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In case anyone hasn't seen this on reddit, here's what we know about Mass Effect: Andromeda so far. Expecting an early 2017 release. GET HYPE

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/4dlizt/everything_to_know_about_mass_effect_andromeda/?ref=share&ref_source=link

I keep hearing that people are leaving the team.  I'll settle away from the hype train for now until we get some substantial news...lest it be another Fable Legends.

I haven't heard anyone leaving since that Bioware senior editor left about a month ago. I CAN'T GIVE UP

What irks me is that they're patting themselves on the back over Dragon Age: Inquisition, and that's the worst game they've ever brought out. The infamous Dragon Age 2 isn't nearly as bad. They made a lot of promises, and said that it would be more akin to Dragon Age: Origins, and what we got instead was a soulless, badly written and self-important mess. Previous choices didn't count for shit, and even in-game, there was rarely a true choice. It also lacked quite a bit of the darkness that made Dragon Age: Origins and 2 so appealing. The Inquisitor stumbles through one deus ex machina after another, and there is little meaningful character development.

I just can't believe a word they're saying any more. They whored themselves out to EA, and they're paying the price as far as credibility goes.

CD Projekt Red is doing a much better job at keeping hardcore fans and investors alike happy. Graphics "scandal" be damned.

EDIT: Things like this just increase my reluctance to trust a word they're saying:

Our goal is to not build Mass Effect 4, it’s beyond that. It’s to build the biggest Mass Effect yet, and that includes new locations, an all-new story and all-new characters.

They did this in Dragon Age: Inquisition, where they just built a ginormous world and peppered it with meanless fetch quests, and called it a day. If you could skip past the useless side content (which you can't, since they forced you to grind through it with the Power system) you would have been left with 10 hours of story. Goddamn.

I don't care how big the damn world is. All I care about is enjoying the story and the decisions to their fullest. The gunplay was not as strong as some other 3rd-person shooters, but that was perfectly fine, because that's not why I was playing the damn game. And the small areas to explore didn't matter in 2 and 3, because there was still so much to see and experience.

It pretty much sounds like they're going for the quantity-over-quality approach again with passages like the one I've outlined. Bigger does not equal better. So many times, it means the exact opposite. "Oh? We didn't include enough character development? No matter. Let's just throw in a ginormous open world with A SHIT TON OF EXPLOSIVES to distract them from that fact."

Hmm, I read it as saying ME:A won't be like DA:I. But yeah, that's my main worry, too.

They say the game will have a large part of it being about exploration, which I'm cool with since I like exploring, but it has to be done right. If you just go around to all of these planets and they're big and empty with a few enemies, a single quest, and a couple other spots of interest like ME 1, then I'll be greatly disappointed. This was fine in ME 1 since that was just something you could do on the side and was in no way an important part of the gameplay. If there's actually something to explore and see, including plenty of unique side quests, then I'll probably like it.

Another thing is the whole settlements/strike teams bit. This can be cool if they do it right, or it could just end up turning it into a management side game where you do things just for the sake of itself. The strike teams just sound like radiant quests you can do yourself or have the AI do for you, so I don't see the point unless they're really interesting and different. The settlements could be great if you have input into the way they grow and look, etc. If they're just places you plop down and get some resources from, that would be boring.

One thing I noticed is how hard they want to push that there's not one way to play the game -- all of these aspects are things you can do on the side. This makes me hopeful that the storyline has to be good, otherwise nobody would play it. Unless the point of saying "This isn't ME 4" is that it's just a totally different type of game. That would be disappointing if they don't create some kind of amazing/beautiful/unique main gameplay. They can't have everything be a side game.

Finally, I hope they understand the fact that people love to make tough decisions. They say everything you say in conversations with your squadmates can have an impact on their story. I want the possibility of doing something I may regret, like one of them leaving the squad or dying. Don't give me the ability to save everybody or only increase their loyalty. Give me something I really need to think about.

Other than these, it sounds like the combat will be better, and there will be more customization, which is nice. Hopefully, the customizations will be more than just aesthetic, though. Anyway, I will remain hopeful until I hear something to make me think otherwise.

I really hope it will be good, too. I think I've mentioned one of my favourite moments in gaming being Mass Effect 3's mission on the Quarian homeworld, where a combination of my cock-ups in the previous game and in Mass Effect 3 had condemned either the Quarians or Geth to die, and after agonising over the decision, I chose to save the Geth. I was completely horrified. I had just contributed to the complete genocide of the Quarian race. And yet, I was deeply impressed too. I have never seen any decision on a similar scale to that one in any other game.

I'm a completionist, so I was able to save both because I think I had such a high loyalty or paragon or something. I kind of wish those persuasion checks weren't available though. Maybe I'll do a playthrough where I can't. By the way, WHO THE HELL CHOOSES THE GETH OVER THE QUARIANS??

But yes, I love those huge decisions: Wrex in ME 1, the Rachni, the Genophage, and Ashley vs. Kaiden were all great. The Suicide Mission in ME 2 was kind of a let down as if you just do all the loyalty missions, they all survive. I was also kind of sad to see some of the decisions just came down to "war assets" in ME 3, but I guess what else could they do. I also liked how you had to choose between two squadmates in ME 2, though again you could just pass certain persuasion checks.

I hope to see more of those decisions that actually mean something. If they just do that, it should still be a good game.

The Quarians were kinda asking for it.

The Geth just wanted to be left the fuck alone, goddammit. They didn't even initiate the war.

I knew that not everyone in the Quarian fleet wanted to fight the Geth either, but faced with only those choices, I decided to save the civilisation that was overall more well-meaning.

And I maxed out my Paragon count too, in all the games. I just made piss-poor decisions. I opted to have Tali exiled, for instance, because I wanted her to get away from the war-mongering influence of her people, even though I could have persuaded the generals to let her stay without revealing her father's crimes. They were just too militaristic, and they justified the extermination of a sentient life-form they'd created. I pretty much viewed them as little better than the Nazis.

Then I chose to reprogram the Heretic Geth instead of destroying them. Those two things in combination destroyed all hope of peace between the Quarians and Geth.

Gods, I still remember how horrified I was when the fleet got blown up and Tali removed her helmet before jumping off a cliff, killing herself.

EDIT: Also, it was quite possible to have people die if you didn't upgrade your ship fully, and if you made terrible decisions during the Suicide Mission. If you took your sweet time getting to that mission, your entire kidnapped crew could get melted down in front of your eyes just as you arrived too. They could have done it better, to be sure, but I was quite satisfied with it. At least some actual effort went into all the Mass Effect games. It's pretty much just 3's ending, and the whole War Assets thing, along with mandatory multiplayer to get the highest possible Galactic Readiness Rating, that truly left a bitter taste on my mouth in Mass Effect 3. The writing and dialogue took a hit in 3 too, but it was nothing I couldn't live with.

Yeah, I could see why you would choose the Geth in that situation.

I went back and read through the Quarians' and Geth's wiki pages (and damn I really want to go back and play Mass Effect again), and it's much more nuanced than I remembered -- then again I haven't played in a couple years.

The Geth really are like a perfect society, using consensus democracy, non-interventionism, peace, and complete honesty. They only wish to advance their race. Plus, the heretics were a very small fraction of the Geth.

Then the Quarians started the war and everything. I don't really know what I'd do. The fact that a virus could alter the way the Geth think would be the only real reason for destroying them (well, besides the fact that you'd be destroying the Quarians -- well, actually you'd just be allowing the Quarians to attack a much stronger Geth who would then destroy them).

I really don't know, haha. And I love that.

Yeah, it's left grey enough to give you pause, and yet it reflects the complexities of real life political decisions.