EA Boss Says Mass Effect: Andromeda Got Too Much Criticism, Franchise Could Return

 I don't see how that would be an issue. In an MEA2 the colonization problem would be solved anyway, and the details of how it worked or didn't work would be irrelevant. If that stuff bothers a player even though it never comes up, then it'll bother him regardless of what the devs do and the franchise really is dead for him.

Not to mention some planets are compromised by environmental hazards that are only cleared up by the Pathfinder's activation of the Remnant vault.  Not really much of a comparison in terms of circumstance betweem DA:I and ME:A

And? Does that prevent the so called outlaws from having a party on Kadara? Does the heat do anything to the Krogans or the cold to the Angarans? Obviously there for quite some time. And I'm not even talking about bullshit like Advent and a bunch of outlaws winning the envrionmental lottery, which still doesn't say how they could brave the radition to show up near your outpost.

It's plothole bull - all of it.

OK, it clearly bothered you

Ryder?  Shoulda put her in charge of the whole Andromeda Initiative!

The bugs and poor animations didn't really bother me that much, it's pretty much a given with a Bioware game, but the story, characters, and dialogue are what gave the OT it's fame.  It certainly wasn't the combat.  With MEA those core features were put on life support so they could work on open worlds and combat.  Then when they couldn't get it to work right, they scrapped it and put it out the door anyway.  But yes, it's the fans fault for expecting a game with Mass Effect in the title to be a Mass Effect game....

That's what I got though I also knew what I was getting.

I Morrowind not long ago, I hate the combat though, so I had to download a mod.

As far as Morrowind is concerned, you also have to look at the time it came out. The concept was pretty novel back then and I can remember how positivily overwhelmed I was by the world that unfolded before my eyes. The weather, the day/night cycle, the vastness of the landscape.

It's easy to see the weaknesses of it today, with todays knowledge and technology. The combat, the skillsets that were easily exploited. The largely static NPCs that had no life cycle. Btw, one of my major points of criticism as far as Bioware open worlds are concerned. They're still stuck with that concept that was acceptable in 2002 but not really in this day and age.

I'm trying to figure out how these (ostensibly) rational, discerning folks ever bought into ME in the first place. In the first five minutes of the very first game, I was presented with a background so preposterous that I had to step away for a bit to try to talk myself into accepting it. I very nearly shut it down and walked away permanently, and likely would have were it not for the fact that I'd just purchased the entire trilogy.

This is what I was expected to buy into:

2147: Trace amounts of element zero are discovered on Mars
2148: Humanity discovers a cache of Prothean technology on Mars, quickly explores the science of mass effect fields, invents FTL travel, and starts detailed exploration of the Sol system. My, those humans are not only extraordinarily clever, but also have some pretty amazing manufacturing/production facilities!
2149: Humans discover that one of Pluto's moons (Charon) is actually dormant technology encased in ice. They thaw the bugger out, figure out how to activate and use it, and launch a team of explorers through it to the Arcturus relay. They conclude that these relays are actually part of a much bigger network.
Also that year: The Systems Alliance charter is signed by the 18 largest nations on earth, which will is to be the military and exploratory spearhead for humanity. How things have changed - it takes longer than that for Congress to pass a bill or lawsuits to make their way through court systems.
2150: Humanity begins the first surveys for colonization prospects outside the Sol system, and discovers Terra Nova.
2151: Humanity begins constructing a massive military fleet and space station at Arcturus, the nexus of several key mass relays, even though they have yet to encounter another intelligent spacefaring race. Apparently, they'd found adequate sources for eezo and figured out how to extract it by then.
Also that year: An accident at Singapore International Spaceport exposes hundreds of humans to dust-form element zero. Roughly 30% of the children born in Singapore after element zero exposure suffer from cancerous growths. Some of them will become the first human biotics.
2152: Colonies are established on Demeter, Eden Prime, and Terra Nova. I wonder how much of the fleet they started constructing last year are completed, staffed, and deployed to protect these new colonies...
2154: Shepard is born. Also, another accident exposing humans to eezo occurs in an unspecified location, probably to support a biotic Shepard.
2155: The Systems Alliance moves into completed parts of Arcturus Station. It took 4 years from the time construction started until they could occupy completed portions. I wonder how they're coming along with the fleet buildout?
2156: Arcturus Station is formally inaugurated. Also, some eezo exposed 5-year-olds start to exhibit telekinetic powers.
2157: First Contact War - I hope that fleet they started building 6 years ago is fully operational.  Humanity introduced to the Citadel Council and greater galactic community. Also, Cerberus is founded and publishes its manifesto.
2162: Arcturus Station is complete.

What I find so sad about the ludicrous timeline they established is that it was so completely unnecessary.  They could have made the dates anything else more reasonable, and it would have been much easier to accept.  They did do a pretty good job of signaling how much suspension of disbelief would be required to make it through the series, however.

I won't mention the beacon other than to say that that scene is when I realized that Shepard isn't really my character, but BioWare's.

I will mention that I found it ridiculous that my squad was able to walk onto the Citadel fully armed.  They have scanning technology that can identify individuals, but allow anyone (including criminals) to walk onto the Citadel with large amounts of firepower?  Yeah, it's a shooter after all, and - gameplay.  Oh, and there's a 50,000+ year old plant on Feros capable of controlling people and spitting out fully armed asari clones that managed to absorb the cultural code (cipher) of the ancient protheans through its roots from their decomposing bodies.  This cipher was somehow transmitted to the original asari the thorian had swallowed (yet she somehow survived) who can now mentally transfer it to Shepard.  Alrighty then.

Want to talk plotholes? Okay, let's go.

The Citadel Council convicts Saren and identifies Benezia based on a recorded message supposedly captured from a geth, while rejecting info about reapers from the same source.

Saren goes through this multi-step process that looks like this:

• Obtain intel from multiple beacons. (Somehow he knew where they were. He did not get their location from Sovereign; if the reapers knew of them, they would have been destroyed.)
• Obtain cipher from thorian to interpret beacons. (Again, how could Saren have known the thorian had the cipher?)
• Extract location of Mu relay from (extinct) rachni. (Why didn't Sovereign tell him what he needed to know about the relay system and location of Ilos?)
• Develop genophage cure which somehow gives him an army of full grown krogan (Later we learn that it had to be Mordin - someone else might have gotten it wrong.)
• Why Saren ever needed an army or the conduit is pretty sketchy. As a Spectre, he could have walked onto the Citadel to operate the console at any time - though I can see a use for the geth fleet as fodder to protect Sovereign.

My point is not to tear down the trilogy - it was an amazing ride and incredibly fun - but it always stretched the boundaries of disbelief, made plentiful use of mcguffins and deus ex machinas, and asked players to swallow plotholes galore. I see no legitimate reason why Andromeda should be expected to meet more stringent standards.

But humanity is special, regardless of how long they've been part of the galactic community. humanity #1