I'm one of those gamers who hasn't bought it because of the word of mouth says that its a failure.
I tend to not listen to video games critics, because the reality is, they are not critics, they're the biggest fans and gamers out there. They love games so much, and love the developers that make them, that they'll never be able to give a honest and objective reviews, even though that say otherwise. Most "critics" get review copies for free, and even that skews your perspective. I prefer to read user reviews from people who have limited gaming budgets to help me find how best to spend my money on entertainment.
it's hard for me to take player reviews serious when you see alot of reviews on metacritic like "lulz game sucks"
Metacritic to me is like someone using Wikipedia or NaturalNews as credible sources for facts.
I have never heard anyone who hadn't seen a movie yet insisted on their opinion about it.
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
The modern game review; you were positive-paid shill! You were negative, h8er troll! This is why Tim struggles with assigning numbers to games.
Oh are we referencing to ourselves in third-person now? Connie likes that!
Constantine, The Console Poster
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
I have no idea why the staff here are defending the game as much as they are. I haven't seen it taken to this level before. We get it. You like the game. You really, really like it. Some people won't like it as much as you or at all. Some of the criticism is a little overboard (like all the social engineering stuff) but there are many legitimate problems with this new ME. Some of the staff responses are borderline fanboyism. Relax and calm your tits.
+1
Whatever you say about people not liking the game, you guys just keep posting positive reviews one after another, yes we get it, you like it, or they pay you, but, we don't care, just move on.
You don't have to prove you are right, you stated your review and opinion long ago.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics. Reply Add Multi-Quote
People are disappointed by a game. MMORPG.COM releasing an article about how its not so bad.
Bu$iness as usual and nothing we haven't seen various times before.
Yet another baseless accusation. Go figure.
I wish we were paid to review positively. I'd have a lot bigger bank balance. Amazingly, I like it as do a whole lot of other people. That you don't like it is YOUR business but to, once again, launch an unjustified insinuation that a positive article or review is "paid for" is quite old and tiresome.
As much as everyone's supposed to accept that there are people who hate this game, are disappointed in the game, etc., so too should it be acceptable for people to like MEA and to give their reasons why. Chris acknowledged both pros and cons and made a good argument why he believes (CATCH THE KEY WORDS?) it's not as bad as it's been painted.
Such a tiresome, boring accusation with absolutely no proof other than "because I say it's so" behind it. Just stop.
The level of disrespect the staff here gets blows my mind. You are all very honest and very welcoming. It's one of the main reasons this is my main gaming site to visit daily. Don't let the few disgruntled children make you forget that a lot of us appreciate all your work. At the end of the day we are all gamers (staff included) and should at the very least respect each other. Even when we don't agree.
People are disappointed by a game. MMORPG.COM releasing an article about how its not so bad.
Bu$iness as usual and nothing we haven't seen various times before.
Yet another baseless accusation. Go figure.
I wish we were paid to review positively. I'd have a lot bigger bank balance. Amazingly, I like it as do a whole lot of other people. That you don't like it is YOUR business but to, once again, launch an unjustified insinuation that a positive article or review is "paid for" is quite old and tiresome.
As much as everyone's supposed to accept that there are people who hate this game, are disappointed in the game, etc., so too should it be acceptable for people to like MEA and to give their reasons why. Chris acknowledged both pros and cons and made a good argument why he believes (CATCH THE KEY WORDS?) it's not as bad as it's been painted.
Such a tiresome, boring accusation with absolutely no proof other than "because I say it's so" behind it. Just stop.
The level of disrespect the staff here gets blows my mind. You are all very honest and very welcoming. It's one of the main reasons this is my main gaming site to visit daily. Don't let the few disgruntled children make you forget that a lot of us appreciate all your work. At the end of the day we are all gamers (staff included) and should at the very least respect each other. Even when we don't agree.
I wonder how some of these folks would feel if we all just started saying they're paid shills from competing companies? How long would it take for them to get all uppity and defensive?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This is one of the worst articles I've seen here so far.
It's childish, and honestly, pathetic to just dismiss everything the community has said like this.
Not everyone in "the community" is up in arms. Most are quietly and happily playing the game while acknowledging that there are flaws and bugs, even a lot of them, but also waiting to hear how those issues will be dealt with come Tuesday. Much of what is "wrong" with MEA will be addressed through patches.
The bottom line is, if the story isn't to your liking. If the game doesn't meet your expectations. If you hate the game play, the character models, or any one of a litany of things -- stop playing and go back to play the Original Trilogy and hope that the next ME game is better.
I find that this has been a pretty damned good first effort by a young team. I have a lot of confidence in their future and the future of the series.
"Most" are happily playing the game? Since when is YOUR opinion the opinion of "most" now?
"Oh, it'll be patched so it's ok", since when was that acceptable? Since when is a game with so many issues with animations and the writing given a pass because it's "a young team"?
Almost all of the people that I know that bought the game are actually liking it. 1 out of 9 decided to stop playing and wait for updates.
Oh really? The people YOU know like it? I'm sorry, i forgot you and your friends spoke for everyone else.
It's the only valid metric I have. At least it comes from people that have played the games.
Ah ok, so everyone that mentions the bugs, all the videos showing how terrible the animation and writing is, they have the game and they dislike it. That opinion somehow means less than your friends or the writer of the article's opnions?
People are disappointed by a game. MMORPG.COM releasing an article about how its not so bad.
Bu$iness as usual and nothing we haven't seen various times before.
Yet another baseless accusation. Go figure.
I wish we were paid to review positively. I'd have a lot bigger bank balance. Amazingly, I like it as do a whole lot of other people. That you don't like it is YOUR business but to, once again, launch an unjustified insinuation that a positive article or review is "paid for" is quite old and tiresome.
As much as everyone's supposed to accept that there are people who hate this game, are disappointed in the game, etc., so too should it be acceptable for people to like MEA and to give their reasons why. Chris acknowledged both pros and cons and made a good argument why he believes (CATCH THE KEY WORDS?) it's not as bad as it's been painted.
Such a tiresome, boring accusation with absolutely no proof other than "because I say it's so" behind it. Just stop.
The level of disrespect the staff here gets blows my mind. You are all very honest and very welcoming. It's one of the main reasons this is my main gaming site to visit daily. Don't let the few disgruntled children make you forget that a lot of us appreciate all your work. At the end of the day we are all gamers (staff included) and should at the very least respect each other. Even when we don't agree.
This is one of the worst articles I've seen here so far.
It's childish, and honestly, pathetic to just dismiss everything the community has said like this.
Not everyone in "the community" is up in arms. Most are quietly and happily playing the game while acknowledging that there are flaws and bugs, even a lot of them, but also waiting to hear how those issues will be dealt with come Tuesday. Much of what is "wrong" with MEA will be addressed through patches.
The bottom line is, if the story isn't to your liking. If the game doesn't meet your expectations. If you hate the game play, the character models, or any one of a litany of things -- stop playing and go back to play the Original Trilogy and hope that the next ME game is better.
I find that this has been a pretty damned good first effort by a young team. I have a lot of confidence in their future and the future of the series.
"Most" are happily playing the game? Since when is YOUR opinion the opinion of "most" now?
"Oh, it'll be patched so it's ok", since when was that acceptable? Since when is a game with so many issues with animations and the writing given a pass because it's "a young team"?
Almost all of the people that I know that bought the game are actually liking it. 1 out of 9 decided to stop playing and wait for updates.
Oh really? The people YOU know like it? I'm sorry, i forgot you and your friends spoke for everyone else.
It's the only valid metric I have. At least it comes from people that have played the games.
Ah ok, so everyone that mentions the bugs, all the videos showing how terrible the animation and writing is, they have the game and they dislike it. That opinion somehow means less than your friends or the writer of the article's opnions?
Have you played the game? Honest question, as it will show in how you answer this next question.. How long do you see that random odd animation, how much dialogue is in this game?
When people bring up the "writing" that's so vague of a complaint. As there is tons of writing in this game, is all of it good? No... is all of it bad? No....The animation complaint is essentially the same story, there's so much of it, and it all goes by very quickly, it too is not all bad or all good. Anyone could go compile a video of all the good parts and sensationalize how good it is, just as they can do with showing the bad.
As for how about those videos? None of us who have played care about that, we've seen it first hand, at that point reviews breakdowns/etc. are meaningless...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
People are disappointed by a game. MMORPG.COM releasing an article about how its not so bad.
Bu$iness as usual and nothing we haven't seen various times before.
Yet another baseless accusation. Go figure.
I wish we were paid to review positively. I'd have a lot bigger bank balance. Amazingly, I like it as do a whole lot of other people. That you don't like it is YOUR business but to, once again, launch an unjustified insinuation that a positive article or review is "paid for" is quite old and tiresome.
As much as everyone's supposed to accept that there are people who hate this game, are disappointed in the game, etc., so too should it be acceptable for people to like MEA and to give their reasons why. Chris acknowledged both pros and cons and made a good argument why he believes (CATCH THE KEY WORDS?) it's not as bad as it's been painted.
Such a tiresome, boring accusation with absolutely no proof other than "because I say it's so" behind it. Just stop.
The level of disrespect the staff here gets blows my mind. You are all very honest and very welcoming. It's one of the main reasons this is my main gaming site to visit daily. Don't let the few disgruntled children make you forget that a lot of us appreciate all your work. At the end of the day we are all gamers (staff included) and should at the very least respect each other. Even when we don't agree.
Hehe, honest.
Believe whatever you want. I have been here for a long time and that's my experience.
I have no idea why the staff here are defending the game as much as they are. I haven't seen it taken to this level before. We get it. You like the game. You really, really like it. Some people won't like it as much as you or at all. Some of the criticism is a little overboard (like all the social engineering stuff) but there are many legitimate problems with this new ME. Some of the staff responses are borderline fanboyism. Relax and calm your tits.
+1
Whatever you say about people not liking the game, you guys just keep posting positive reviews one after another, yes we get it, you like it, or they pay you, but, we don't care, just move on.
You don't have to prove you are right, you stated your review and opinion long ago.
This works both ways.. As for the site.. are you kidding, look how much traffics these threads are generating:)...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
On my 2nd playthrough atm and having fun with the game. The graphics ( especially the facial animations ) suck for a AAA title in 2017. The writers imagination had a few months off as the story is simply a reimagining of the original trilogy ( the similarities are so obvious ) with more corny lines than Kellogs, sodoku and other puzzles are completely overdone & some of the most boring quests in modern memory somehow got past Q&A ( but then the rest got past Q&A as well ).
At the heart of it all though is fun gameplay and how often has it been said that gameplay is the most important aspect of any game. It can look and sound absolutely amazing but if the gameplay sucks the game will fail hard.
The problem here is that MEA is a huge missed opportunity for EA ( not Bioware, they don't exist anymore other than a name ) and is yet another example of a company run by suits that have no idea. They didn't learn a damn thing from the ME3 fiasco and are now feeling the backlash and no doubt completely missing the point while being focused on the bottom line.
Hmm... I personally haven't played it yet, not a fan of Mass Effect. Although I can see a lot of problems with this game, I doubt it is as bad as some people are saying. A vocal minority hates Bioware more than their games, so no matter what game they release, some people will spend hours/days just trying to find defects so they can bash the game.
THE SAME THING will happen with Dragon Age 4 and their new IP, no matter what. Though DA 4 is being made by a more experienced team, so it will be harder to edit these videos with all problems/bugs together.
Hmm... I personally haven't played it yet, not a fan of Mass Effect. Although I can see a lot of problems with this game, I doubt it is as bad as some people are saying. A vocal minority hates Bioware more than their games, so no matter what game they release, some people will spend hours/days just trying to find defects so they can bash the game.
THE SAME THING will happen with Dragon Age 4 and their new IP, no matter what. Though DA 4 is being made by a more experienced team, so it will be harder to edit these videos with all problems/bugs together.
Yep the sad part is those folks won't just come out and say that as that creates no scene...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I have no idea why the staff here are defending the game as much as they are. I haven't seen it taken to this level before. We get it. You like the game. You really, really like it. Some people won't like it as much as you or at all. Some of the criticism is a little overboard (like all the social engineering stuff) but there are many legitimate problems with this new ME. Some of the staff responses are borderline fanboyism. Relax and calm your tits.
You are right, the original review posted here was pretty blatant fanboyism. The reviewer wrote something like "graphic flaws don't matter because Mass Effect isn't about graphics." A video game where graphics don't matter? What is it, a MUD or something?
Why do you people immediately call it fanboyism? Is it so hard to understand that other people might have a different opinion?
There is no real truth behind this game. Every person is going to feel different about it, to the extent that some hate it and some love it. Grow up and respect that fact and maybe, just maybe, this place is going to be a lot more pleasant to visit.
I'm so tired of reviewers telling me that I'm some mindless drone in the social media hive mind. Social media is a bunch of people. You use social media -- how did you manage to escape the mob mentality?
Give us a little credit please. I'm an adult and capable of forming my own opinions, thank you. And ME:A is exactly as bad as I would have me believe.
I have no idea why the staff here are defending the game as much as they are. I haven't seen it taken to this level before. We get it. You like the game. You really, really like it. Some people won't like it as much as you or at all. Some of the criticism is a little overboard (like all the social engineering stuff) but there are many legitimate problems with this new ME. Some of the staff responses are borderline fanboyism. Relax and calm your tits.
You are right, the original review posted here was pretty blatant fanboyism. The reviewer wrote something like "graphic flaws don't matter because Mass Effect isn't about graphics." A video game where graphics don't matter? What is it, a MUD or something?
Why do you people immediately call it fanboyism? Is it so hard to understand that other people might have a different opinion?
There is no real truth behind this game. Every person is going to feel different about it, to the extent that some hate it and some love it. Grow up and respect that fact and maybe, just maybe, this place is going to be a lot more pleasant to visit.
about graphics, "let me be frank here............you’re doing it wrong."
Its attacking people for criticizing graphical flaws.
Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
I just finished the game and it was every bit as good as I expected or thought it would be. I guess their intent was to capture,copy and use some of the better parts of the original trilogy and try to blend them into Andromeda. I personally think they achieved that goal and was pretty much satisfied with the story, the game play with the over all look and feel that was the very essence of Mass Effect trilogy. I know there will be others that disagree and that's fine. But I did enjoy my 84 hrs with 91% completion of the game very much and I am looking forward to see what they have for us in the way of dlc.
There's a reason they set Both DA:I and ME:A outside of their predecessors, they were meant to be different games than what came before, connected in IP only.
You call it being "outside of their predecessors". I call it killing the IPs, burying them, and pissing on the graves.
Yeah everyone can like what they want, no one has the true, ultimate say on what it good or bad, but regardless of how you feel about both games (DA:I, ME:A) they have done both series a disservice. It shows (especially so) with this recent iteration. If they want to take their games in such a different direction why not create a new IP and avoid all of the hate that comes from failed expectations?
Like the article says, had it not been called "Mass Effect" people would have been more forgiving. With a name as well known as Mass Effect there is a certain amount of quality expected and I'm not talking about them "going in a different direction". I mean a quality of writing, QA testing, you know, the usual? That's where this article fails, it tries to paint the game as going in another direction and that people can't handle change but that's not the problem at all.
EA isn't content with just destroying studios, they have to destroy the games themselves now. Oops, everyone hates EA! Looks like I'm following the hivemind! Oh wait, no, they've actually destroyed more studios and IP's than I can count on two hands guess it must be some of that witchcraft people call "independent thought".
And I'm not hating on the writers or staff, I love this site, been coming here roughly 14 years now but I don't feel this article made any valid points. I mean no disrespect.
I have no idea why the staff here are defending the game as much as they are. I haven't seen it taken to this level before. We get it. You like the game. You really, really like it. Some people won't like it as much as you or at all. Some of the criticism is a little overboard (like all the social engineering stuff) but there are many legitimate problems with this new ME. Some of the staff responses are borderline fanboyism. Relax and calm your tits.
You are right, the original review posted here was pretty blatant fanboyism. The reviewer wrote something like "graphic flaws don't matter because Mass Effect isn't about graphics." A video game where graphics don't matter? What is it, a MUD or something?
Why do you people immediately call it fanboyism? Is it so hard to understand that other people might have a different opinion?
There is no real truth behind this game. Every person is going to feel different about it, to the extent that some hate it and some love it. Grow up and respect that fact and maybe, just maybe, this place is going to be a lot more pleasant to visit.
The first paragraph of the review flat out says it's written by a fanboy who can't really be objective. It warns that if you're not also an uncritical fanboy that you're going to see right through the blatant bias and excuse making.
There's a reason they set Both DA:I and ME:A outside of their predecessors, they were meant to be different games than what came before, connected in IP only.
You call it being "outside of their predecessors". I call it killing the IPs, burying them, and pissing on the graves.
Yeah everyone can like what they want, no one has the true, ultimate say on what it good or bad, but regardless of how you feel about both games (DA:I, ME:A) they have done both series a disservice. It shows (especially so) with this recent iteration. If they want to take their games in such a different direction why not create a new IP and avoid all of the hate that comes from failed expectations?
Like the article says, had it not been called "Mass Effect" people would have been more forgiving. With a name as well known as Mass Effect there is a certain amount of quality expected and I'm not talking about them "going in a different direction". I mean a quality of writing, QA testing, you know, the usual? That's where this article fails, it tries to paint the game as going in another direction and that people can't handle change but that's not the problem at all.
EA isn't content with just destroying studios, they have to destroy the games themselves now. Oops, everyone hates EA! Looks like I'm following the hivemind! Oh wait, no, they've actually destroyed more studios and IP's than I can count on two hands guess it must be some of that witchcraft people call "independent thought".
And I'm not hating on the writers or staff, I love this site, been coming here roughly 14 years now but I don't feel this article made any valid points. I mean no disrespect.
I don't look at it much different than say Star Wars offering different types of products to different audiences. Hence I can't really get behind the idea that it's a disservice.
As for quality there's something many don't seem to consider here.
Creating an open world game with lots of dialogue options; what was it a 1000+ NPCs to converse with? With male and female options in said dialogue, as well as a myriad of facial options, while at the same time balancing open world gameplay into it all. It's a huge undertaking and not the same as creating a narrative based experience that's more akin to a corridor, in which the player is guided by a narrative string pulling you along.
There are things that are going to be sacrificed in the larger game, one of which is overall quality of each individual element. Every game of that type suffers in that regard, be it TES, Dragon's Dogma (which sacrificed a lot of things to pull off it's level of interaction in combat), DA:I, Fall out games, so on and so forth.
You can see this difference in the witcher 3, as without the need to account for many different playstyles, characters, etc... They can put a lot more refinement into the overall presentation. As well as overall craftsmanship of the world, as it's much more centralized in it's possible uses.
All games are a mix of their given elements, the more elements the more sacrifices, that's just the way things are with big games. EA/Bioware is still relatively new at that, as it's never been in their comfort zone, neither in their old or new existence. They've been creating centralized, limited options/outcome experiences since at least KOTOR. They've still got a lot to learn about balancing the overall experience in a deeper game.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This is one of the worst articles I've seen here so far.
It's childish, and honestly, pathetic to just dismiss everything the community has said like this.
Not everyone in "the community" is up in arms. Most are quietly and happily playing the game while acknowledging that there are flaws and bugs, even a lot of them, but also waiting to hear how those issues will be dealt with come Tuesday. Much of what is "wrong" with MEA will be addressed through patches.
The bottom line is, if the story isn't to your liking. If the game doesn't meet your expectations. If you hate the game play, the character models, or any one of a litany of things -- stop playing and go back to play the Original Trilogy and hope that the next ME game is better.
I find that this has been a pretty damned good first effort by a young team. I have a lot of confidence in their future and the future of the series.
"Most" are happily playing the game? Since when is YOUR opinion the opinion of "most" now?
"Oh, it'll be patched so it's ok", since when was that acceptable? Since when is a game with so many issues with animations and the writing given a pass because it's "a young team"?
Almost all of the people that I know that bought the game are actually liking it. 1 out of 9 decided to stop playing and wait for updates.
Oh really? The people YOU know like it? I'm sorry, i forgot you and your friends spoke for everyone else.
It's the only valid metric I have. At least it comes from people that have played the games.
Ah ok, so everyone that mentions the bugs, all the videos showing how terrible the animation and writing is, they have the game and they dislike it. That opinion somehow means less than your friends or the writer of the article's opnions?
My friends opinions certainly matters more than a couple videos on youtube compiling 5 minutes of bad from a game that last 100hours or random Joe commenting on the game while I don't even know if he played the game or not. Most of the complaints seem to come from people that are only parroting what they heard. And just FYI, my friends opinion matter more than the writers of this site also.
I am not saying it's a perfect game, far from it, but it certainly isn't a failure. If you focus only on the bad you will hate the game, but there is so much good in it, that in the end, the odd time you see a bad animation you just laugh at it.
I'm so tired of reviewers telling me that I'm some mindless drone in the social media hive mind. Social media is a bunch of people. You use social media -- how did you manage to escape the mob mentality?
Give us a little credit please. I'm an adult and capable of forming my own opinions, thank you. And ME:A is exactly as bad as I would have me believe.
Another obvious post by someone who did not play the game. Just regurgitating someone else's negative opinion is rather sad.
Personally still playing the game and despite a few minor bugs I had a blast playing it. Too bad you are missing out.
Comments
+1
Whatever you say about people not liking the game, you guys just keep posting positive reviews one after another, yes we get it, you like it, or they pay you, but, we don't care, just move on.
You don't have to prove you are right, you stated your review and opinion long ago.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics.
Reply
Add Multi-Quote
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
When people bring up the "writing" that's so vague of a complaint. As there is tons of writing in this game, is all of it good? No... is all of it bad? No....The animation complaint is essentially the same story, there's so much of it, and it all goes by very quickly, it too is not all bad or all good. Anyone could go compile a video of all the good parts and sensationalize how good it is, just as they can do with showing the bad.
As for how about those videos? None of us who have played care about that, we've seen it first hand, at that point reviews breakdowns/etc. are meaningless...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I agree.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
At the heart of it all though is fun gameplay and how often has it been said that gameplay is the most important aspect of any game. It can look and sound absolutely amazing but if the gameplay sucks the game will fail hard.
The problem here is that MEA is a huge missed opportunity for EA ( not Bioware, they don't exist anymore other than a name ) and is yet another example of a company run by suits that have no idea. They didn't learn a damn thing from the ME3 fiasco and are now feeling the backlash and no doubt completely missing the point while being focused on the bottom line.
THE SAME THING will happen with Dragon Age 4 and their new IP, no matter what. Though DA 4 is being made by a more experienced team, so it will be harder to edit these videos with all problems/bugs together.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Why do you people immediately call it fanboyism? Is it so hard to understand that other people might have a different opinion?
There is no real truth behind this game. Every person is going to feel different about it, to the extent that some hate it and some love it. Grow up and respect that fact and maybe, just maybe, this place is going to be a lot more pleasant to visit.
I'm so tired of reviewers telling me that I'm some mindless drone in the social media hive mind. Social media is a bunch of people. You use social media -- how did you manage to escape the mob mentality?
Give us a little credit please. I'm an adult and capable of forming my own opinions, thank you. And ME:A is exactly as bad as I would have me believe.
Its attacking people for criticizing graphical flaws.
Yeah everyone can like what they want, no one has the true, ultimate say on what it good or bad, but regardless of how you feel about both games (DA:I, ME:A) they have done both series a disservice. It shows (especially so) with this recent iteration. If they want to take their games in such a different direction why not create a new IP and avoid all of the hate that comes from failed expectations?
Like the article says, had it not been called "Mass Effect" people would have been more forgiving. With a name as well known as Mass Effect there is a certain amount of quality expected and I'm not talking about them "going in a different direction". I mean a quality of writing, QA testing, you know, the usual? That's where this article fails, it tries to paint the game as going in another direction and that people can't handle change but that's not the problem at all.
EA isn't content with just destroying studios, they have to destroy the games themselves now. Oops, everyone hates EA! Looks like I'm following the hivemind! Oh wait, no, they've actually destroyed more studios and IP's than I can count on two hands guess it must be some of that witchcraft people call "independent thought".
And I'm not hating on the writers or staff, I love this site, been coming here roughly 14 years now but I don't feel this article made any valid points. I mean no disrespect.
The first paragraph of the review flat out says it's written by a fanboy who can't really be objective. It warns that if you're not also an uncritical fanboy that you're going to see right through the blatant bias and excuse making.
As for quality there's something many don't seem to consider here.
Creating an open world game with lots of dialogue options; what was it a 1000+ NPCs to converse with? With male and female options in said dialogue, as well as a myriad of facial options, while at the same time balancing open world gameplay into it all. It's a huge undertaking and not the same as creating a narrative based experience that's more akin to a corridor, in which the player is guided by a narrative string pulling you along.
There are things that are going to be sacrificed in the larger game, one of which is overall quality of each individual element. Every game of that type suffers in that regard, be it TES, Dragon's Dogma (which sacrificed a lot of things to pull off it's level of interaction in combat), DA:I, Fall out games, so on and so forth.
You can see this difference in the witcher 3, as without the need to account for many different playstyles, characters, etc... They can put a lot more refinement into the overall presentation. As well as overall craftsmanship of the world, as it's much more centralized in it's possible uses.
All games are a mix of their given elements, the more elements the more sacrifices, that's just the way things are with big games. EA/Bioware is still relatively new at that, as it's never been in their comfort zone, neither in their old or new existence. They've been creating centralized, limited options/outcome experiences since at least KOTOR. They've still got a lot to learn about balancing the overall experience in a deeper game.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I am not saying it's a perfect game, far from it, but it certainly isn't a failure. If you focus only on the bad you will hate the game, but there is so much good in it, that in the end, the odd time you see a bad animation you just laugh at it.
Personally still playing the game and despite a few minor bugs I had a blast playing it. Too bad you are missing out.