Aaryn Flynn steps down as BioWare General Manager; Casey Hudson returns to fill the position

[Frraksurred]

I'm a little surprised this day old info hasn't been posted yet.

Casey, who was the Project Director on the ME series and the upcoming "Anthem" for its first year, left to go to Microsoft in 2014. He will now be returning to take Aaryn's place as General Manager. Also returned is Drew Karpyshyn, the writer for half the ME series and each of BioWare's legendary games before it. This is no guarantee Anthem won't suck, but it gives me some encouragement that BioWare has a chance of turning things around, particularly after Andromeda's disastrous performance.

As a BioWare fan who has hated watching their gradual degradation after the ME3 ending fiasco, I have new hope for the Dev house. Here's to hoping they can pull it off.

 

[Deleted whining member 223597]

It was posted in the news section. We'll see what happens, but I wait for reviews/sales with bio ware games anyways.

 

[spugnor]

They will have to work very, VERY hard to erase the bad taste that the last ME game left in my mouth. ME-1, epic in every way. it's been a long slide downhill in my opinion. ME-2 was good, but wasn't as epic. ME-3 was blah. ME andromeda put me to sleep.

The plots have been trending steadily downwards, and ME-andromeda could have been the chance to make it epic again, but they made it suck harder than hard vacuum.

 

[Nebell]

I actually liked all 4 Mass Effect games. Sure, #2 was my favorite, but I enjoyed 3 and 4 as well. I'd say:

1: Mass Effect 2
2: Mass Effect 3
3: Mass Effect
4: Mass Effect 4

In fact, I got both ME:A and Horizon at the same time (ME:A on PC and Horizon on PS4 Pro). And everyone was praising Horizon for being a fantastic game etc etc etc, but guess what hooked me more? ME:A of course.

 

[Frraksurred]

I enjoyed Horizons, but it got repetitious for me. However at least for it I liked the main character, I cannot say that about Andromeda. The extremely few characters I did like had tiny roles in the story. The combat in Andromeda was decent, but the characters, plot and under developed everything just bored me away from the game. I'm with spugnor on this one. I would love to see BioWare refocus on its priorities, but I think EA is going to have them chasing Destiny (a day late and a dollar short).

 

[Q-BZ]

I would love to see BioWare refocus on its priorities, but I think EA is going to have them chasing Destiny (a day late and a dollar short).

Exactly. This is a complete "miscasting" and misuse of that talent from my limited vantage point.

I liked ME:A overall.

Horizon Zero Dawn is on my personal GOTY shortlist. I'm assuming that's the "Horizons" you were referring to.

 

[Frraksurred]

Exactly. This is a complete "miscasting" and misuse of that talent from my limited vantage point.

I liked ME:A overall.

Horizon Zero Dawn is on my personal GOTY shortlist. I'm assuming that's the "Horizons" you were referring to.

Yes, HZD was what I was referring too. I enjoyed the game over-all, and to be fair my little nit-picks with it tend to be associated with most open world games; the story gets too stretched and diluted by all the wandering and similar side quests. Horizons did a fairly good job with this, I'd rank it just under Witcher 3, so keep in mind how meager of a complaint this is. I am looking forward to more of HZD, where as every time I fire up Andromeda after an update, I end up shutting it back off before I even leave my ship. Besides the fact the menus are still a slide show to open and close, the characters annoy me more than get me to relate to them.

For BioWare's sake as a Developer, I hope Anthem does well, but I agree EA is contorting the Dev house into something they are not. That said, if Anthem does do well, the contortion will only worsen. I have some hope now the Casey is back, but he still has to answer to bosses that love games for the money they make instead of just loving games.

 

[M76]

Yes, HZD was what I was referring too. I enjoyed the game over-all, and to be fair my little nit-picks with it tend to be associated with most open world games; the story gets too stretched and diluted by all the wandering and similar side quests. Horizons did a fairly good job with this, I'd rank it just under Witcher 3, so keep in mind how meager of a complaint this is. I am looking forward to more of HZD, where as every time I fire up Andromeda after an update, I end up shutting it back off before I even leave my ship. Besides the fact the menus are still a slide show to open and close, the characters annoy me more than get me to relate to them.

For BioWare's sake as a Developer, I hope Anthem does well, but I agree EA is contorting the Dev house into something they are not. That said, if Anthem does do well, the contortion will only worsen. I have some hope now the Casey is back, but he still has to answer to bosses that love games for the money they make instead of just loving games.

Are there even characters in HZD? From what I saw of it you're wandering a completely empty jungle with robot dinosaurs. Seemed extremely boring and repetitive, even judging by the actual promo videos.

 

[Frraksurred]

Are there even characters in HZD? From what I saw of it you're wandering a completely empty jungle with robot dinosaurs. Seemed extremely boring and repetitive, even judging by the actual promo videos.

There are, but they are largely people you meet in passing. Quests, story interludes, there is really only two characters you really get to know and even they don't get the development of characters from say... Wolfenstien The New Order or the early Mass Effect games. Still, it's not nearly as lonely as you've been to believe.

 

[M76]

There are, but they are largely people you meet in passing. Quests, story interludes, there is really only two characters you really get to know and even they don't get the development of characters from say... Wolfenstien The New Order or the early Mass Effect games. Still, it's not nearly as lonely as you've been to believe.

Ah I thought there are actually some good characters in it after you said andromeda's characters annoy you. Well I guess if you don't have something they can't annoy you. I'm not sure that's a step up however.