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[Bitmap Frogs]

I don't get why game companies consult with her. SJWs are cancer.

Consulted.

She had to shutdown her consultancy shakedown crew because no one would hire her anymore. Her last bullet was generating a twitter shitstorm against CDPR and offer her "services" to "protect" them from the masses demanding social justice. CDPR didn't budge and that was it for her. To this day I maintain part of the hardon wokies have for CDPR is because they refused her. These days she tweets about netflix shows, movies and so on.

 

[mejin]

Some big series will never be 90+ anymore. No more Goty contenders. Just move on. They can still be solid 85 games.

 

[Stilton Disco]

If you're talking about 343 or something, where everyone is a woman, man who identifies as a woman, or an outspoken social justice person with pink hair, I'd understand.

I haven't seen that with EA and BioWare. I've seen lowe talent to save a buck from them, but that's not at all related to SJW movements you see with other studios.

Don't give me a "hint". Back it up. Show me links where you see how this is related to politics. Otherwise, it's just FUD.

They made a big public spectacle out of running all their scripts since at least Inquisition passed Anita Sarkasian, and one of the heads of Andromeda was openly racist against white people, famously tweeting pictures of himself drinking from a mug with "White Tears" written on it*.

The place is woke as fuck I'm afraid.

Spoiler: *

White tears is apparently slang for jizz though, so make of that what you will.

 

[Kagey K]

They made a big public spectacle out of running all their scripts since at least Inquisition passed Anita Sarkasian, and one of the heads of Andromeda was openly racist against white people, famously tweeting pictures of himself drinking from a mug with "White Tears" written on it*.

The place is woke as fuck I'm afraid.

Spoiler: *

White tears is apparently slang for jizz though, so make of that what you will.

Jesus Christ. I’m pretty sure I’m thinner and prettier than her. (Hope I used the right pronoun for whatever that is.)

 

[Ascend]

If you're talking about 343 or something, where everyone is a woman, man who identifies as a woman, or an outspoken social justice person with pink hair, I'd understand.

I haven't seen that with EA and BioWare. I've seen lowe talent to save a buck from them, but that's not at all related to SJW movements you see with other studios.

Don't give me a "hint". Back it up. Show me links where you see how this is related to politics. Otherwise, it's just FUD.

Celebrate Pride with BioWare

Inclusivity and diversity are important in the games we make here at BioWare, which is why events like Pride are important to us. Last weekend, BioWare was grateful to be able to march along…

blog.bioware.com

 

[BusierDonkey]

Explain.

Nobody here answers to you.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Consulted.

She had to shutdown her consultancy shakedown crew because no one would hire her anymore. Her last bullet was generating a twitter shitstorm against CDPR and offer her "services" to "protect" them from the masses demanding social justice. CDPR didn't budge and that was it for her. To this day I maintain part of the hardon wokies have for CDPR is because they refused her. These days she tweets about netflix shows, movies and so on.

I would like to kind of think that, but I think she got under a bad spotlight and replaced by internal D&I positions or other less under noticed D&I specialised psychologists and general consultants. While starting from noble ideas sometimes they succeed in causing divisions amongst employees (as we have seen in the general populace) and, well, divide et impera as they say (so you can see why “bosses”, politicians or business managers may like to push this strongly... it is not to give more power to the workforce).

 

[TonyK]

Bioware, ID software and I think a lot of other companys have only the name but not the same talents. So their new games can be very different, usually in the wrong way.

I love when a game has an "author" with a vision, a Miyazaki, Kojima, Levine, Barlog, etc name on it. If not, usually games seems to me as made by a committee or a marketing AB test. They can be good but it's difficult they become masterpieces.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I would like to kind of think that, but I think she got under a bad spotlight and replaced by internal D&I positions or other less under noticed D&I specialised psychologists and general consultants. While starting from noble ideas sometimes they succeed in causing divisions amongst employees (as we have seen in the general populace) and, well, divide et impera as they say (so you can see why “bosses”, politicians or business managers may like to push this strongly... it is not to give more power to the workforce).

Bollocks.

Too good to be true, I guess.Sucks that we have a diversity industrial complex sucking up valuable funds.

 

[Rillania]

If all of the stuff that was written about what happened internally during dev of Andromeda is true, it was the product of several different factors. They spent years screwing around in pre-production, let feature creep continue to build up until the last second, suffered a large exodus of vet employees, and had a hard time with the Frostbite engine. Anthem apparently suffered from a similar problem.

While there might be other factors, I personally believe a large part of it was indeed the result of terrible project management. There comes a point you have to buckle down, cut out all of the stuff you can't feasibly do, and lock in everything and get to work. In both Anthem and Andromeda's cases, it sounds like they didn't do that and scrambled to try and put a final product together in less than 2 years. DA II was done in about the same time-frame, but the difference between that game and the other two was Bioware knew from the start they had that limited timeframe, and adjusted their expectations and scope to match accordingly. I'm less inclined to believe that a lot of the problems spawned from Frostbite, as DA:I managed to handle it pretty well.

I'm still personally on the fence as to whether or not the remaster is a day one buy for me. As for giving the next ME a chance, it'l come down to how DA4 is if it releases before, as I'm pretty sure that is going to be my make or break in regards to Bioware.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Bollocks.

Too good to be true, I guess.Sucks that we have a diversity industrial complex sucking up valuable funds.

Yeah :/ ...

 

[Warablo]

It was all downhill since Mass Effect 1.

 

[jonnyp]

Andromeda is what happens when you want to be woke and hire an anti-white racist as lead designer and a radical ideologue, cancel-culture loser as lead narrative designer.

I have no hope for the new one.

 

[MrMephistoX]

Bioware being absorbed by the soul sucking entity that is Electronic Arts is why. They completely changed Bioware's company culture and forced them to rush out games to fulfill a corporate bottom line.

Not saying Bioware is completely blameless on this. They let their past successes get to their head and thought their so-called magic would see them through. It didn't.

Yup Microsoft funded 1 from what I recall and I think they had a hand in 2 before the EA purchase. I honestly hope EA is open to a sale of Bioware to MS at some point or MS just starts up a studio and hires the doctors and the former Mass Effect team and buys the license like Gears. Boggles the mind that MS didn’t even bother outbidding EA when they had a chance.

 

[fart town usa]

It's not the same people.

It's not the same game engine.

They were purchased by EA

This. I bought Andromeda for like $5 new at Target, it plays and feels like a poorly translated fan mod. The game is garbage as far as I'm concerned.

 

[geordiemp]

Mass Effect 2 didn't deserve that score to be honest. It was good, but not great. The diluted RPG elements, cheese romance simulation, and okay at best 3rd person cover shooting elements really hurt it.

As hated as Andromeda is, I actually think the combat is much better than the rest of the series. The rest of the game isn't great, but at least they improved on that important element.

We agree, Andromeda had the best combat. It was the writing / characters and polish that was off, but the gameplay was best on Andomeda.

 

[SantaC]

It's not the same people.

It's not the same game engine.

They were purchased by EA

Cant blame frostbite here. Dragon Age 3 was also on frostbite and it was fine.

 

[TLZ]

Edit: wtf wrong thread. I don't know how my finger opened this thread instead.

 

[HeresJohnny]

Yup.

BioWare Edmonton was the pride of our province up until... whatever this is.

Bitch is like butt cancer, and those fools willingly asked for it.

 

[crozier]

Well, I’m about to dive in head first. Should I expect overt racism or something a little more subtle?

 

[Invalid GR]

The original was by far the best. It was a story driven RPG with some great exploration and mediocre fighting elements. Then EA bought Bioware and instead of building a game based on the foundation of the original they tried to make a triple A game ala GOW. This was the reason ME2 had better combat and graphics than the original but lost most of the RPG elements. It was build for the masses. So was the next one and the one after that...

 

[King_Mandu]

Andromeda is a better game than Mass Effect 3.

 

[LordCBH]

Well, I’m about to dive in head first. Should I expect overt racism or something a little more subtle?

On Andromeda? No not really. Just expect some absolutely awful dialogue writing, and a decent premise to a story that quickly falls apart due to glaring plot holes (some of which the characters in the game point out “hey we should do this because this could be bad if we don’t” only to never do the thing and never bring it up again ever until it fucks them in the ass.)

 

[Kagey K]

Well, I’m about to dive in head first. Should I expect overt racism or something a little more subtle?

I wouldn’t worry about it. Just go in and have fun, ignore most of the hate it gets and just realize the internet hates everything.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Well, I’m about to dive in head first. Should I expect overt racism or something a little more subtle?

Andromeda is mostly just very, very boring and very badly written.

Honeslty, I'm struggling to remember anything about that game beyond the fuck ugly Asari goblin, the fact you can bang a lady Turian, all the original designs in the game being just hideous and everyone treating you like you're retarded if you hit on the ship's pilot or navigator, because she's so 'obviously' a lesbian, you big dumb entitled man.

 

[brian0057]

Mass Effect is a series that peaked with the first game.
They're like the Guns N' Roses of videogames.

 

[K' Dash]

Andromeda is a better game than Mass Effect 3.

Fuck right off with that nonsense, ME3 was an excellent game almost on part with 2 until the last hour.

 

[Hugare]

Because it was made by another studio

Just like Batman Arkham Origins wasnt made by Rocksteady, but by WB Montreal

Bioware Edmonton had their hands full with Anthem, so EA decided to give one of its most beloved franchises to Bioware Montreal, and oh boy, that didnt pay off

It was like giving Star Wars to Tommy Wiseau.

 

[DarkStranger92]

Andromeda is a better game than Mass Effect 3.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Fuck right off with that nonsense, ME3 was an excellent game almost on part with 2 until the last hour.

The opening was shit and skipped a massive amount of the plot for big explosions and forced melodrama with the idiot child, that was then forced into being this big supposedly emotional plot point despite making no fucking sense, all the established lore on how space travel, element zero and the Reapers worked in previous games was tossed out, Cerberus were made into a dumb cartoon villain with infinite resources, a whole game and awesome DLC's worth of narrative and character development for the Shadowbroker was tossed out the window as an excuse to have Liara back, the ME2 crew got barely any screen time, while Chunky Beef-Fist was made a squadmate and treated like Shepherd's long lost best friend just to appeal to COD players, they made a major plot line DLC, and even then said plot line pissed over established lore and made the Protheans a meme, they undid the most popular choice for who the human Council representative was, made the citadel tiny and boring, did fuck all with Thessiah, removed a third of the dialogue options, as well as paragon and renegade interrupts, reduced interactivity generally and made half the endings all but impossible to get without playing multiplayer.

Even ignoring the ending, the game was utter wank apart from Tchunga and Rannoch. Everything else in the game was worse than 1 & 2 apart from the combat.

 

[dDoc]

We agree, Andromeda had the best combat. It was the writing / characters and polish that was off, but the gameplay was best on Andomeda

Andromeda released years later than the original trilogy. OFC it should have better gameplay/mechanics.

Seems story/bugs killed it though. Havent touched it myself due to the huge amount of backlash the game got.

 

[PropellerEar]

The non combat traversal in Andromeda is total garbage. Some weird jump dash fart boost movement without any precision.

Tried to give it a chance as I loved the trilogy, it didn't deserve it.

 

[King_Mandu]

Fuck right off with that nonsense, ME3 was an excellent game almost on part with 2 until the last hour.

I'll bite but first...lol at on par with ME2. I don't know how anyone could say that with a straight face.

ME3 is a bad game. The opening is an awful intro, terrible graphics (those crushed blacks everywhere), Starchild, the shitty kid in the vents, can't holster your weapon, the worst fetch quests in history, mp maps reused for "quest" maps, the warscore meter, Kai Leng lol, forced slow walk dream sequences because Shepard has PTSD (what lol), DLC pop-up after the game was over, still a dumbed down rpg, the Illusive Man suddenly turning into a moron, Tali's photo was a fucking stock photo, squad members being reduced to short cameos, the new squad member was entirely forgettable, Jessica Chobot (jesus Bioware smh), and finally the worst offense: the most lore important squad member in the entire trilogy was locked behind a paywall. Fucking paid DLC for a squad member in a squad based rpg. Inconceivable and unforgivable. Now, I believe it is your turn to fuck off.

ME1 and ME2 are fine standalone games but the trilogy as a whole is a complete fucking mess on so many levels. They clearly didn't have a general arc planned out and it shows throughtout the trilogy. Which is mindboggling considering it was announced as a trilogy.

The mp was absolute fire. I'll give it that.

 

[M1chl]

Bitch is like butt cancer, and those fools willingly asked for it.

Short people are fucking worst.
No not really, but there is some correlation. It's okay to be short™ Short rights are human rights or something.

 

[Hadoukie]

I think that Andromeda feels like a true successor to the original game, hence why I liked it more than the sequels we got. ME2, in retrospect, was disappointing coming from the original, and ME3 was a dumpster fire. I found it to be a step in the right direction, and wished to see more if that galaxy.

 

[Ascend]

Andromeda is a better game than Mass Effect 3.

Not even close.

Because it was made by another studio

Just like Batman Arkham Origins wasnt made by Rocksteady, but by WB Montreal

Bioware Edmonton had their hands full with Anthem, so EA decided to give one of its most beloved franchises to Bioware Montreal, and oh boy, that didnt pay off

It was like giving Star Wars to Tommy Wiseau.

If that was truly the cause, Anthem would have been great, which it wasn't.

 

[Ovek]

Arguably ME:A game mechanics are significantly better than the previous ME trilogy. However the story, oh my the story is truly awful as are all the characters apart from Drack but even he was a direct copy of Wrex.

Didn’t help that it wasn’t the game the fans truly wanted, which of course was ME4.

 

[Stilton Disco]

If that was truly the cause, Anthem would have been great, which it wasn't.

If anything, it strengthens the case for the main Bioware studios having gone to shit.

They poached all the best staff from, and were constantly provided with more time, money and resources than the Andromeda team, and yet the flaming rubbish tip that was Anthem was all they were able to show for it.

And let's not forget the leaks we got about the cancelled version of Dragon Age 4, which saw almost all of what was left of the studio's older talent finally leave, that was apparently killed by EA for being too single player, player choice and narrative focused.

 

[King_Mandu]

Not even close.

You're right. ME3 is so bad it makes Andromeda look like a work of brilliance.

 

[Matt_Fox]

Arguably ME:A game mechanics are significantly better than the previous ME trilogy. However the story, oh my the story is truly awful as are all the characters.

The script for Mass Effect: Andromeda is a surreal level of awful, how can any writer sign off on this, it's so abstract its almost haiku...

"Alright what happened.
To whom and your goddamn father.
Sorry, my face is tired of dealing with everything.
And right now I just want to know what happened to Alec, not how he died.
I pulled those logs.
What happened to...
pathfinder"

 

[Ascend]

The opening was shit and skipped a massive amount of the plot for big explosions and forced melodrama with the idiot child, that was then forced into being this big supposedly emotional plot point despite making no fucking sense, all the established lore on how space travel, element zero and the Reapers worked in previous games was tossed out, Cerberus were made into a dumb cartoon villain with infinite resources, a whole game and awesome DLC's worth of narrative and character development for the Shadowbroker was tossed out the window as an excuse to have Liara back, the ME2 crew got barely any screen time, while Chunky Beef-Fist was made a squadmate and treated like Shepherd's long lost best friend just to appeal to COD players, they made a major plot line DLC, and even then said plot line pissed over established lore and made the Protheans a meme, they undid the most popular choice for who the human Council representative was, made the citadel tiny and boring, did fuck all with Thessiah, removed a third of the dialogue options, as well as paragon and renegade interrupts, reduced interactivity generally and made half the endings all but impossible to get without playing multiplayer.

Even ignoring the ending, the game was utter wank apart from Tchunga and Rannoch. Everything else in the game was worse than 1 & 2 apart from the combat.

Oh boy... Let's break this down one by one... All the things ME3 is being accused of... Ugh... People's memories are really selective.

• Awful opening: You mean the opening of ME3 is worse than killing off the main hero and then immediately reviving him/her for no reason at all...? Yeah... That makes a LOT of sense...
• Skipping plot points: Killing the main hero at the beginning of ME2 lets you miss two years of plot for no reason.
• Big explosions: Also happens in ME2's intro.
• Forced melodrama: Also happens in ME2's intro.
• Lore being tossed out: Which lore has been tossed out regarding space travel, element zero and the reapers...? The most important lore change in the trilogy is the regression in gun tech from ME1 to ME2, where infinite ammo with cooldown was turned into traditional load/reload ammo.
• Cerberus being cartoon villains with infinite resources: That title belongs to ME2. In ME1 Cerberus was a small covert organization that did some underground terroristic stuff. In ME2 Cerberus has enough resources to revive a person, build him an upgraded new ship twice the size and much more advanced, and still has enough resources left to end up like they did in ME3.
• A whole game + DLC tossed out to have Liara back: Liara is one of the best characters, independent of game. What exactly was tossed out? Nothing was tossed out to have her back. Which other character is an archaeologist capable of finding info against the reapers?
• ME2 crew barely getting any screen time: ME2 gave the ME1 crew barely any screen time. Ashley/Kaiden both were made pretty much enemies. Wrex was sidelined. Liara was pretty much also sidelined, until people complained and they got the Shadow Broker DLC. Tali and Garrus got special treatment in ME2. How could anyone be given a lot of screen time in ME3 if pretty much everyone could die at the end of ME2? Yeah. That is a flaw of ME2 that inevitably carried over to ME3.
• James Vega long best friend to appeal to COD players: What's wrong with James Vega? He's a stereotypical soldier. His role is fine. And if you want to complain about trying to attract COD players, blame ME2 for changing the gameplay to yet another shooter.
• Javik DLC being a major plot line and turning protheans into meme: I agree that Javik should not have been DLC, but included in the game. Then again, I think the same of Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. As for turning Protheans into a meme, ME2 missed a huge plot opportunity with the protheans, by simply saying that collectors are prothean husks but letting it have zero relevance either gameplay wise, lore wise, or plot wise.
• Undoing the most popular choice of human council representative: This is ME2 again. Anderson clearly said he was not really interested in politics. And after Arrival DLC, it's not surprising that Anderson left the position.
• Citadel being tiny and boring: Are you fucking kidding me? At least it had a fucking Citadel. What did ME2 do to the Citadel compared to ME1? Yeah. THAT was tiny and boring.
• Doing "fuck all" with Thessia: It's one of the best missions. People hate it because they force you to lose. I love that people hate it, because it shows how immature people are, always wanting to win, never wanting setbacks, only ever wanting to feel good.
• Removed a third of the dialogue options: Aaaand what did ME2 do compared to ME1...?
• Removal of paragon/renegade interrupts: Uh... Interrupts are still in the game in ME3...
• Reduced interactivity generally: With who? Because all your squad mates have a lot more banter both on the Normandy and on the Citadel.
• Half the endings unavailable without MP: This is true, but they fixed it shortly after launch. At this point this is simply nitpicking.

Everything in the game being worse than 1&2 apart from combat: Considering how many times you're factually wrong as shown above, I don't think this statement holds any value.

I'll bite but first...lol at on par with ME2. I don't know how anyone could say that with a straight face.

ME3 is a bad game. The opening is an awful intro, terrible graphics (those crushed blacks everywhere), Starchild, the shitty kid in the vents, can't holster your weapon, the worst fetch quests in history, mp maps reused for "quest" maps, the warscore meter, Kai Leng lol, forced slow walk dream sequences because Shepard has PTSD (what lol), DLC pop-up after the game was over, still a dumbed down rpg, the Illusive Man suddenly turning into a moron, Tali's photo was a fucking stock photo, squad members being reduced to short cameos, the new squad member was entirely forgettable, Jessica Chobot (jesus Bioware smh), and finally the worst offense: the most lore important squad member in the entire trilogy was locked behind a paywall. Fucking paid DLC for a squad member in a squad based rpg. Inconceivable and unforgivable. Now, I believe it is your turn to fuck off.

ME1 and ME2 are fine standalone games but the trilogy as a whole is a complete fucking mess on so many levels. They clearly didn't have a general arc planned out and it shows throughtout the trilogy. Which is mindboggling considering it was announced as a trilogy.

The mp was absolute fire. I'll give it that.

For the majority of your stuff, look above... For the rest...;

• Terrible graphics: Technically speaking, the graphics are objectively better. If you like the look of ME2, that's your personal preference. I like ME3 more than ME2's graphics. ME2's graphics while being better than ME1, I like the art style of ME1 more.
• Starchild: No one likes the ending. But ME2 has its own equivalent; Giant Terminator
• Kid in vents: People mainly hate it because of the ME3 ending. The kid in the first mission was fine. Not great like TLOU, but fine.
• Can't holster weapon: That was a technical RAM limitation due to the consoles, and really, not that big a deal.
• Worst fetch quests in history: Still better than planet scanning in ME2. And all those hacking mini games in ME2. Ugh. It was at like every corner.
• MP Maps reused for quest maps: That was there for people that didn't want to play MP. And honestly, it has no bearing on how good the game is overall. Assets are re-used in games all the time. ME1 reused MUCH more than ME3. With limited time and disc space, these things are bound to happen.
• Warscore meter: It's there to give you an idea where you stand. Nothing wrong with it. I suspect they were planning a larger scale ending like ME2's where you build and order ships (instead of teams), but they skipped it due to lack of time.
• Kai Leng: He was made to be hated. So if you do, they achieved what they set out to do.
• PTSD Shepard slow walk dream sequences: Another thing that you're not supposed to like. Dreams and nightmares are weird and often hard to find a meaning behind them.
• DLC Pop-up after game was over: Sure. I agree that this was poor. But this is yet another thing that has no bearing on the game itself. It's EA's greediness talking. Or a poor way of saying that there will be more content. Probably both. The MP did give a lot of free additional DLC content. But whatever.
• Still a dumbed down RPG: This is pretty much an admittance that ME2 was more of a dumbed down RPG than ME3. So... Yeah. It doesn't really support your argument of ME3 being much worse than ME2.
• TIM suddenly turning into a Moron: Apart from him obviously being indoctrinated, it's not much worse than him suddenly turning from non-existent to a very Rich leader of a very powerful organization that was pretty much a small gang in the first game.
• Tali's photo being a stock photo: Fully agree that it was poorly executed. But by itself it has no real bearing on the plot, lore or the Mass Effect world.
• Squad Members reduced to short cameos: Just as I posted above; ME2 gave the ME1 crew barely any screen time. Ashley/Kaiden both were made pretty much enemies. Wrex was sidelined. Liara was pretty much also sidelined, until people complained and they got the Shadow Broker DLC. Tali and Garrus got special treatment in ME2. How could anyone be given a lot of screen time in ME3 if pretty much everyone could die at the end of ME2? Yeah. That is a flaw of ME2 that inevitably carried over to ME3. It's ME2's "feature" that caused this.
• Forgettable new squad member: More than Jacob?
• Jessica Chobot: I have zero issues with her character in the game. And I still have not heard one single good argument as to why this character was bad.
• Javik being DLC: I agree. This was the worst thing that BioWare ever did. Then again, ME2 was also very squad based and also had two characters as DLC for your squad. They were not as important for the lore or plot, that's definitely true. It would have been better if they made James Vega the DLC.

All that being said. ME3 was definitely rushed. But it does a lot of things better than ME2. For one, it actually has a plot. The combat is better. It honestly never felt like it was wasting my time (unlike ME2 with its planet scanning). It felt like one story rather than a bunch of side missions... And I also find it very particular, how no one ever mentions the Citadel DLC when they are criticizing ME3. That's probably the best Mass Effect content ever.

I do agree on the trilogy being a complete mess and things not being planned out from the beginning. The retcon of the Rachni queen in ME3, and ME2's Dark Energy thing being ignored (Tali's Loyalty mission) are two very big offenders. I also think the Thorian was ignored too much later down the line, considering they kind of looked a bit like reapers. Ultimately they invented the Leviathans and ignored the Thorian completely. It's all way too messy. But, I still love the series...

 

[Stilton Disco]

Oh boy... Let's break this down one by one... All the things ME3 is being accused of... Ugh... People's memories are really selective.

• Awful opening: You mean the opening of ME3 is worse than killing off the main hero and then immediately reviving him/her for no reason at all...? Yeah... That makes a LOT of sense...
• Skipping plot points: Killing the main hero at the beginning of ME2 lets you miss two years of plot for no reason.
• Big explosions: Also happens in ME2's intro.
• Forced melodrama: Also happens in ME2's intro.
• Lore being tossed out: Which lore has been tossed out regarding space travel, element zero and the reapers...? The most important lore change in the trilogy is the regression in gun tech from ME1 to ME2, where infinite ammo with cooldown was turned into traditional load/reload ammo.
• Cerberus being cartoon villains with infinite resources: That title belongs to ME2. In ME1 Cerberus was a small covert organization that did some underground terroristic stuff. In ME2 Cerberus has enough resources to revive a person, build him an upgraded new ship twice the size and much more advanced, and still has enough resources left to end up like they did in ME3.
• A whole game + DLC tossed out to have Liara back: Liara is one of the best characters, independent of game. What exactly was tossed out? Nothing was tossed out to have her back. Which other character is an archaeologist capable of finding info against the reapers?
• ME2 crew barely getting any screen time: ME2 gave the ME1 crew barely any screen time. Ashley/Kaiden both were made pretty much enemies. Wrex was sidelined. Liara was pretty much also sidelined, until people complained and they got the Shadow Broker DLC. Tali and Garrus got special treatment in ME2. How could anyone be given a lot of screen time in ME3 if pretty much everyone could die at the end of ME2? Yeah. That is a flaw of ME2 that inevitably carried over to ME3.
• James Vega long best friend to appeal to COD players: What's wrong with James Vega? He's a stereotypical soldier. His role is fine. And if you want to complain about trying to attract COD players, blame ME2 for changing the gameplay to yet another shooter.
• Javik DLC being a major plot line and turning protheans into meme: I agree that Javik should not have been DLC, but included in the game. Then again, I think the same of Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. As for turning Protheans into a meme, ME2 missed a huge plot opportunity with the protheans, by simply saying that collectors are prothean husks but letting it have zero relevance either gameplay wise, lore wise, or plot wise.
• Undoing the most popular choice of human council representative: This is ME2 again. Anderson clearly said he was not really interested in politics. And after Arrival DLC, it's not surprising that Anderson left the position.
• Citadel being tiny and boring: Are you fucking kidding me? At least it had a fucking Citadel. What did ME2 do to the Citadel compared to ME1? Yeah. THAT was tiny and boring.
• Doing "fuck all" with Thessia: It's one of the best missions. People hate it because they force you to lose. I love that people hate it, because it shows how immature people are, always wanting to win, never wanting setbacks, only ever wanting to feel good.
• Removed a third of the dialogue options: Aaaand what did ME2 do compared to ME1...?
• Removal of paragon/renegade interrupts: Uh... Interrupts are still in the game in ME3...
• Reduced interactivity generally: With who? Because all your squad mates have a lot more banter both on the Normandy and on the Citadel.
• Half the endings unavailable without MP: This is true, but they fixed it shortly after launch. At this point this is simply nitpicking.

Everything in the game being worse than 1&2 apart from combat: Considering how many times you're factually wrong as shown above, I don't think this statement holds any value.



For the majority of your stuff, look above... For the rest...;

• Terrible graphics: Technically speaking, the graphics are objectively better. If you like the look of ME2, that's your personal preference. I like ME3 more than ME2's graphics. ME2's graphics while being better than ME1, I like the art style of ME1 more.
• Starchild: No one likes the ending. But ME2 has its own equivalent; Giant Terminator
• Kid in vents: People mainly hate it because of the ME3 ending. The kid in the first mission was fine. Not great like TLOU, but fine.
• Can't holster weapon: That was a technical RAM limitation due to the consoles, and really, not that big a deal.
• Worst fetch quests in history: Still better than planet scanning in ME2. And all those hacking mini games in ME2. Ugh. It was at like every corner.
• MP Maps reused for quest maps: That was there for people that didn't want to play MP. And honestly, it has no bearing on how good the game is overall. Assets are re-used in games all the time. ME1 reused MUCH more than ME3. With limited time and disc space, these things are bound to happen.
• Warscore meter: It's there to give you an idea where you stand. Nothing wrong with it. I suspect they were planning a larger scale ending like ME2's where you build and order ships (instead of teams), but they skipped it due to lack of time.
• Kai Leng: He was made to be hated. So if you do, they achieved what they set out to do.
• PTSD Shepard slow walk dream sequences: Another thing that you're not supposed to like. Dreams and nightmares are weird and often hard to find a meaning behind them.
• DLC Pop-up after game was over: Sure. I agree that this was poor. But this is yet another thing that has no bearing on the game itself. It's EA's greediness talking. Or a poor way of saying that there will be more content. Probably both. The MP did give a lot of free additional DLC content. But whatever.
• Still a dumbed down RPG: This is pretty much an admittance that ME2 was more of a dumbed down RPG than ME3. So... Yeah. It doesn't really support your argument of ME3 being much worse than ME2.
• TIM suddenly turning into a Moron: Apart from him obviously being indoctrinated, it's not much worse than him suddenly turning from non-existent to a very Rich leader of a very powerful organization that was pretty much a small gang in the first game.
• Tali's photo being a stock photo: Fully agree that it was poorly executed. But by itself it has no real bearing on the plot, lore or the Mass Effect world.
• Squad Members reduced to short cameos: Just as I posted above; ME2 gave the ME1 crew barely any screen time. Ashley/Kaiden both were made pretty much enemies. Wrex was sidelined. Liara was pretty much also sidelined, until people complained and they got the Shadow Broker DLC. Tali and Garrus got special treatment in ME2. How could anyone be given a lot of screen time in ME3 if pretty much everyone could die at the end of ME2? Yeah. That is a flaw of ME2 that inevitably carried over to ME3. It's ME2's "feature" that caused this.
• Forgettable new squad member: More than Jacob?
• Jessica Chobot: I have zero issues with her character in the game. And I still have not heard one single good argument as to why this character was bad.
• Javik being DLC: I agree. This was the worst thing that BioWare ever did. Then again, ME2 was also very squad based and also had two characters as DLC for your squad. They were not as important for the lore or plot, that's definitely true. It would have been better if they made James Vega the DLC.

All that being said. ME3 was definitely rushed. But it does a lot of things better than ME2. For one, it actually has a plot. The combat is better. It honestly never felt like it was wasting my time (unlike ME2 with its planet scanning). It felt like one story rather than a bunch of side missions... And I also find it very particular, how no one ever mentions the Citadel DLC when they are criticizing ME3. That's probably the best Mass Effect content ever.

I do agree on the trilogy being a complete mess and things not being planned out from the beginning. The retcon of the Rachni queen in ME3, and ME2's Dark Energy thing being ignored (Tali's Loyalty mission) are two very big offenders. I also think the Thorian was ignored too much later down the line, considering they kind of looked a bit like reapers. Ultimately they invented the Leviathans and ignored the Thorian completely. It's all way too messy. But, I still love the series...

There was a time when I loved Mass Effect enough that I'd have spent the time countering what you've written, and why it's wrong, in great detail, but then ME3 happened and it ruined that love irrecoverabley, because it's a shit game, so I cannot be arsed.

You like it, good for you, I thought it was utter dross bar two missions, so yay for differing opinions I guess.

 

[Ascend]

You're right. ME3 is so bad it makes Andromeda look like a work of brilliance.

Nope. Andromeda is the worst mass effect game ever created. I would actually rank the games like this;

ME1 > ME3 > ME2 > MEA

Why? Because I value plot, wonder, coherence and immersion. ME2 breaks pretty much all of those. So does Andromeda.

Controversial opinion: ME2 is simply the most popular game, because it was the first of the Mass Effect games that was also on Playstation.

 

[brenobnfm]

Counterpoint: Mass Effect 2 is a bad and generic game, huge downgrade from Mass Effect 1 and the 96 metascore is hilarious, but this was the time when games like Call of Duty and Gears of War scored above 90 regularly.

 

[Ascend]

There was a time when I loved Mass Effect enough that I'd have spent the time countering what you've written, and why it's wrong, in great detail, but then ME3 happened and it ruined that love irrecoverabley, because it's a shit game, so I cannot be arsed.

You like it, good for you, I thought it was utter dross bar two missions, so yay for differing opinions I guess.

Will you be getting the remaster?

 

[TheMay30thMan]

It wasn’t made by the same team. Hilariously enough, the combat in andromeda is the best in the series. It would have been a fantastic action game.

 

[bbeach123]

I heard the game was ported to Frostbite mid development on Unreal 4 . So stuff like facial animation and rig couldn't port to Frostbite without fcking shit up .

 

[Ascend]

It wasn’t made by the same team. Hilariously enough, the combat in andromeda is the best in the series. It would have been a fantastic action game.

Just for confirmation;

 

[crozier]

I thought I knew diverse, but this game is DIVERSE. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but it’s really jarring at first.

 

[Rikkori]

I think fundamentally it's just the cycle of life. Bioware started off and developed and saw its first real spurt of brilliance with the release of Baldur's Gate in 1998, then was in full bloom between 2000 and 2012 and afterwards it rapidly declined until it became a corpse (officially once Andromeda released). After that it's been propping up a dead company of which nothing remains that made it what we loved it for. People get confused because the name is the same, but it's not the same. Bioware is dead. It makes me sad because they made my favourite game of all time, and a few others that could well fight for that title also, but it's not coming back.

Not to worry though, others will take its place. That is part of the cycle too.