Mass Effect Andromeda Skepticism thread

The one thing that I have not been able to get out of my mind is this: The Frostbite Engine. It is this new engine that gave us DAI. It's has been lauded for it's great graphics, and I believe it was chosen to allow combat to evolve to a faster, smoother experience, but DAI showed us it's limitations in the hands of Bioware.  Bioware seemed to think they could do so much more with the engine, yet they did so much less. They sacrificed combat depth, diversity and tactics, (and mostly player engagement) for speed.  I have been recently playing Kingdoms of Amalur again and I can tell you that the combat in that game is exponentially far superior to the combat in DAI. I personally believe it is some of the best designed speed type combat of ANY RPG I have ever played. It's fast, its fun and it has reasonable diversity. No it is not deeply strategic but man it's fun. They managed to give us speed (like DAI wanted to) while keeping it fun and interesting. Again not deep at all but well designed with good skill trees. The combat in that game does not get old and is the primary reason to bother playing it at all. It was built in HAVOK an older engine that can stand up against Frostbite tooth and nail. Maybe not as graphically "OMG!" but a great engine nonetheless. I use this example only very narrowly in regards to speed over deep tactics, in how it can be done in a way that does not sacrifice sheer combat fun and allows for a fair, effective trade off over deep strategy.  Now, I did not get tired of the combat in ME2 or ME3 it was fast and fun in a different way. It was built with Unreal 3. Then comes Frostbite and at least in the hands of Bioware, in DAI we get some of the most repetitive mind numbing combat I have ever been subject too, yeah combos are cool but they aren't enough to keep interest in that game for many of us, not all I understand. I am kinda of having a hard time articulating what I wish to get at, but the whole Frostbite thing and what Bioware did with it just feels like it bodes ill of ME:A. It's already clear that they are working hard to "streamline" combat. What they call streamline I call, having the game play itself rather than letting the player play the game. I WANT to set up combos! I want to do it. I don't want the game to do it for me! Do you? Am I in the minority here? If they can't make fast fun combat that can stand hours of game play like KOA, then they have to give us combat empowerment and choices.  They want to remove our ability to play the game, with each DA iteration more and more the game was playing itself and it's got more boring. Active Human engagement and interaction,  is what keeps it interesting. I understand that I am somewhat contradictory by using KOA as an example but again I limit that to strictly the ability to make fun, fast yet more passive combat not as a direct comparison to strategic play.. My verdict stays cautiously neutral until the product is at hand.

Synthesis.

Of course it's inevitable. SAM is hooked up to Ryder's neural system and brain, lol.

I still have secret hopes the game is about the AI vs organics clash

And if you're consistently shooting down anyone who has anything good to say about it with "fanboy", " biodrone", "biojihadi", etc. then you're probably an asshole, not a skeptic.

And if you're gonna try to tell me there isn't an abundance of that around here I'm gonna have to disagree.

"You" being a general statement, and not relating to "you" specifically.

There's way too much "fanboys do this" and "fanboys are so that". It makes legitimate complaints seem like whining when everyone is patting themselves on the back over how not-a-fanboy they are.

Rightfully so
To me, It's annoying to see people gush over something that is the exact opposite of what I'd find exciting. Doesn't give me a right to shut others down, but I can make rude or snarky comments if I want to, just like people do. Try fanboying about something at your workplace and see the kind of response you'll get. People regulate each other. We're all fans of BioWare games, at least some of those that have been released, in here, and we're free to comment on what we like/dislike even if that occasionally means treading on some toes.

How many people from the old Mass Effect team are on Andromeda again? It's not just Walters, is it?

Lead wise, maybe, since the game's main team is Montreal. Well, except Mike Gamble.
As a team, no, there are devs that works on previous ME games.

They said that everyone within Bioware touched the game, so I'm sure if anyone had dispersed within all of the other studios, they had their hands in it at some point.