The Sword and Laser discussion

The first proper trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda dropped.

https://youtu.be/pyZw_oqk7Q8

Honestly, after the terrible experiences of Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars The Old Republic MMO, I was pretty much done with BioWare. But I will admit to being intrigued by a new ME game that has nothing to do with the originals.

This definitely won't be a first day purchase for me. I'll wait and see what others think, then maybe buy it for Black Friday 2017.

An interesting interview with the game's development director that was just released today.

https://youtu.be/UmavAidUhqg

Around the 5:50 mark he addresses one of my major complaints with ME3, namely that we had to do insipid side quests while the galaxy was being invaded. Being sent across the galaxy to fetch ointment for some guy's rash while the Earth is being actively vaporized was infuriating, because you couldn't just skip it. The game continually pissed me off that way repeatedly, so it's nice to hear that they're aware of the fact that's broken game design and bad storytelling.

BioWare got one game right (Dragon Age) and then proceeded to make it worse every sequel. I still haven't bothered to finish Inquisition.

I'm pumped for Andromeda and I loved all 3 Mass Effect games.

Darren wrote: "BioWare got one game right (Dragon Age) and then proceeded to make it worse every sequel. I still haven't bothered to finish Inquisition."

Whereas I loved each game progressively more. I bought Dragon Age when it first came out and lemmed it about 15 hrs in because it was tedious, clunky, and frustrating. Never even tried DAII.

Then Inquisition came out and for some reason I tried it and loved it. Really loved it to the point I've finished it three times now. Afterwards I went back to DAII and loved it though not quite to the level of Inquistion. Which finally led me to trudge through the original. It was still a slog, even on easy difficulty which I set it to just to speed things, up but I finished. I'll never play the original again but I'm actually thinking about doing Inquisition again at some point.

I'm also the guy who loved Mass Effect 3. I still think the original ending is one of the most brilliant modern story things ever done when you consider it from the indoctrination theory point of view, something the creators have never actually debunked.

Rik wrote: "I'm also the guy who loved Mass Effect 3. I still think the original ending is one of the most brilliant modern story things ever done when you consider it from the indoctrination theory point of v..."

It's been years since I read about the IT, but I'm pretty sure it only works *before* they released the extra endings to fill in some of the plotholes.

For me, though, the ending was the least of that game's problems. It's just fundamentally broken on the story level, plus it was exactly the opposite of the thing they had been promising for years. One of the creators specifically said that there wasn't going to be some cheesy "choose one of three endings" to the story, which is exactly what we got.

I had similar issues with The Old Republic, which is what killed the enthusiasm I have for BioWare's games. I remember trying one of the Dragon Age games and not liking it, but it's been so long now that I don't recall the specifics.

So I'll wait and see what gamers think of ME:A before taking the plunge.