Will EA and Bioware actually use MEA as a learning lesson?

Oodles of darkness in a story filled with destruction and your character fighting for your, and the Universe's survival is a stupid criticism. The tone and darkness fit what was going on at the time. You may not LIKE it, but I can't see how this would ever be a valid criticism. A lot of my friends played ME:3 and while many of them had complaints, I've NEVER heard this one before 0.0

Bioware's been linear since NWN with the sole exception of DA:O. They no longer do exploration games well, and you can tell this because the exploration in Andromeda was all manner of shit. ME3 has fewer RPG qualities than ME1 but more than ME2, so I would classify ME2 as more a corridor shooter than the last entry. If people complained after ME2, then they didn't listen for ME3 xD

I don't see how the dialogue wheel in ME3 was worse than the dialogue wheel in both ME1 and ME2. There were many complaints when they introduced the dialogue wheel, that the dialogue wheel itself would provide fewer options and less control, but that's not a new criticism specific to ME3. That's been a criticism since the dialogue wheel was introduced.

ME:A was filled with pointless sidequests. They didn't listen to you

The lack of choice and consequence though was a big problem with ME3, for sure.

Who's better than both of them.

I don't see what was wrong with either Kosta or Vega. (EDI I get, since we've seen that character way too often.) Can someone give me the Cliffs Notes version of the case against them?

Perhaps, but to learn what exactly? EA seems to have a knack for picking and choosing the lessons it wants to learn.

Worst character ever, doesn't help that he says the stupidest things possible in the first 30 minutes of the game. 

I'd take Vega and EDI over anyone in Adromeda, and I'm no fan of EDI

I was a little bummed we never got to see her AI nature discovered and have to deal with a panic on the Citadel because of "a strange unfettered AI" wandering the halls xD

Other than maybe Jacob, who is worse than Liam?

OT: Is this site loading insanely slow for anyone else?

Liara, EDI, Jack, Ashley kind of.  

Liara is an annoying character.  I think what makes her so bad is they shove her in your face constantly.  ME1 Ashley was good IMO.  ME3 Ashley was meh.  Liam just rubbed me the wrong way from the get go.  Those bad decisions he made on his loyalty mission also bugged the crap out of me. 

I know, I'll admit he seems to be a high risk high reward sort of character for the audience...intentionally...and I think he has his issues...he's not one of my favorites...but the thing about Liam is he basically tries to overcompensate for everything and eventually learns that he just has to 'let it go.'

You are consistent Colfoley. You're level-headed and you always saw the strengths of Andromeda and understood the weaknesses for what they were... a symptom of a troubled development. Goggles, Colfoley is not an apologist either. Colfoley is a writer and a well-versed student. Andromeda worked for him, like it worked for me at 1.05. I was able to see what Colfoley saw (the second sentence in this response) once the PS4 was fixed. I still saw the flaws and my OCD demanded correction which was never going to happen, except polishing. Once the polishing was done, 1.09 for me at least, is GOTY. BioWare is capable of making a great game and yes, it kicked ass with only 20 months of real development. A lot of the lower-level developers inhabit these forums. I seriously doubt their leads do, but one thing I learned from history with BioWare: Every successive title is better than the last on the current canvas. I'm in Colfoley's camp about Andromeda. It deserved better in my NOT SO HUMBLE opinion. Mass Effect trilogy on Unreal was incredible minus a total of 40 minutes worth of "cringe" or incredibly STUPID handling of the end. Andromeda: Frostbite. Montreal played to its strengths: Combat and Progression. Story telling was a result of the compressed schedule putting bits and pieces from all over the place to make a coherent, plausible story. It didn't always work and no one here on these forums has ever debated that. 

Sorry Goggles. This old Templar sees wisdom in Colfoley's words.