Annihilation

Sorry, but it won't . Such things never get posted up if you're self-aware of it, you have to pretend to not expect it to appear and then it will. As such, you've delayed it. For shame.

I knew it would be about the novel, but I was kind of hoping this thread was about the awesome Biotic skill. Lost amidst all the criticism were the good things MEA did, like its great gameplay. Anyone else love the Annihilation skill? Slowly disassembling nearby foes on the molecular level; watching loose items and battle debris float around you; detonating up close and personal explosions-- great power.

Ah yes I used that power as well. It was nice making enemies float and bugs splat.

Looks like the book has a cover now, on Amazon, but it says it's coming out Sept 4, which is a few months later than it had previously been listed.

Visually it looks so much cooler in ME3 (MP) imo. Removing that dark stink effect & replacing it with the blue circle marker on the ground makes it more game-y/functional less mystical and alluring. I liked the unpredictability of not knowing if a target was in range until point blank and having to rely on your judgement it added a bit of challenge on the higher difficulties (i.e. 3 platinum phantoms in cqc). To me without Warp/Reave/DC and Warp Ammo Biotic characters and biotic gunplay is so much less appealing even with Annihilation Field and biotic explosions just don't look or feel as satisfying in ME:A.  I don't know if it's the art style or the engine but biotics just don't feel right in this game.

The only 2 improvements they made to biotics were the added control over pull and throw but literally everything else is worse, they removed so much more than they added (Cluster Grenades, Dark Sphere, Stasis, Smash, Lash, etc.) that the trivial improvements don't hold much water to me. Backlash and Lance were so meh. Nova felt floaty and weird.

As for the book I'll pick it up next month as it might be the last piece of Mass Effect material we ever get.

I always preferred Throw builds to the traditional Asari Adept /Kineticist Lance-barrier exploit builds in MEA SP/MP as they were more durable and the recharge speed was practically the same with a bit of ingenuity without tanking your shields. Singularity looks more impressive sure but the other powers look barely any better than on Unreal 3. The biotic explosions themselves are very subdued in comparison to ME3 which was an intentional design choice which I don't care for. I find aiming and the cover system in ME:A clunky as hell. The jump jet has blinded a lot of people, the variety and quality of combat animations, weapon sounds, etc. has regressed since Unreal Engine 3 & ME3MP if anything. I've played both extensively and in my opinion Mass Effect 3 Platinum mode in particular is still by far the most challenging and satisfying gameplay experience in the series due to the variety of enemy tactics, type of attacks and units, hectic pace, tight map design, shield gating and combo mechanics in ME3 which makes biotic gameplay more thoughtful improved still by the ingenious use of power synergies between diverse range of different kits which is no where near as pronounced anymore and the crippling lack of variety in power loadouts significantly hampers the lasting appeal of me:a for me. The core strength of ME3 was in it's post release support so I appreciate it's not a far comparison but I find it odd that somebody who likes biotic gameplay would advocate for ME:A over ME3 when it's missing about 90% of the biotic powers from the last game.

ME:A has almost non of the exciting biotic powers / combinations that make Biotics entertaining for me personally. Take away reave, cluster grenades, warp, dark channel, stasis, dark sphere, lash, smash, etc. from the toolbox and those that we have left while adequate and workmen-like are lacking star quality. Add in just a couple of those mentioned and the gameplay possibilities expand exponentially. It's like adding Ronaldo to an average football team suddenly the average players start to look a whole lot better.