Not so Ground breaking

I wouldn't put too much stock in the idea of a game being "groundbreaking". After all, 2 and 3 aren't particularly groundbreaking either, though ME3's ending was certainly a....different change of pace.

Then they started making games for EA and alas we got another "by the numbers" developer. They chase the latest fad instead of pushing the boundaries. The reason they could do that in the past was exactly because EA had no mandates for them. EA is running a biz. They see where the safest bets are and go for that. Mass Effect had "Gears of War potential" and Dragon Age had "hack and slash potential" until after DA2 when Skyrim had shipped so DA3 had "Skyrim potential" and Andromeda had some "Destiny potential".

That's how they operate. It's the thing BioWare would never admit because they're under NDA and trade secrets but it's been obvious for years I think.

You're not seriously suggesting Vetra's conventionally attractive? I'm not into Turians that way personally. Vetra's cool and all as a character but I'm not into romancing her in the slightest. I like that she's a an option though. I can't really speak for the male companions in the romance department considering it doesn't interest me. 

I prefer "fun" and "enjoyable" over "groundbreaking". Andromeda delivered. the best romance in the game is with a male character. He is not a companion. But I am okay with that, because it makes for player-driven pacing of the relationship, and really cool RP.

You may be right about the groundbreaking thing. It's not limited to video games by any means. Someone experiments until they hit on what works. Then they drive it into the ground. And if someone else has success they want to emulate it. I admit, I love driving the Nomad at high speed through places like Kadara. It's kind of fun and I definitely couldn't do it in a closed world. Still, I think some of the quests could be streamlined more. Trying to be more like DAI in that regard isn't a good thing. Not aware of too many people who wanted to do some crazy jumps to get a shard or find tiles scattered across the world that somehow all fit together.

The "Tasks" in MEA could have largely been left by the wayside, even if I'm aware that they're there as setting pieces rather than significant to the storyline. I mean, when the map is that big there's a desire to fill it with stuff to do. Obvious answer is to reduce the map size and make the significant quests longer instead. Of course, you'd have to allow for saves because if the quest is too long and you die near the end of it without the ability to save it gets frustrating. Shades of ME1 where we didn't get enough autosaves but at least you could manually save if you wanted to.

I say go to indies if you want something different, bioware lost their spirit after ME1 and DA:O. DA still has some interesting things going on but that is about it.

Give me fat, short, skinny, tall, three-breasts, etc... I don't care. Bioware's job is to sell the character as credible. It fell flat a few times in Andromeda and Inquisition, but so did a few characters from previous titles. Great voice acting, brilliant dialogue and synced animations is what sells a character for me. However, still no alien booty for me. I just know that being a medic and as a human, we're more a threat to them than they are to us. Sovereign reminded us of that in our first video chat. 

Andromeda was the first game where I enjoyed jumping puzzles. I spent a terrible week in SWTOR getting all datacrons before a certain patch, and Inquisition pathfinding is on the very top of of the list of things I dislike about it, but in Andromeda, with the jet packs and dodges, jumping around is fun. No latency either, or having to drive back accross half Corellia because you missed the moving frame twenty meters below in a precise landing like in SWTOR.... on my second jump, SWTOR landed me on it, but did not move the toon with the frame. I had my character standing on air, screaming how unfair life is.  Then i suicided him, drove across Corellia and waited for some ten minutes for the frame to get back in position for the jump....

If you can sort through it all. For every rare great Indie title, there are a dozen asset-flips coming from the likes of Digital Homicide and Dentola Studios. You have to do research on titles and I do that by going to YouTubers that actually play these indie games. 

MEA would have been much more "ground breaking" if it had been much less of the MW and much more of Andromeda.  Instead they gave us Kadara which was safe, and the Angara on 3 different worlds and for the most part they were friendly.  In fact, in the whole Helius cluster there is only one native sentient species.  Bioware did provide a useless black hole.  "Ground Breaking" would have been being seen as the hostile alien, breaking down the barriers and building relationships.  Instead, you save the Moshae and everything is ducky dandy.

Agreed.  I would have loved to have Bain Masini as a companion or a romantic option, or both.

I'm sure EA could do just fine off of shooters and sports games. They have a monopoly on sports games and now they have Star Wars.