Why 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' is the Most Important Game of The Year

I love narrative games as well (guess what I'm on these boards!) Best examples for me: ME series, Bioshock series, Final Fantasy series (minus 15) and DA. I kickstarted PoE and tried starting it a few times but couldn't get into the old combat style and gave up. May try again. Witcher 3 kept my attention and was more engaging than DA:I was (sadly.)

Other games I really enjoy: Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Zelda (these are more about massive worlds and less about awesome narratives.)

Honestly, if the story stucks or I can't get into it, I stop playing it. This was especially true with Final Fantasy 15.  It's pretty, but, a boy-band trip across country in a car? 

Agreed qatm Andromeda's about the only game on my radar too.

The more disappointing you find it, the better the game will be.

Is it too late for BioWare to make all the characters trans polysexual non-binary atheists? Just to piss off the knuckledraggers even more?

Very good article, enjoyed reading it and it summarized why I love playing Bioware games and RPGs in general.

Either that or the guy is really, really, really down on the game industry.

Good article, and good supplemental thoughts here. Acutally, hadn't clocked Shadownrun or Tides, so I'll have to check them out. Loved Divinity:OS, have early access D:0S2. Didn't enjoy POE, though, despite having loved all the preceding titles in that vein.

It'll be interesting to see how Bioware balance the characters, narrative and a sense of open world. Personally, I still find the backstory of the ME universe is that draws me again and again to ME3 multiplayer. It still gives me a sense of immersion to the horde format if me and a few friends are holding off overwhelming numbers in that universe, the thought we could be helping Shepherd's cause at some micro level. I don't play and actively dislike almost all other MP formats. That's how transformative the characters and narrative of the main singleplayer universe fabric is for me.

It's not important at all. It's the worst game ever made, with the worst writing and worst story ever in a video game.

I like how you state your opinions like absolute facts


I've played through all three SRR including the HK DLC multiple times and I by far enjoy the original the most. You can put together your own team with whatever you think the mission will need, rather than dealing with preset assholes whose personalities I don't like much. It becomes worse in HK, not only those assholes are even more annoying, every time you click on NPC in the hub in-between missions, you get hit by a WALL of exposition text. PoE suffered from this too. Also, HK's plot was Bioware-levels of retarded Ancient Evil has arisen, blech.

The reboot was a poor boxing arena simulator. Enter arena, get locked in with 5 monsters, box them down, next 5 spawn in, repeat until arena runs out of monsters, move on to the next one.
Am I living in a bizzaro Twilight zone? You shoot a monster a couple times with a shotgun, it starts glowing orange to indicate it's about to die, what's the next logical step, shoot it one last time and move on? Of course not, that's the time to engage it in a boxing session, the other monsters from hell, like the true gentlemen they are, will wait until you're done with that, instead of tearing you in 20 peaces as soon as you turn your back on them. Of course you get rewarded with health and ammo only for boxing, shooting something to death would be unsportsmanlike, and we wouldn't want doom guy to be like that. Join us next time where doom guy and monsters resolve their differences through riveting discussion over tea and crumpets in a DLC.
When I want my 90s back I'll play the original in perfect zDoom emulation. There will be sweet level design, there will be rocking retro soundrack, and guns will be guns, instead of upgrade puzzles where you have to do dog jumping through flaming hoops circus tricks to get it.

TL;DR this oldfart cynic wishes game companies would do more of their own thing rather than endless reboots on old classics.

I half agree with you, Obsidian PoE was not that bad per se but it was not fabulous either although I liked the cast of characters, Tyranny was to short and lacking content but again I like the way they told the story and the many ramifications. For indies I think Wastland 3, Numenera and Battletech are going to be the best of their kind. Also I do not blame Obsidian for its bad track record now, they survive a huge bankruptcy.

As for the article, agree. There is nothing like ME:A in therms of video games.