Why Mass Effect Andromeda Was a Disaster

Ya'll need to let it go

Miles should do a Know wearing a whitefang mask & hoodie

As a released game, it was far from a disaster. It was buggy, sure. Internal politics, sure. But the gameplay was all the best aspects from the trilogy plus enough new stuff to keep it fresh. The story was decent for being written by the company's B team. The characters were more memorable than ME3's new squadmates (especially Vega) (who even got a movie and still never got a chance to be interesting) as well as some of ME2's, and I feel they were really fleshed out considering they got one game to shine instead of three. Five planets was a change of pace but they were huge and it's better than going to ten bland planets in an hour for one sidequest each like ME1. The atmosphere was lighter, sure, but that's what happens when you're exploring a new galaxy full of opportunities instead of preventing the apocalypse while no one listens to you. I stand by saying it was a very fun game and is a worthy successor to the franchise. Should it have taken a few more months? Yes. I hope Bioware learns from this and doesn't hand off entire games to support studios again, but they did do at least a competent job. 

I loved Andromeda, you're silly.

TLDR; Game studios get what they pay for but preordering idiot gamers get whatever bare bones the publishers can be bother to throw them.

There is no real surprise to the report; anyone who has worked on games could take one look at it and tell you that they were understaffing internal groups and not paying for the work to be put in where it needed to be. The fact it made it out at all given the internal politics problems is probably only a testament to the greed of the management team and the success of the previous games. Basically the lesson here is that you get what you pay for; cut corners and you don't get a AAA title, market the game as if it is a AAA when it's not got that polish and shine and you'll get ripped apart in the real world - it's all very well depending on clever spin doctoring but they only ever want to talk about the best case scenario and the real world rarely works like that. 

Kotaku article definitely worth a read, even if you were a fan of the game. Interesting quotes/content. 

The fault is EA's for pushing it out before it was ready just to get it in FY 2016.

It's disappointing to see this franchise swirl down the drain of development disaster. I loved the rich lore of Mass Effect Universe, even the Comics and Books that preceded Andromeda. Hell, the Indoctrination Theory for Mass Effect 3 shined some light of hope into it's  disappointing ending. It feels that it's only a matter of time that EA sabotages a franchise with it's infighting and politics. They are comfortable just producing a slightly tweaked version of the previous game, year after year i.e. every Madden ever produced. The painful realization is that they are a company with the resources to produce quality games, but let internal squabbling and ignoring problems to derail a beloved franchise. I guess as long as they keep making money they don't care. 

People have got to stop saying "don't preorder", that's just confusing and stupid and will make developers add more preorder garbage like in the last Deus ex.  If people choose not to buy it until it's confirmed as good, or at least works the way it's supposed to then fine.  If you don't preorder but then buy it week one you have accomplished nothing.  People need to send a very clear message for change to get made.

Animation was not great but the game was still a lot of fun

The game wasn't a "disaster", it messed up in a few areas but it's still playable. It sucks that it wasn't completely finished, but fans put pressure on them to release it earlier like they did with No Man's Sky. Despite all the crap that went on with the game, I really liked it. The combat was solid and I felt genuinely attached to my crew. The story could have had more work done on it and there wasn't different endings, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

Where's the link dump? great show :D