What are your too ***SPICY*** to handle hot takes of the trilogy?

After Thane's loyalty mission with his son. My overwhelming desire from that point on was hoping we would get a C-Sec Game, in the same vein as LA Noir. Just have an entire long running spin off series that takes place on the Citadel, working the beat in the wards. After they toyed with the Speeder cars in Shadow Broker I actually wanted it even more, thinking "oh shit, they can give us police chases!"

The Lancer is the best gun in the franchise. Fight me.

I will, if you use a Lancer.

I love this idea as well. I'd want something that is "open world", a bit like the old game Freelancer or something. A sandbox to play in where you mostly make your own story but all progression paths eventually lead to some sort of main conflict, perhaps. I had the idea once for a game where you'd play as Council Spectre sent to an unruly part of space with a specific objective to complete but total freedom in how you'd go about it. One outcome could be as well that, if say you took over pirate gangs or mercenary companies that you could choose to betray the Council and set yourself up as the ruler of that portion of the space. Of-course, then you'd have to kill the Council Spectre Squad sent to kill you.

Or maybe something like the old X-COM games; you build bases for your merc company, fulfill contracts by beating the competition or being the best equipped, or killing the competition, and gradually expand your mercenary empire.

Eh, as a currently former fan of the GTA franchise, I can’t say that GTA V’s profitability is something even worth caring about anymore. For all the fuck-tons of money it made Rockstar and their overlords at Take-Two, it hasn’t translated into more singleplayer content since 20-fuckin’-13. Now GTA is more synonymous with shark cards and whatever dumb shit they added to online to further aid in open world griefing or milking whales. 

That being said, I wouldn’t want BioWare attempting the kind of tone GTA typically goes for. For the most part, it’s a game geared more towards fucking about with the sandbox than any serious investment with its character content, since it’s primarily a comedy that smacks of over the top cynicism. Would it make a lot of money? Who the heck knows. All I know is that I’d probably not touch it, because we already have GTA. 

To be fair, his point was simply how "successful" GTA is, in response to Hanko dismissing something as a "failure" simply because they don't like it. I don't think his point was really calculating for quality, or consumer friendliness or anything like that. And in that regard he is right. GTA V is unfortunately the most "successful" thing in the history of entertainment. 

You're right about everything you said though. Rockstar outright promised people single player DLCs, and never did it, and no one noticed or cared overall sadly. You're also right about the ridiculous tone of GTA V, it's kinda bonkers. That's why personally, GTA IV is the best GTA, and frankly on my best of all time list. The tone of the work is deadly serious and soul crushingly cynical, but it makes sense because it was made, and takes place during the Recession when everyone basically felt super cynical. 

I'm not going to crit the money making aspect because Bio does the same shit with lootboxes in every game they've made since ME3. They're just unsuccessful at it.

And again, I don't see something like this proposed idea of an open world Mercenary game set before or during the Trilogy as much of a tone shift given the presentation of the galaxy in the MET from the get go with us starting our adventure in places like Chora's Den and Shaira's whorehouse.

A cynical albiet comedic tone would be fine. It's not like a comedic tone is new. They tried it in MEA, it was just childish and unfunny (mAbYe CuZ i ShOt HiM iN tHe FaCe), and dissonant with what should have been the more serious survival/colonization story they were attempting to tell.

I don't actually think the current Bio could pull it off though, it'd probably just be unfunny dark comedy rather than unfunny lighthearted comedy.

They'd need to hand the IP to another EA studio. Probably Respawn.

To be fair my humor is VERY subtle. Easily could be mistaken for seriousness.

4 was definitely the height of the franchise, but it's not as if 5 is bad. It's still an excellent SP game, and while the online offering isn't my thing, it's well designed and does what it's supposed to. I can acknowledge that it definitely isn't a failure at anything.

Rocktstar's other franchises also haven't gone to shit, quite the opposite (e.g. RDR2), so if you are bored of GTA not getting SP content they have other stuff on offer.

In an alternate universe I'd love for Anthem to be making a shit zillion dollars off of rubes buying online trinkets, while ME/DA games are winning GOTY awards (as both ME2 and DAI managed), but I don't think that sort of thing is ever gonna happen for the studio again. They're lucky just to turn a profit within a year off the next entry at this point.

Personally, I could do with less cynical storytelling and characters. That hack-bro filmmaker Zack Snyder used it to rape the DCEU, after all. I’d rather BioWare try and play it straight, and focus on its characters and working to make them resonant. Whether or not they’ve got it in them to do anything good is a separate matter, but I’d prefer they leave cynicism at the door. That shit’s absolutely saturated the media enough as it is. 

As for Respawn, I think EA’s conditioned us pretty well. Anything that isn’t a shitty loot box casino like Battlefront looks good, even when it’s something middling like Jedi Fallen Order. 

You know, I read this and then people tell me that a ME3 that isn't about the Reaper War, but has the "possible" ME2 dead characters as party members is just unattainable. This requires 10x the work of ME3, whereas what I ask is maybe 1.2x the work.