It's disappointing, but not a surprise that ME:A is dogged in 2017 awards.

Oh look, a sheep who refuses to read and learn for themselves. Now I know what little value to apply to your opinion from now on.

I can agree with some of this, but not with gameplay. MEA's gameplay is amazing. It can stand alongside any other game out there in this department. They did a great job designing gameplay.


Concerning the OP, getting "dogged" is not the same as getting ignored. Can you imagine the reaction if the most panned game of 2017 won awards? It would've been a bizarre situation. I like MEA well enough, but it did nothing that would earn an award.

Yeah, it does. Division means, EA is entitled to slap the label Bioware over any studio and game that strikes their fancy. Bioware isn't an independent developer that only looks for a publisher and happens to stumble over EA.

Has that actually never happened? I'd be surprised... some shows get canceled because viewers didn't reach high enough levels even though critics loved them, and movies that didn't do super well financially win Oscars also. Emmys and other awards tend to go with critics, which sometimes 'agree' with sales and other times don't. That's not really relevant to the convo I guess, but I could see a game that didn't technically bring in enough sales to continue DLC still winning games awards if it had been heralded by critics. The problem is that MEA's lukewarm sales were partly the result of critics being lukewarm on the game....

Yep, same here.

I would doubt it.  I'm pretty sure that a show's viewership has to be above a certain level just to be nominated.  So a show that people weren't watching and was in danger of being canceled wouldn't even be eligible for an Emmy nomination.  I could see a movie winning an Oscar even though not that many people saw it, or even heard of it though.

But to me, video game awards follow Emmys more than Oscars.  I think they go with what was popular among gamers, the people logging onto their sites, buying their magazines, etc.  You really don't see magazines or video game sites saying my game of the year is this little Indie game, no one has really heard of it or played it, but I thought it was a diamond in the rough.  They may recommend you go try it out, but those games don't sweep GOTY Awards.

To an extent I agree that EA gave far too little post release support, pulling up the drawbridge as soon as the bad reviews hit. They gave up far too easily, and even some of their own staff seemed to think that as I remember an interview some months later where an EA spokesmen finally did muster a fairly spirited defence of the game without trying to say it was fantastic or anything.

I do however think that Bioware are mostly responsible this time. Their team was given a chance and you have to produce. The direction of where they were going with the game was flawed and correcting that error proved to be a very cosly blunder to fix. The story, characters and writing are also notably below the standard we should be able to expect. The bare bones of a good story and characters are there, but it lacks the special something to make it come alive.

Which is frustrating because when it does happen such as in parts of the Habitat 7 opening, Liam and Drack's loyalty missions etc, you can see there was the potential for a much more engaging game which wasn't tapped often enough. For me, the actual gameplay carries this game where the story and characters too often fail to match it. And that's never an ideal situation for a Bioware rpg, because most people will judge it *solely* on the characters and story. It had its moments for sure, but nowhere near enough of them.

It wasn't bad. It bothered me that at times when I pushed a button wanting Shepard to get behind cover, he/she jumps over the cover. And the forever run. The only good thing about that is it made playing through ME3 quicker

MEA gameplay was alright. I liked using the jetpack to move side to side to avoid enemy fire. What I didn't like is the removal of the power wheel. 

True, basically deluding if one doesnt understand it really improved.

Well true, when I first saw the L1+R1 for the 2nd power ( I think) I was like wth are they thinking, thats not a good default.

all i know is that i don't know enough about ME:A's production to assign blame.

part of the problem was that the A-team was working on Anthem, the B-team Battlefront II (huh, A = anthem, B = battlefront), and we had the C-team... or perhaps we should call it the M-team working on ME:A.

then we have frostbite... that's a whole different problem. a new engine being used by a studio that hasn't gotten used to it yet... an engine that is awkward to use and handle, and isn't designed to handle this setup at all, and has to be continuously jury rigged to function properly.

andromeda went through 2-3 project leads, and just as many design shifts...

then the lackluster management, or the masterful mismanagement... however you wish to phrase that.

and that's just for starters.

honestly, i'm actually surprised it was even playable at launch, given the production issues.

---edit typo

Oh crap I didnt realize its a mandatory default .. Yeah I remember seeing some mods for ME trilogy too for gamepads. *sigh*