Curious about the complaints surrounding Andromeda.

Well, I'm very glad they stayed on with Andromeda. The assets are now on Frostbite and it's not like BioWare isn't involved in the evolution of the engine. They're making use of a beautiful canvas that has superior gameplay. It's a big canvas and filling it in has been a challenge. The same issue was in abundance in Inquisition. You know what I would be down for? Jade Empire 2 on Frostbite. It would play out nicely for all platforms. Just my thoughts on that. I would like to see a Mass Effect Battlefield with a Single-player storyline. Help Admiral Anderson defend Earth while Shepard is off having nightmares, gathering allies while checking out party favors, etc. Just saying. I know the haters would say, "Oh... here it is. This is the moment EA sucks the life out of BioWare." I say the opposite. "Here is a way to keep everyone involved working full-time and earning vacation." Am I off-base here?

I'll try to keep this from becoming an unreadable wall'o'text, but there are a few things I'd like to say regarding the "lighter tone" of ME:A in regards to the quips and other verbal shenanigans within the story. My experience certainly will not be the norm for most of you, and I can respect the fact that many of you will not have the same perspective on things as I.

I've said before in several threads that I am a combat veteran. I served in the US Army for 7 years, one of which was spent in Iraq. I saw a lot of dark shit, things that are completely out of the purview of this site, but the fact that they happened provide some context to what I'm about to say next.

The entire time I served in the military, there was a very palpable "gallows humor" displayed by most of the soldiers I served with, including myself. One liners, stupid quips and dumb ass references were common. During my tour in Iraq, you'd think that we'd be more serious, more intent on the mission itself. And we were. But the gallows humor and fuckery were even more pronounced. The environment we lived in during that time was SO intense, and SO life-or-death (without any hint of melodrama) that to avoid any attempt to defuse the tension would have driven us all insane. Anything we could do to get our minds off of the fact that the next time we went outside the walls of our compound could be our last, or that at any moment a mortar or rocket could land in our compound and end any one of us...yeah we took every opportunity to try to laugh a little or just be stupid.

Even when we weren't at war, serving in peace time, there was always the knowledge that at any moment the shit could hit the fan. The tension was MUCH less in peace time, but we always knew it could be a possibility. And so, we again did stupid shit and joked about inappropriate things or whatever. Whedon-esque "dialogue" ala Firefly is the NORM for soldiers. The tone of ME:A is MUCH more in keeping with real life interactions between soldiers than you might think. The overly serious tone of the MET actually bothered me on a fundamental level that I didn't understand until not that long ago. I appreciate that tone of story telling, and there were some really great moments in the MET. ME:A isn't anything close to award winning fiction, and you'll never hear me say that ME:A's writing is flawless, but the tone of the game (bad shit is going down, we need to figure out how to survive, but dammit I'm gonna joke and say stupid shit along the way at times) really resonated with me in a way the MET never did. I think the MET had the better MOMENTS (Mordin's loyalty mission in ME2 for example...still gives me chills) but ME:A had an overall better tone.

Just my opinion, based on my own experiences. I'm certainly not gonna try to change anyone's minds here, but maybe it'll give a different perspective for some people to think about.

Are you saying that there's bored, and then there's deployment bored?

Kudos for sharing, much appreciated.

I know where you're coming from but this is a game. There's no context for that kind of banter in the game. And I personally don't believe for one minute the ME:A writing team is staffed by combat vets or did extensive interviews with them to find out how they interacted in the field.

For example, in the Falklands a para was caught by an Argentine artillery barrage. His mate ran over to help him out.
The injured man said ' Oh my god, I've lost my leg!'
His mate pointed to his severed leg a few yards away and said 'No you haven't, it's over there!'.

Don't know if that's a soldier's tall tale or the truth but knowing British squaddies (and Brits in general) it certainly sounds plausible. But it wouldn't work in a game without a massive investment in quality writing to get you to the point where you could accept and appreciate it. It could work in, say, Band of Brothers, but not ME:A. Not for me anyway.

I still think it depends on the individual person. I have never been to war, thankfully, but I have been in life threating situations before and I have only become dead serious. 
I do not know how good of a comparison that is (probably not very, lol) but I've been camping on a mountain top at 3000 meters during the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced in my life, completely exposed lightning struck the ground mere 10 meters away from my tent for several hours and my tent with my friend and I inside was about to get blown off a cliff.
We absolutely expected to get hit by lightning and die at any moment. 
While my life was undoubtedly in grave danger for several hours I did not feel the urge for black humor or jokes and the conversations I had with my friend (we screamed because of the thunder and wind) during the storm were absolutely dead serious. 

There have been some other life or death situations and not even once did I feel the need to joke around. So I guess not everyone reacts the same to danger. I like to imagine its like with alcohol consumption, some people become funny, others aggressive while some become very serious and silent. 
.

I'm sure VanSinn will correct me if I'm wrong, but the impression I got was his entire point was that people constantly in this kind of situation develop gallows humour as a defence mechanism. You don't sound like you're struck by lightning/stuck up mountains every day of the week for months. I suspect if you were, you'd react differently.

I actually think the "this is a game" line supports the possible use of humor in any situation, since this is is meant to be a fun game... something people do as a diversion from the seriousness of the IRL situations they may find themselves in... including soldiers on deployment (who may or may not be engaging in gallows humor themselves).  I think it's a plus that this game does not take itself too seriously.  The tone works for me... I like it.  The tone also works VanSinn .

Arguments over the joke level in the game are ALL purely subjective.  Humor is something that IS by it's very nature, hit and miss.  What some people like as humor, other people invariably don't.  In the case of humor, the writing cannot be objectively said to be "bad" or "good."  It just sets a tone that appeals to some and not to others.

The online memes, in some respects, are similar... some people find them amusing, some don't.  I generally don't and I don't find using them to be professional when promoted by the online game reporters... but to say they are "objectively bad" or "objectively good" memes is really not feasible.

Yeah, if the Reapers schtick wasn't "destroy all advanced organic life" then I could fully believe The Remnant could be found in a previously unexplored pocket of the Milky Way. It doesn't mean I'm not incredibly curious about where all this goes, because I am and I certainly hope it does go somewhere. It just means that it feels a lot like we're back in the Milky Way.

So the problem isn't the approach, it's that Bio Montreal writers didn't have the chops to pull it off?

Was there?

I wouldn't know since I never buy a ticket for the hype train before any game is released. In short, I knew Andromeda was coming, but I never once watched or read what people had to say about it.