If ME:A really is an exploration game with a linear story on the side a la Inquisition...

Lack of good side quests was biggest problem with DAI I had. That and lack of cinematic dialogue. DAI mostly had side quest like pick some book/letter on the ground, read it, go to place that it's talking about, kill someone and loot them. Quest completed yay. There was tons of different "mini games" that required running around big world, looking shards, doing astrariums, collecting mosaic pieces, but stuff like that gets boring quickly. DA2 had terrible environments, but at least side quests were good. There was some random pick item and deliver it stuff yep, but I don't even remember doing that much, mostly I picked up stuff like that while going to do actual side quests so it didn't bother me.

Still, ME:A can do better if BW just remembers that exploration should be balanced with finding actual quests in the places, talking to actual characters via cinematic dialogue and having opportunity to make choices instead of just killing hostiles somewhere.

The best version graphically featuring bad framerates and no motion blur, despite being able to toggle it on or off at your leisure.

PC version with MEUITM is the best looking version by far.

never had a problem myself....  I was refering to base game - no mods.  If you need to mod your game to make it look better then it aint that great really is it?  It's a bit like comparing a plain - base spongecake to a chocolate covered spongecake.  Both the same, but the chocolate addition is an improvement depending upon your taste in cake.

mmmmm Cake.

I am never worried with BioWARE not keeping an eye on the rest of the industry. They always try new things imo. I've never tried DA/Witcher, but each of the other BioWARE games always went further than the one before, and they keep trying new concepts and genres. So, I am pretty sure Andromeda will be experimenting and not just copying DA.

I have not played DA. But I have played Bio from Baldur's Gate I onward, so I have seen the company take a wrong turn (or likely just bit more then they can chew through at that point) like NWN1 OC, and then correct the course almost instantly. So, based on that, I do not think ME:A will repeat the mistakes of the DA:I (whatever they were).

I trust into bio's ambition, vision and one hell of an attitude. They are more flexible than the Obsidian & the company behind the Witcher. They are in favor of giving the players what they want, instead of coming up with Good Reasons why they won't.

What? I can see what you mean in regards to obsidian, but CDPR? The company that's about to pave way for Cyberpunk into games with the original creator of the genre on board when nobody asked them to do that? The company that decided they should do a BioWare RPG set in a Skyrim-like open world setting and succeeded? Don't get me wrong, both BioWare and CDPR have ambition, but BioWare is lacking behind in how they keep reusing the same stock animations, how they're still clinging onto the dialogue wheel, companions and romance taking center stage over a pretty generic plot about good vs evil.

They can improve. Oh they can improve so much.

As for TW3 being boring or unsatisfying in terms of core gameplay... I sort of agree but here's the thing. That game had magic moments in it, that is, I played it for 70 hours and there was still so many quests left I hadn't even bothered to approach that I feel like the world is beckoning me for multiple playthroughs in which I won't exhaust the content either, and all the quest marks I did see had interesting characters and moments that helped detail the world and invest me in the setting and I know the ones I skipped is even more of that. One example that stood out to me was when I was on Skellige, walked into a bar but got into a fight after a scripted scene, then when I tried to exit a patrol showed up and arrested me and I was put in jail and when I got out, I had to speak to the Jarl of the village to talk about the incident and my release. This was all while I just expected to go to a random place, go into a bar, play Gwent and then go someplace else. Then on my way back I tracked a quest that led me to a cave with ethereal visions of my quest to find Ciri and the danger of the Wild Hunt getting to her first - so many unique mechanics and moments put into the game in places many players will never even know about.

I told my friend about it and gave him directions. He told me the event didn't trigger which made him go online and read about it and it turned out if you had first completed the main Skellige Questline to a certain point the whole ordeal with getting arrested wouldn't trigger as Geralt had already earned the trust of the leaders of the Skellige isles. What part of DA:I had this kind of stuff in it, or ME3 for that matter? ME1 has it, because you can complete the Hangar pass quest on Noveria in so many different ways and the same with certain Citadel side missions. ME2 had it in how many different ways you could resolve certain disagreements either durign loyalty missions or when Jack and Miranda start fighting and you can resolve it immediately or try to please both behind each other's backs. Really, this is the kind of stuff I'm in for when I purchase BioWare games. Not exhausting the content of an open world that every player that find it will experience in the same way; like DA:I's caves that initially give you that "woah" factor, but on subsequent playthroughs you realize there's never choice involved in any of those places and if there is it's just a matter of "choice A = more power, choice B = more influence -- either choice => monetized narrative value <=> meaningless narrative".

Eh, what the Witcher 3 does is not all that special, it just hides the illusion of linearity much more competently than Inquisition did by focusing on cinematic window dressing.

Ironic considering a lot of people tend to view said window dressing to be a problem in the gaming industry...although I find that argument to be hypocritical personally.

As for Andromeda...well see. If the worlds are open-world and non-linear structure compared to Mass Effect 2 and 3, then I figure the story and quest lines will follow suit with that said structure by being scaled and fetch-style in a lot of ways. Interestingly enough there were few fetch quests in Inquisition (typical fetch quests) but the content lacked substance due to it being written most of the time, and resolved by finding things in the wild at seemingly quick intervals. It' was the reward and implementation that was not the right mix, Witcher 3 did that better by implementing cut-scenes while still giving out comparable rewards.

Andromeda should follow suit, but adding some cinematics might help the case here a lot to hide the deficiencies of the weaker side-content. 

No, it's good news IF THEY DELIVER. Never, ever trust developers unless they deliver on their promises, they will say anything to sell more pre-order copies.

For most of its main plot, yes. I also had the problem with it that it's too easy to recognize when something is just gated between a few variables like which dialogue choice you made first and Yennefer goes "I'm offended you didn't mention "I love you" first!"

And then it's also just that there's ME3-esque autodialogue because Geralt is really Geralt and not MY character in the end, so it can be hit and miss, but for side-content...? It has so many good surprises in there and it's brimming with detail and not just because it's all cinematic, but because they bothered to write something more for side-quests than "Hey, you, my husband lost his wedding ring, please find it"

Speaking of cinematics, I don't really mind not having cinematic dialogues either. I just don't like how DA:I executed it, becuase the mechanic felt bad. It always waits for 2 seconds when initiating a conversation before it starts to zoom in and bring up the dialogue wheel like it's poorly programmed, and the camera angle is off, zoomed too far out and the voice-volumes are affected by the camera placement which meant I would always line the camera along the ground or a wall to zoom in and normalize the volume which is unintuitive at best. However, I absolutely love the few times it prompts you during combat or just gameplay to press R3 (or V on pc) to respond to squadmate conversation while you're on the move. That is something Andromeda should go further with because that added to the immersion.

This ^.
Go back to Mac's twitter in 2011 where he talked about how much choices mattered and oh, "It's your Shepard" and "if you're female you can flirt with James" and Shepard could emote unless we didn't want him to. I mean some of it is partially true but by and large he was overselling it considering there was less player-input for defining Shepard's behavior than ever.

Give it a try. You might like it. If anything, go watch a playthrough on youtube to see if its something that would interest you.