I played Mass Effect similarly, in that I always played the ‘soldier’ class; I certainly used the abilities, but they weren’t the primary method I handled the combat. Even then, though, the actual guns in Andromeda just never felt like they had the same level of distinction, of personality, as the guns in Mass Effect…

I think that’s an absolutely fair perspective; personally, I’d probably say that the movement in Andromeda was better*, but I didn’t like the actual weaponry as much: the ‘mod’ system**  was a cute idea, but it ultimately wound up making the guns feel less distinctive, and that’s one of the core components of ‘good’…

Yeah, I’ll admit I’m gunshy on the Switch mostly because the Wii is the only console I’ve ever owned where I looked at it at the end of its lifecycle, looked at the tiny library of games I’d ever purchased for it, and said ‘no, not worth it; I regret my purchase’. Add that to the fact that the whole ‘the Switch can be…

Absolutely; at some point, I’m not exactly sure when, racing games (and all sports games, really, inasmuch as racing games, as a genre, are also ‘sports’ games) started to take themselves incredibly seriously*. Which I’m sure is grand for people who are really, really, really into that side of things, but I’m looking…

As someone who only ever played Forza Horizon 4 because it was on GamePass, I was blown away by how FUN it is. Something about shifting their ‘deadly serious important!’ simulation duties over to Forza Motorsport freed up Horizon to just be a pure sugar-rush, and I adore it: it’s pretty much ‘driving antique and/or…

Interesting; several other articles have mentioned that the user interface is ‘identical’ to the current-gen, so I’d assume that if your One X had a filter for ‘One X Enhanced’, it would remain on the Series X as well, just because it would seem like more work to take it out for the Series X/S interface than to keep…

Yeah, I adored it the first time through, and it’s still one of the most important games of its generation to me. The only reason I’d like an update to the combat is that after playing 2 and 3, its flaws are significantly more noticeable on replay.

Oh, absolutely - like I said, ‘its modular construction, that’s just the easiest way to handle building stuff out on the frontiers of space!’ is entirely plausible. I just find it interesting that no one ever seems to criticize the first Mass Effect for asset re-use - even when they’re criticizing the game in general…

Cheers; I’ve mostly just been replying to this thread, I don’t think I’ve even looked at the others. That seemed like the wisest course of action, all things considered: when ‘political’ and ‘my console is better than YOUR console’ collide, that comment section’s just gonna be a mess, regardless of how well the…

Is there a way to tell which games have been optimized to at least the ‘Xbox One X’ level? I’m (theoretically; delivery pending) getting a Series X tomorrow, but I skipped the ‘mid-console’ upgrade, so I’m going straight from an original Xbox One to a Series X, and I figure that optimized to at least ‘One X’ would be…

Oh, it’s absolutely more noticeable than in ME 1; I just find it kind of fascinating that’s what’s so often held up as Dragon Age II’s greatest sin, and ME did the same thing, just somewhat less egregiously. At least the differences between Inquisition and DA: II are much more significant, you know? The dog-piling on…

Again, I totally get that, but at the same time, it ain’t like Dragon Age Origins didn’t do... pretty much the same thing. Or the original Mass Effect, for that matter: Mass Effect has, what, three interiors, for the non-story-critical planets? The mine, the base, and the... other base? Again, you can ABSOLUTELY…

Yeah, I think it wouldn’t be that hard to ‘import’ the shooting gameplay from the later games in the series, without touching the stuff that DOES still work. I think there’s a way to both ‘be an RPG’ and ‘have mechanics that don’t feel inherently cludgy and non-responsive’; I feel like that shouldn’t really be that…

Well put!

Exactly; I totally understand why the majority of people didn’t love DA: II, but for me, it just worked.

Yeah, I get why it didn’t click with some people, I just think some of those flaws and limitations helped create a really cool game, in that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ kind of way. The repetitive environments, as an example, didn’t bother me at all, because I loved the conceit that rather than roaming…

I didn’t know about the patch; when I replayed it later, I thought it was the added ‘points’ from the various DLC that put me over the top without requiring MP. Good for them!

I certainly didn’t find them ‘unplayable’ at the time... but again, my expectations were more at ‘KOTOR’ than other, actual shooters, and I still find the basic Mass Effect gameplay more engaging than KOTOR’s, even though ‘not having a lightsaber’ is pretty much always a mark against a game. (Not just this game: any…

I tend to go the other way - I think they’re both pretty easily the weakest in their series, though that’s in comparison to some really strong games; I wouldn’t go so far to say I didn’t enjoy either of them, just that I didn’t find them nearly as enjoyable as their predecessors - but the divergent responses were…

Hey, I get that; like I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I’m the guy who thinks Dragon Age II is hands-down the best in that series, so I get what it’s like choosing a hill to die on!