benelori

Got it and looks good, thanks!

They managed to complicate the trilogy so much, that a ME4 wouldn't be able to handle all the different player choices.

Also seeing the level of story telling and player choices in ME:A, I'm glad they started with a clean slate...

@nickhead:

I think you'll be disappointed...there's a lot more kett to come I think, as they were set up as the de facto rulers of Andromeda, or at least big parts of it

I found it quite fun...Infiltrator with Tactical Cloak and Widow Sniper Rifle is a beast, especially if the other 2 abilities can be used in combos

Also I always used Drack in the team, because he is a cool tank and either Vetra or Cora for supporting Drack

Some points have been said already, but here's my take (I might go a bit off topic here and there :P ):

1. The technical issues are as widespread, or at least not all the reviewers experienced them as Brad

I remember seeing the first stream and being afraid what this game would be like. Then I started playing it, and roughly 30 hours into it I haven't encountered a single bug...then I saw the quick look and the Beast stream and I was shocked. Personal experience with the game counts, even from just a technical point of view. I have finished the game on PC and aside from a few enemies disappearing inside objects and one instance of Ryder's animation getting messed up, I haven't encountered ANY technical problems.

2. Too much comparison with the trilogy

First of all, the trilogy is not a masterpiece. Also the characters in the trilogy had time to mature for 3 games. I heard this a lot from Brad, in chat or in videos, etc. That the characters are not the same and that he couldn't connect with them the same way he did in the original trilogy. And while the dialogue and writing is definitely average in ME:A, he is comparing one game to a trilogy.

3. The game's writing and dialogue assumes too much about the context your character's in

There are lots of tone changes in the various dialogue choices, and I feel like the game sets up the scenes with one or two dialogue choices in mind so if you're unlucky, then some lines will totally feel out of place and badly written. I had a few instances like this in the beginning until I realized this, and after that 80% of the dialogue had quite a good flow and in spots were excellent as well.

So I think that other reviewers could have gotten better flowing dialogue and might have had a different gameplay loop, so that the quests and story fell into place a lot smoother.

4. The world has moved on and quality should be higher

Mass Effect was always praised for story and character, so when games nowadays are starting to scratch the levels of story telling and character building that literature can offer, it is expected that a game such as Mass Effect would deliver on such expectations.

So my answer to the OP's question is that the disappointment was a lot bigger for Brad, than it was for other reviewers. The safe ending, the dialogue that doesn't connect and the technical problems can ruin the experience so much, that when you compare this experience to the original trilogy the disappointment is just too big.

But this is me judging this situation not just based on the review, but on the overall coverage of the game on this site as well

PS: as a side not regarding Jeff's coverage of ME3...if I remember correctly he predicted the debacle (not its scale though :D ) of the ending in the quick look :p

I was never mad...

I played right after release, so I experienced the 'lackluster' ending, which even then was average, but not bad...there was enough foreshadowing, that I was never surprised with the AI reaper appearing in the end...

Then I played it after that with all the DLC, which added a more fleshed out world and some pretty cool moments...

But overall the game suffers from many other things, just like the previous 2 as well, it's just that the positives are so good that they overshadow these problems...

And judging from the first 10 hours of Andromeda, it's the same all over again

Respects to the man that has magical worlds/magic system named after him /o

It was an okay movie and I'm curious how will they deal with the backstory stuff...this new world needs to be fleshed out some more, especially and I know this is really important: Anakin's lightsaber! Wasn't that lost on Bespin? o.O Or am I forgetting something...

In other words, Rey is the new Anaking, and Ben is Darth Vader, which is a nice touch to the whole Light vs Dark thing...it feels more personal...

I echo all the negatives that have been mentioned in this thread, but after actually seeing the movie, I think it did a decent job at introducing the new world.

Probably not, and as many said before, Mario Maker and MGSV are the most powerful contenders...Tomb Raider doesn't even begin to scratch those two