" probably a 50. And I'm not even exaggerating here. Monotonic.

ME1 had mechanical issues, but it was a good ride in terms of surfing through different tones and emotions. You'd go from "Ok, this is weird what is happening here" to "We're being framed!!" to "I'm a Spectre! I'm badass!!" to "We've got to find this guy now, detective hat" to "I'm bummed out we're gagged in the citadel" to "We're coming for you Saren!" etc., etc.

ME3 was just "We are guaranteed to be dead but we have to fight no matter what... this is so sad" for 30 goddamned hours. It's tiresome. And it creeps on you till the end. And then the end is an anti-climax, and people just went bat**** insane.

[Phantom Hoover]

The Real Problem With ME3 was that after me2's completely insane, cackhanded mishandling of the macroplot the series was effectively a dead man walking, particularly as the idiots responsible were still in charge of the plot

tune in next week for the next completely different edition of The Real Problem With ME3

[General Battuta]

Mass Effect 2 saved the series from ME1's **** gameplay and dull characters while absolutely damning the series through the annihilation of ME1's strong macroplot and fantastic ending.

I think ME3 had the best gameplay and two solid to great arc payoffs.

[General Battuta]

ME1 squadmates:

Racism
Headache Carth
Protheans!!!
Chicken Foot Nerd
Garrus Minus Garrus

Wrex was ok

[Grizzly]

I think ME3 had the best gameplay and two solid to great arc payoffs.

Which ones in particular? I am partial to Tuchanka, but I can't immediately think of another arc in ME3 that comes close to that (that's not a slight, I just really, really love Tuchanka).

[General Battuta]

Tuchanka is miles away the best. I was gonna call the Geth/Quarian one solid, but I remember being annoyed at how it walked back the Geth development in ME2.

[Phantom Hoover]

Tuchanka was apparently written by people unaware of how Mordin's ME2 loyalty quest ended so there's clearly a trend there.

[Grizzly]

In what way exactly? Yeah, Mordin is rather adamant in how he has assessed Krogan culture as intrinsically violent by using a calculator in ME2, but there's plenty of things that could have changed his mind.

Like surviving a suicide mission.

[Luis Dias]

Mordin does seem to make a wild 180 turn there. Never really that bothered by it, because once he concludes something, he's 200% on board with it, which is what is core to his character. Also, you can actually prevent his death by killing Wrex and Eve first, and convince him the Dalatrass' sabotage is the right idea, which he will actually agree with. So, there.

---

So if you go back and see the original Mass Effect trailer, it's hilarious. So over the top. Check it out:

But you know what? It tells you what you're in for. It tells you what you should expect. What kind of story it is, what kind of side stories it will tell. It slides information on how the game behaves very efficiently and tries to drown you with the kind of emotions that you should expect by playing the game. By december 2011, Bioware had released its ME3 trailer, and it was awesome. I was sold. Couldn't wait to play it. e: it was actually on 2010.

Now, what does Andromeda want to say? What is it all about? What story is it? I'm begging to be sold here, but so far, nothing. Zilch. And that's a bit worrying.

[Scotty]

I enjoyed ME1 when I first played it (and only when I first played it, god those mechanics).
I enjoyed ME2 a whole lot except for what shape the final boss had.
I enjoyed ME3 a whole lot.

I am probably going to enjoy ME:A a whole lot unless it is abominably bad.  Bioware is generally pretty good at making games that are not abominably bad.

[Scourge of Ages]

So if you go back and see the original Mass Effect trailer, it's hilarious. So over the top. Check it out:worrying.

Thanks trailer, way to spoil the actual ending of the game.

[Col.Hornet]

Tuchanka was apparently written by people unaware of how Mordin's ME2 loyalty quest ended so there's clearly a trend there.

Nope.
Mordin mentioned it at least a couple of times why did he decide to cure the Krogan despite his previous goals. Add to it a salarian ability to process the ideas and making decisions at ultra speed and there is nothing strange about it.

What was a failure in ME3's plot was completely broken "hero's journey" scheme in the last 30 minutes of the game. Introducing a sh**tones of new unknowns in the moment of climax and forcing us to make decisions based on said unknowns. Leviathan DLC doesn't help much here. This devastated the perception of the whole game even more then shifting the original idea towards organics vs. synthetics bull****. If not for the Extended Cut we would have been left without any conclusions at all.

However, I completely don't get the people who are whine "uwww, this will be the worst thing in BW's history, hurrrr durrr". Going to Andromeda is a totally fresh start for a new story (and, let's be honest, the only way to avoid the mess they made with post ME3 timeline). I will judge it when I get the final product.