Well to be fair about it bioware hasn't made a decent game since mass effect 2 and all they do is get worse with each game. It isn't eas fault.
Mass effect 3 was just garbage all around. They tried to force a trilogy out of a story that only required 2 games. Tried to shoe horn in multiplayer, gave it a shit ending, and then told gamers they didn't know anything about making games when they complained.
Actually... I can't agree. Mass Effect 2 is the most overrated game BioWare has ever made. I still don't get why so many people praise that game so much. Mass Effect 2 has the worst plot of any BioWare game, which was the main strength of their prior games. Because let's be honest, the great gameplay was never the reason why BioWare games were loved.
ME2 starts off by killing the main protagonist, to immediately revive him/her afterwards. This screams "we don't know what to do with the story". This was the first sign that BioWare was not the same, and that they lost what they really were.
The first Mass Effect was also a mess but, it had vision and passion at its center, unlike ME2 and the follow-up games, which had profit and maximizing the size of the audience as their goal. This is the most evident for Anthem. ME2 succeeded in that goal shift at the time, and that is exactly why they went downhill afterwards, because their shift towards the wrong focus got rewarded too much by the masses.
So you're right. The story required 2 games, and the game that is irrelevant, is Mass Effect 2. In fact, ME2 left exactly where ME1 left, with the reapers still coming. If you paste ME3 after ME1, it still would work perfectly, bar some additional character introductions. ME2 is the game that really added nothing to the plot, and basically introduced a bunch of filler that many people happened to like and decided to praise to heaven. ME2 is where BioWare lost their core strength. But many were unable to see it, because at least the characters were great. Many people played ME2 first, and as a stand-alone game, it's fine, but, as a part of the trilogy, it is the weakest link of the three. Yes. Really.
As for it not being EA's fault, well, the downfall coincides with the acquisition by EA, so... Yeah.
Dragon age 3 was just a great big boring dump. They just shit out a game that was so boring and pointless all I remember is a guy with horns I could team up with and destroying green portals. Oh and that it had some bullshit time wasting map assignments that were tedious to manage.
Mass effect andromeda was just well, we all know it sucked.
And anthem was just a destiny ripoff that somehow managed to be worse than destiny.
All true. Andromeda was drilled too hard though. Was it a mess? Yes. Was it as bad as people made it out to be? No.
Bioware is done. They no longer care about making good games and telling interesting stories with memorable characters. They just do the bare minimum and ride their own coat tails.
And we have all the ones that sucked up to ME2 to thank for that.