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Reckoning was in development for 4+ years... It definitely didn't need more "time"

One day, when I have the resources to hire a team of scientists, I will have them build a machine that can travel to parallel universes, and we will pick up a few copies of the versions of Mass Effect 3 made in the universe where BioWare was bought by Valve or RockStar instead of EA.

But yeah. When you try to make something in less time than the previous two in the trilogy (even after having it get pushed back), corners are going to be cut, and it hurts the experience.

This may sound weird coming from someone who loves games that are really long, but I feel like this would have been a much better game if it was just the main story missions and the good side missions (the ones that aren't N7 missions). It'd be a hell of a ride if they kept the pace going throughout (and changed the ending, but I'm done talking about that train wreck).

I would put more of the blame on Bioware than EA. SSX, which was an EA developed and published game is still the best thing I've played all year, despite having been disappointed in the three other major EA titles of the last little while, two of which were Bioware games, all of which were RPGs.

Well I wouldn't call Amalur disappointing, but it certainly didn't have much staying power for me.

So I finished Mass Effect 3 two days ago and while I was hoping I would be one of the few who would like the ending, sadly I hated it and sat staring at my screen for 5 minutes after the game was over just baffled at how many holes there are in the plot. Overall I still enjoyed the game and the series, but this was not Bioware's crowning achievement by any means ( ME 2 and kotor are much better games). Besides the ending, the side missions just felt rushed and poorly done. N7 missions are literally single player multiplayer missions (the same maps bioware really!?) and the "Citadel missions" are just stupid in my opinion and seem to only to be there to add to the games "there is this many hours of content" stat. The writing also seemed really corny and poorly executed in some spots, unlike in ME 2. Overall, this game just felt like it was rushed out the door 6 months before it was ready. After finishing it I just get the feeling that Bioware didn't have enough time to make this game as good as it could have been. 
 
This got me to thinking of 2 other games I have been playing this year, The Old Republic, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. While playing both of these games I got the same feeling as when I played Mass Effect 3. All I could think was "this is pretty good, but it could have been waaaay better". Reckoning has a ton of awesome ideas, cool art design, and a really neat world to explore. Unfortunately it gets hurt by the overload of mmo side quests that, similarly to Mass Effect 3's citadel missions, only seem to serve as a this game is THIS long stat. The graphics are pretty poor as well, which is a shame because I do enjoy the world and the art design a lot. The worst thing of all though is the combat which is really fun and has a lot of cool ideas, but it seems to fall short of its potential. I feel like this game could have added a much deeper combo system, but for whatever reason the developer stopped at an easy set of commands that usually result in parrying and button smashing. I feel if they had taken more time to work on the game the combat could be vastly improved and they could have added more meaningful side quests.
 
The Old Republic is also a very solid game with a lot of good ideas such as the story, voice acting, and crafting. But it falls short in a lot of areas, resulting in it becoming just another lesser WoW. The game is way to easy, all end game consists of is sitting on the main fleet, the raids take no skill, and the pvp is pretty bad. Also, the fact that they didn't launch with the legacy system was a mistake in my opinion, seeing as so many players reached max level in about 1-2 weeks. 
 
All three of these games had such amazing potential, but they all feel like they were rushed out before they could become amazing games, resulting in a lot of poorly made content that seems tacked on. I can't help but get the feeling that this is really all EA's doing. They really seem to be getting even worse than before with pushing games out before they may be completely finished and it is making potentialy amazing games fall short. It really is a shame that the industry is becoming such a develop cycle based rushed. Thats way I appreciate Valve and Blizzard more than ever now. They don't put a game out unless they are confident that it is the best that it can be. I wish EA would loosen up a bit and let the developers have more time to create a more solid experience. Its a shame playing a game and knowing that it will never be as good as it could have been.