A day later edit: Gosh I am absolutely blown away by the positive feedback and kind messages I've received for this! You guys are awesome and I am so honoured to be able help out budding Boros players! I've had a few people ask for decklists - I'll need to update my TappedOut because they're out of date, but I'll add them here ASAP!
This post is mostly for my own self-satisfaction, but also to see if I could partake my experiences of playing Boros for some other budding Boros players and help them avoid mistakes that I made. I haven't really thought about a way to set up this post, but I think I'll try and go through a few bits and pieces and vent on a lot of feelings, both positive and negative, I have with Boros.

Boros Commanders I have played over the years

[[Gisela, Blade of Goldnight]]
[[Tajic of the Legion]]
[[Aurelia, the Warleader]]
[[Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice]]
[[Firesong and Sunspeaker]]
[[Archangel Avacyn]]
[[Anya, Merciless Angel]]

Now, immediately one might look at those commander and think to yourself ... '90% of those are combat-based commanders'. And ... you would be right. Though I tried to differentiate and toss it up a bit through each commander. I moved through Angels, Soldier Tribal, Tokens, Voltron, Spellslinger, and - my favourite - 'Judgement Day' (Archangel Avacyn).
So what did I learn about playing my favourite Guild?
Well, there's a few things - and I think it's important to recognise that everyone's experiences will be different, but more importantly, your experiences will - 90% of the time - be dictated by the Meta and Power Level of your playgroup/online.
So ... without further ado ... here are a few lessons I learned that I wish I knew at the beginning.

1. You need to embrace Land Destruction.

A wise person on this sub once said to me - "Boros is the most effective colour combination at destroying resources. Lands are an invaluable resource. Why would you sacrifice your greatest asset and handicap yourself just so you can be nice, when Boros is already the weakest guild?"
I don't like blowing up lands. But all is fair in love and war. If you sit back and just let that Green player ramp unchallenged into an Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof combo, when your colour choice has more than enough tools to stop it, you only have yourself to blame.
That isn't to say you have to play Armageddon. MLD should only be reserved for the end of a game. Instead, try to go for more ... controlled land destruction. One of my absolute favourites is [[From the Ashes]]. It punishes greedy multi-colour players, especially five colour players. I have a Jodah player in my meta, and I've grown tired of him casting things like Expropriate for just 5cmc. He wants to be greedy and play a bunch of dual lands? Punish him for being over-confident. That's what Boros does - punishes.

2. Play risky - accelerate without breaks.

This is more of a Red aspect, but I've found that I have greater success in the games that I am quick and throw caution to the wind. What do I mean by this? Well, you need to play cards like [[Howling Mine]] and [[Font of Mythos]]. Yes, making your opponents draw is risky, but by God you need card draw in Boros. You can't hold back.
[[Humble Defector]] - play him. Thank me later.
[[Ghriapur Orrery]] is an all-star and goes in all my Boros decks. This card is a monster. When I play Boros, I have a rule. If I have more than three cards in my hand, I'm not playing properly. I should always have a near-empty hand. Now, this is very much a unique to me thing, but I like to blow my load (no not in that way) as quickly as possible. Ghirapur lets you restock your hand after you're out of fuel. Theoretically, if you're playing Boros properly, you should be drawing three cards each upkeep. No one will want to destroy the Orrery because it lets them play 2 lands per turn.
You're a glass cannon. You need to embrace that.

3. Removal, removal, removal.

White is the king of removal. Board-wipes, targeted removal, artifact and enchantment hate ... white is incredibly strong at this. Now, this varies depending on your meta, but I run more single-target removal than I do boardwipes. Sure, I run stables like [[Blasphemous Act]] and [[Austere Command]], but I find White has wonderful access to single-target removal such as the all-stars of StP and PtE, but it also has access to the most powerful artifact/enchantment hate - [[Return to Dust]].
This leads me onto my next point - choose exile removal every time. Do not run 'destroy artifact'. You are white. You have access to Exile. That Sol Ring needs to go permanently. That Helm of the Host must never see the light of day again.
Oh, and - [[Rest in Peace]]. Run it. You need to sacrifice your own graveyard shenanigans to shut down those Sultai decks.

4. Don't underestimate small points of damage.

So you have a 2/2 on the field that can attack? You don't need to hold it back as a blocker? Swing. Don't ever pass up the chance to do damage. Running a [[Staff of Nin]]? Ping someone before your upkeep. Those little ticks of damage add up. It could mean the difference between killing a player and them surviving and winning the game.

5. One Neheb to rule them all.

[[Neheb, the Eternal]].
Sweet Christmas Neheb is quite possibly the best card WoTC has made for Boros in years. "He's Red though?" Yeah, but he is made for Boros. You need all the mana you can get so you can explode ASAP. Neheb is a powerhouse and goes in all my Boros decks. He has won me games with the sheer amount of mana he can produce. Protect him, cherish him, love him. He will show you the world ... shining shimmering splendour ...

Closing ...

Thank you for reading this splurge of my thoughts and advice with Boros. Now go out there and conquer your enemies! For the glory of the Legion ! For the glory of Aurelia!
Now is your [[Chance for Glory]] !!
No seriously, that's my favourite card in all of MTG.

Nothing in Kubala's life was normal. Now that TV series about sportsmen are fashionable, the one that could be made about the adventures of Ladislao Kubala Stecz (Budapest, 1927) would raze through many seasons. In one season we could go deeper into his facet of legendary footballer, capable of changing the way of playing this sport, how he saved his life at the very last moment by not getting on the Torino plane that crashed in Superga, or how he was ten minutes away from signing for Real Madrid or enrolling in the Pirate League of Colombia, all of this in order to end being Barcelona's biggest icon... who ended playing for Espanyol.
We could add a season of adventures due to his incredible escape from communist Hungary. His journey through Italy with a football team, the Hungaria, of stateless people in which in addition to Hungarians also played Croats, Albanians, Romanians and Serbs who were looking for a life as good as they could get. One could also add to this the facet of the social phenomenon that dazzled a country during the dark years of Franco's regime by becoming a pop star, and end up with another season about the legends, real, invented or simply exaggerated, of his adventures in Barcelona's nightclubs.
Everything about Kubala is like a movie.

The legend of the escape.

Born in Budapest to a Hungarian man and a Slovakian woman, he always considered himself as both Hungarian and Slovakian, even when this republic was part of the now extinct Czechoslovakia. By the age of 20, Kubala was a football star known for his performances with Slovan Bratislava and Vasas Budapest. In fact, he had already been capped by Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Later, he would go on to play for Spain, and is still the only player to have been capped by three countries. But fed up with the system that was preventing him from developing his professional football career, he embarked on an escape proper of a movie to the West. He contacted a human trafficking organisation, a mafia that, in exchange for a large amount of money, facilitated a partial escape. As is now the case with criminals who gamble with the lives of people who want to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe or pass to the United States through the southern border, the smugglers did not secure anything. The last part of the journey depended on the luck and expertise of the escapees and often ended tragically.
"I remember that when I escaped from Hungary I was just a kid. The traffickers left us in the middle of a mountain to do the last stretch on foot. We were a large group. The adults gathered the children and gave us palinka. A liquor similar to brandy to get us drunk and fall asleep. A child's cry could alert the border guards patrolling the mountain. And they had orders to shoot to kill. The group split in two. My group was lucky and we were able to win the Austrian border. Once we were safe, we learned that the other group that had travelled with us and took another road was discovered and killed." The chilling story is that of Zoltan Czibor, the son of the former Barça player who tells how he had to flee Hungary with his family to join his father in Italy. The odyssey of Kubala, six years earlier, was mirrored.
The traffickers disguised Kubala as a Russian soldier and put him in a truck that would leave the escapees at an undetermined point in the mountains so that they could cross the border into Austria on their own. Kubala remembered that this journey scared him to death because unlike his comrades, he was a national celebrity and any soldier who checked the military truck would recognize him. He was endangering his life and the lives of those who accompanied him.
When they were left in the mountain on January 27, 1949, Kubala walked, and crossing a river helped by a tire that carried him, managed to reach Innsbuck, Austria, without any documentation. He was a stateless man starting from scratch.
In Austria he managed to sign with Pro Patria, a team from Milan, but he could only play friendly matches. His escape provoked the anger of the Hungarian regime, which denounced him and blocked his registration. Kubala had married Anna Daucik two years earlier, sister of Fernando Daucik, a veteran player of the era who would later become a famous coach. When Kubala fled, he left behind his family, whom he was unable to reunite with until six months later, when Anna was able to cross the border and meet Ladislao in Udine. He arrived with one more member of the family. A baby, her firstborn, whom Kubala did not yet know.
While he is irregularly enrolled in the Pro Patria, he gets the chance to sign with Torino, Italy's dominant team at the time. He is offered a trial match. Nothing better than a friendly match that Il Grande Torino had in Lisbon as a tribute to Xico Ferreira. However, when the Turin team's plane is about to take off, the president of Torino prevents Kubala from boarding because he fears a federal sanction. On the return flight, on 4 May 1949, the Fiat G 212 of Avio Linee Italiana crashed into the retaining wall of the Basilica of Superga due to the wind, poor visibility and an error in the altimeter of the aircraft. At 180 kilometres per hour and with a visibility of 40 metres, the pilot saw the stone wall of the basilica too late when he thought the plane was at 2,000 metres and was actually at 690 metres above sea level. The 31 people who were travelling in that aircraft died. Kubala had saved his life again.

The legend of Hungaria.

With no possibility of playing in Italy because the back then very powerful Italian Communist Party was pressing to prevent people fleeing from countries in the orbit of the USSR from taking refuge in Italy, Kubala had no choice but to form a team of stateless people who hired their services throughout Europe to play friendly matches against whoever hired them.
The team was called Hungaria, was managed by his brother-in-law Fernando Daucik and was mainly made up of Hungarians, although there were also players of other nationalities. It was made up of: Kis, Marik, Torok, Mogoy, Lami, Rákosi, Hrotko, Majteny, Nagy, Kubala, Otto, Licker, Turbeky, Monsider (Croatian), De Lorenzi (Albanian), Szegedi (Romanian) and Arangelovic (Serbian).
They played their first match against Italy's B team, but again pressure from the PCI forced them to play outside Italy. And that is how they arrived in Spain, hired by Santiago Bernabéu. On June 5, 1950, they faced Real Madrid in Chamartin, losing 4-2, but with a stellar performance by Kubala, who scored both of his team's goals. Three days later, they beat the Spanish team that was preparing for the World Cup in Brazil, where they came in fourth, 1-2 again with a great performance by Kubala, who received an offer from Real Madrid to be signed.
Kubala requires that to join the team, Madrid must also hire Daucik as a coach, something that Bernabéu does not agree to. The Madrid coach at that time was the Briton Keeping, a great connoisseur of WM tactics. Daucik is offered to train the Plus Ultra, a Madrid branch that plays in the third division. That negative and the federative problems that drags Kubala cause that Madrid becomes disinterested in his transfer, that was already agreed lacking of some fringes that turned out to be determinant.
The Hungaria moves two days later to Barcelona, where on June 10 plays against Espanyol losing 6-4 in a match with Pepe Samitier, the technical secretary of Barça, in the stands. It is necessary to emphasize that Hungaria had been playing three matches in five days with a very short team and without being able to make substitutions. Even so, Kubala amazes and Samitier does not mess around. Six days after that match, on 16 June 1950, at half past six in the evening, Kubala signed his three-year contract with Barça at the Pasaje Méndez Vigo. Obviously, with Fernando Daucik as coach. President Montal, Sr., signed him as an "amateur player" in order to avoid any trouble for the federation.
Real Madrid rages and is shocked. Pablo Hernández, general secretary of the white entity and Santiago Bernabéu's right hand, assures that Barça had broken a non-aggression pact between both teams and had hired a player with whom they were in talks. Samitier, who was unbeatable in the media, declares that he had been following Kubala for months and that the pact had not been broken because it referred only to players who played in Spanish teams. And Hungaria was not Spanish. In fact, it wasn't from anywhere.
But Kubala's problems didn't end there. He still didn't have a registration card or an international certificate. Vasas in Budapest and the Hungarian Federation had reported him to FIFA. Barça used the weak argument that since professionalism had been abolished in Hungary, any amateur player could choose his destiny. But the fight was not going to be so easy.
Barça, it is fair to say, had the total support of the regime and the Federation to carry out the transfer. At the level of anti-communist propaganda, Kubala was perfect. A young and extraordinary sportsman who fled from the red hell to take refuge in Franco's Spain was a candy too sweet to let go. Muñoz Calero, president of the Federation, rowed in favor of Barça as did Ricardo Cabot, secretary of the organization, who, in addition to his affection for the regime, was a well-known Barcelona supporter.
But the procedures were very slow and Kubala could only play friendly matches. He made his debut against Osasuna on 12 October, scoring two goals on the day the Barça fans knew instantly that they had just signed a star. Then he played against Zaragoza, Frankfurt twice, Girona and the Badalona. In six friendlies he scored 11 goals. The fans and the player himself were eager to meet in an official match. For all this, the Federation to play the role with FIFA fined Barça every time he lined up Kubala with the symbolic figure of 50 pesetas.
It is at this time that Kubala is about to leave everything and go away from Barça. He needed the money and wanted to play at the highest level and in Colombia he was offered the chance to do so. The South American country had organised the so-called Pirate League outside FIFA and many of the world's biggest stars joined, including Alfredo Di Stefano who went to Millonarios in Bogota. Kubala had a tempting offer from Atletico Bucaramanga. With the option of Kubala leaving, events accelerated. To begin with, Barça fixed his financial situation by means of a peculiar amateur contract in which they paid him 1,200 pesetas for "compensation" and 3,800 for "encouragement and overfeeding".
On April 2, 1951, he was granted the status of political refugee as a stateless person, which was a step towards granting him Spanish nationality. But for this step, Kubala first had to be converted to Catholicism through the sacrament of baptism. Every Spaniard had to be a Catholic. Kubala was baptized in Aguilas, Murcia, the birthplace of Muñoz Calero, president of the Federation. It is then when Barça, to avoid problems, settles its differences economically with Vasas, which despite being against capitalism accepts a payment of 300,000 pesetas to provide the transfer, while the Pro Patria, which also complained, is satisfied with 12 million lire.
The Kubala era could now really commence.

The legend on the field.

Kubala made his official debut with Barcelona in Sevilla in a cup match. The Sevillistas at that time were one of the best teams. Sevilla and Barça had developed in that period a great rivalry in the high places of the table. In 1946 Sevilla had stolen the possibility of winning the championship from Barça by drawing in Les Corts on the last day, in 1948 Barça beat the Sevillians in the final of the Eva Perón Cup (which would be the current Supercup) and in that campaign a Barça without Kubala had lost all its options to win La Liga after losing 4-0 in Nervión three days before the end of the season.
The Cup, by that time was played once the regular season was over and in those circumstances the official debut of Kubala took place. On April 29th in Nervion, Barça arrived to play against Sevilla in the middle of a difficult atmosphere. The Andalusians had lost the league in a dramatic outcome when they drew at home in the last match against Atletico Madrid with a refereeing performance that the locals judged scandalous. For further concern, the Federation allowed Kubala to line up with Barça in the first round of the Cup, which in Sevilla was taken as a surprise.
With the stadium full to the flag, Barcelona defeated Sevilla in an exhibition of Kubala. He wasn't just the best of the match but he showed Spain a way of playing football unthinkable until that time: chest controls, shots with curve, millimetric changes of play of 40 meters, protection of the ball with his back, use of the body in the shot and touches with the heel.
Domenech, Sevilla's attacker who was the direct protagonist of that match, explained years later how he remembered that day.
"It was something never seen before. Ramallets kicked it and he would receive her with his chest, or with either of his legs. If you tackled him he would dribble you in a brick. He'd put the ball where he wanted her. Besides, from time to time he changed with César, he'd be a center forward and César would be a midfielder. They drove us crazy. The anger of the people became clamours. We were witnessing something extraordinary. It was like going from black and white cinema to colour," explained the former Sevilla player. The Sevilla crowd, who had welcomed Barça and its new superstar with anger, ended up giving Kubala a standing ovation for every action as if they were watching a glorious bullfighting performance.
Kubala's actions on the field change football forever. Since there was no television, his exploits are reported orally. There is no other way to see it than to go to the field of Les Corts, which is packed for every game Barça plays as a local. It is a very common argument to say that Kubala forced Barça to build the Camp Nou because the old Les Corts was not enough to accommodate all the people who wanted to admire him. Maybe he had an influence, but as the journalist Frederic Porta, author of an interesting biography of Kubala (Kubala, l'heroi que va canviar la història del Barça. Ed. Saldonar) explains, "the truth is that Barça had already bought the land to build the Camp Nou two years before and the idea of making a bigger field already existed, but Kubala advanced everything and justified the change".
Blessed with brutal technique, a sensational strike of the ball and an unusual physical strength, Kubala changed football. He would throw free-kicks over the wall with curve or by making the ball bounce in front of the goalkeeper, he would take penalties (he was practically infallible) with what was later called paradinha and was credited with the Brazilians although he was the first in Europe to do so. Physically he was a bull. In his youth he had practiced boxing and if he didn't become a recognized fighter with a great career it was because he had short arms. His lower body was sensational. He had a butt and legs that allowed him to protect the ball like no one else. Frederic Porta says that "in his time of splendour they measured his thighs and each one had a circumference of 69 centimetres, which would be the waist of one of his companions". He was also capable of running the 100 metres in less than 11 seconds. A total athlete with a very refined technique.
However, that physical strength and the confidence he had in her, for he never avoided a collision, were his downfall. Kubala became the target of a hunt by rival defenders. He never went into hiding and that's why in eleven years at Barcelona he suffered up to eleven injuries of some seriousness. With matches without television, the harshness that bordered on violence was the order of the day. He was being kicked to death.
But Barça was living its most golden period to date. Moreover, the club revolved around Kubala. Frederic Porta compares it with the present time: "Now they say that Messi commands the club and surely he commands, but nothing to do with the influence that Kubala had. Kubala was the boss and even the one who decided the transfers. And no one was surprised. That Barça adopted the socks with the horizontal stripes blaugrana is his imposition. He saw them on the rugby team, liked them and incorporated them into the football team by decree. In fact, it is he who insists on signing Luis Suarez when he impresses him in a match against Deportivo. Kubala was Suarez's first fan, but what happened in the stands, which was divided between Suaristas and Kubalistas, is another matter.
Suarez was eight years younger than Kubala. He arrived at Barcelona at the age of 19, Kubala was 27 and his physique was very punished by his injuries and the life he was living, as he did not deprive himself of anything. If he held out, it was because of privileged genetics.
Therefore, there never was a real competition between them, but there was a lot of influence here from the figure of Helenio Herrera, the Barça manager, who saw Kubala as older and slower and was looking forward to a quick change by the young Galician as the leader of the team. The debate reached the stands and the media. It was an absurd debate, because they didn't play in the same position, with whom Kubala really had a certain rivalry with Eulogio Martínez, who was the one with whom he alternated the position.
Kubala's physical problems were not only due to injuries. He had the whole of Spain in suspense when he suffered a tuberculosis that could have cost him his life. There are apocryphal versions that explain that this tuberculosis was actually a stab wound he suffered in a fight in a cheap pub in the fifth district (Barcelona's Chinatown) and he has to retire to Montseny to recover. Nobody is betting on his return to the pitch if he survives a "hole in the lung the size of a silver bullet" according to the chronicles of the time. But once again, Kubala's ability to survive prevails. He returns to the pitches, but already heavily punished and slowed down.
It is against this backdrop that the 1961 European Cup final arrives, with Kubala arriving at the age of 34 with a herniated disc that barely allows him to walk, but he wants to play. He knows that the club is going through a critical situation despite having reached the final of the maximum trophy for the first time: the club is bankrupt because of the construction of the Camp Nou, the fights in the board of directors are chaotic, Luis Suarez has signed for Inter (the one in Bern will be his last game with Barça), which was where Helenio Herrera had left the team in the hands of Enrique Orizaola.
Kubala tells Orizaola to line him up, that like all the Portuguese will go for him and he can barely move because of the back pain and will play with painkillers, it will give more opportunities to his teammates. But the match is a pile of misfortunes for Barcelona. Ramallets scores an own goal, Barça shoots three times to the damn square posts of the goals (from then on they would change their shape) even Kubala kicked a ball that hit a post, went through the goal line until it hit the other post and came out repelled. Barça lost and Kubala's time at Barcelona came to an end.

The man of the year.

Kubala's significance goes beyond the playing field. According to a vote made for Radio Barcelona by journalist Joaquín Soler Serrano in the mid-50s, the Catalans most loved by their fellow citizens were Doctor Barraquer and Ladislao Kubala.
"He was literally the most famous person in the city, people really venerated him, and even Messi's influence cannot be compared to that of Kubala in those years," explains Porta.
His life off the field was notorious. An unrepentant night owl, it was common to see him in Barcelona's fashionable coffee shops and nightclubs. He was a man who stood out. Alfredo Relaño defines him in some of his articles as "a demigod. Tall, strong, blond with blue eyes and an overflowing personality. He aroused the admiration of men and women alike. An idol". Frederic Porta sums it up with the argument that "he would be the sum of Messi and Beckham and on top of that, he would go out every night".
Faced with Kubala's disorganised life, the Barcelona management decided to set up a private detective agency to follow him at night. The reports of the detectives are still in the Centre de Documentació del FC Barcelona and Frederic Porta published them in the history magazine 'Sàpiens'. In them, he gives a detailed account of the nocturnal wanderings of "Mr. K.", the code name of the Blaugrana star in an exercise in absurd discretion. There is also a letter from a Sabadell businessman in the club's archives, expressing concern that Kubala and Czibor had been "found in a Sabadell establishment after 2.30 in the morning accompanied by some of those ladies who were once gentlemen, I don't know if you understand". What the businessman doesn't explain in the letter is what he was doing in the same place.
Kubala's fondness for drinking was no secret. Helenio Herrera explains in a television interview that "one day at an airport in customs they asked Kubala if he had anything to declare and he said two bottles of whisky. The official asked him to show them to him and he, laughing, touched his belly and said: 'X-ray, I have them inside'. On another occasion, in the same situation, but carrying the bottle in the bag, he was told to leave it at the airport because no alcoholic drinks were allowed to be taken on board. Neither shy nor lazy, he drank it in front of the astonished official.
The legends about the occasions when the night was made longer and he did not arrive at training sessions or matches were recurrent. In that case, he called on the services of Angel Mur Sr., the team masseur who knew where to find him. He would start a pilgrimage through the usual places or floors until he found him, took him to the changing room, gave him a cold shower, a coffee with salt, a massage and played. The fans forgave him everything and were aware that their star was a man of joyful life. But he never failed on the field. Among the crowd at the time there were comments about the Kubala ritual in those games that followed a busy night. "He started off badly, and vaguely, but the signal was when, ten minutes into the game, he rolled up his sleeves as if to say 'I'm here, let's start, I've already cleared off', and the machine started to work.
You can't find anyone in the world who speaks ill of Kubala. Absolutely no one. Everyone highlights his huge heart and that despite being by far the highest paid player of the time (he earned six times more than his teammates) he didn't have a no for anyone. His detachment from money was legendary.
As proof, the anecdote explained by his biographer Porta: "one day he arrived at the dressing room and commented that his car had been stolen and that in the glove compartment he was carrying an envelope with 200,000 pesetas, which was a fortune for the time (a good apartment could cost 130,000 pesetas). When his colleagues tried to encourage him, he simply said: someone who needs it more than I do must have taken it".
It was also usual for him to take off his coat and give it to a poor man who begged in Barcelona's winter, or to take in any Hungarian who came to Barcelona asking for help in his house in Carrer Duquesa d'Orleans. Kubala, remembering his times as a stateless refugee without papers, asked nothing. He would take them home and pay them a boat ticket to America. The motto among the refugees fleeing the Iron Curtain was that "if you get to Barcelona, look for Kubala, he will help you". He never failed.
Later, now retired, he set up a bar next to Czibor in Capitan Arenas Street, the mythical Kep Duna (blue Danube in Hungarian) that became an unofficial refugee reception centre that was monitored by the secret services of the United States, the USSR and the Spanish police. Something like the Rick's Café in the film Casablanca, but in the upper area of Barcelona.
He was the great character of Barcelona loved by all, but there was a moment when this was almost broken, strange as it may seem. It coincided with the defeat in Bern, when a part of the press came to write that "Barça must be de-Kubalized as the Soviet Union must be de-Stalinized" and, especially, when he signed for Espanyol. The earthquake was a huge one.

From the bench to Sarrià.

After the defeat in Bern's final, Kubala announced his retirement from the fields. He had taken the coaching course and was ranked number one in his class. He made a pact with the president Llaudet, who was also an interesting character as we will see, that in principle he would take charge of the footballers' school of the club and that in a couple of years he would be in charge of the first team.
Meanwhile, Barcelona is directed by Lluís Miró who faces a team in disarray. Suarez has been transferred to Inter in the worst decision in the club's history and myths such as Ramallets, Tejada and Czibor were in the decline of their careers. The season starts badly and after losing at Mestalla to Valencia by a humiliating 6-2 that forces the resignation of Miro. It was time for Kubala, who was promoted to the first team in front of the joy of the fans. And the project results from the beginning. The Barça of the second part of season 61-62 recovers in La Liga and finishes second (the distance with the white ones when Kubala arrived was almost insurmountable) and avenges the 6-2 of Mestalla beating Valencia in the Camp Nou 4-0.
Facing the next season, the 62-63, Kubala can make his team by giving painful drops of some of his former teammates as it is the case of Eulogio Martinez or Evaristo. One of Llaudet's reluctances to give Kubala the job of coach was that he would have to manage some of his former teammates.
The positive expectations about Kubala's first full project were frustrated at first when the Blaugrana team had to play the final of the Copa de Ferias against Valencia, the team that caused the fall of Miró and the promotion of Kubala. And the history, by rare that it seems, repeats: Valencia returns to him to put 6-2 to the Barça. The fans explode against the team. In the return match, obviously, there is nothing to do, but Llaudet's ability to self-flagellation has no limits. As Alfredo Relaño writes, the Blaugrana president calls a dinner with the press the day before the game and makes this statement that if it happened today would open all the news.
Llaudet, in front of the press and accompanied by the coach Kubala and Gràcia as captain, asks the fans to forgive him and announces changes in the protocol of the start of the second leg. "Valencia will go out first to receive the applause, then Barcelona, to receive the whistles. Then Kubala will come out, so he can get the thunders. And finally me, so that all the whistles fall on my person, because I am the barcelonist who loves the club the most and who is destined to die on the pitch, if necessary...". He ends his speech crying. As we can see, Gaspart didn't invent anything.
The match ended in a draw and Kubala's project as Barça's coach was doomed. The manager is fired in the middle of the season and then a bomb explodes in Barcelona. Kubala accepts the offer to return to the pitch, but not as a coach, will be as a player and nothing more and nothing less than in Espanyol, Barça's eternal rival.
On 3 September 1963 Espanyol, then Español, announced that Kubala would be hired as a player. At 36 years of age, he was capable of being competitive.
His decision divides the public opinion. On the one hand, Federico Gallo and Juan José Castillo support his decision, on the other hand, Carlos Pardo or Ibáñez Escofet shoot at him. They call him a "Jew who sells himself for a plate of beans", a "traitor" and they see political interests in his decision.
Kubala explains that he wanted to continue playing and that he saw himself capable of doing so, although he accepted that he was not at Barcelona's level. He had received offers from important clubs, including River Plate and Juventus, but he doesn't want to leave Barcelona, where he feels like another Barcelonian. The Espanyol meets his expectations.
His start of the season is not bad, on the contrary, he scores in his first two games, but the team doesn't work out. The coexistence between the veteran newcomer Kubala and the team's symbol, Argilés, is not easy. Scopelli is dismissed as coach and de facto command of the team is given to the two team leaders despite their differences. The crisis erupts when the Spaniard visits the Camp Nou. The periquitos lose by 5-0 in a match in which the Barcelona crowd booed Kubala who they are eager to humiliate with his new team. Even so, at the end of the match, Kubala has a gesture to his former team that shows that he does not hold any grudge against what he has heard from the stands. At the end of the match, he organizes his teammates to make the corridor to Barça applauding the rival in recognition of the exhibition made. That gesture feels bad among the Espanyol fans and among some of his teammates. Argilés does not make the corridor and goes straight to the changing rooms.
The following year, Kubala becomes a manager-player and among the departures that he causes, there is the one of Argilés, but by contrast, Di Stéfano arrives, also hurt by his bad exit from Madrid fighting against Bernabéu.
Di Stefano and Kubala are like brothers. Even though they haven't officially played together, they have a special chemistry. A friendship that is forged when the Argentinian is about to sign for Barcelona.
When Di Stéfano arrives in Barcelona to sign for Español, he stays first at the Avenida Palace Hotel, but after a month he is living in Kubala's house as one of the family. The children of both always maintained a relationship as if they were brothers.
One of the players under Kubala's command was Jose Maria Rodilla, one of the players who would soon form the famous 'Dolphins' forward line. At 80 years of age, Rodilla remembers Kubala.
"I have a wonderful memory of Kubala, I always had a special affection for him. Not in vain, he was the one who signed me for Espanyol", he remembers when answering the call of this newspaper to which he confesses that* "normally I do not make declarations, but to speak about Kubala I do whatever is needed"*.
Rodilla, former teammate at Espanyol, has clear that "he was the best player in the world in terms of technique. Di Stéfano was the best footballer, but he didn't have his technique. Alfredo was more intense and more player of the whole field, but he could not do things that Kubala did"
Those who had the privilege of playing with both of them remember that "for example, Di Stefano wouldn't leave you alone for a minute, he was all over you and the fights were intense, but he always set an example, he never asked you for anything that he didn't do. Kubala was more paternalistic and tolerant. For example, he would ask us to do as he did in training, and while sitting down he would be able to make 3,000 touches on the ball without dropping it. Only he could do that."
Rodilla adds a story that explains Kubala's quality as a player-coach at the age of 38: "We went to play a friendly at Amposta and they called a foul on the edge of the box. Kubala takes the ball and whacks it into the corner. The referee made him repeat it because someone had moved or I don't know what. Kubala takes the ball and wham, back to the square. And the referee tells him that he has to repeat. That day Kubala got angry and left the field."
Rodilla recalls that Kubala's move from Barça to Espanyol created controversy in the city, but that he was oblivious to it. "He was still a magnificent person, I never heard him say a bad word against anyone. He never got into an argument, he was goodness personified, he was unlucky in his time as a coach, but as a coach he is one of the best I've ever had, with a great love for young players and always trying to help you improve."

Boys well, optimal morale.

He extended his playing career for a couple more years by playing for Zurich and even trying out the American adventure at the Toronto Falcons, where he coincides with Branko and Daucik's son. At the age of 40 he played 19 games and scored 5 goals.
In 1968 he returned to Spain and trained the Córdoba team for a short period of time until he was called up to the national team. Kubala will manage the Spanish team until 1980, when he signs for Barcelona again as a coach.
Kubala's debut with Spain was, once again, a propaganda match for the regime. It was played in the Estadio de la Línea de la Concepción against Finland and Spain beat their rivals 6-0 in a match that was no longer useful. Spain had missed out on qualifying for the Mexico '70 World Cup, but the idea of that game was to showcase a great field that could be seen from Gibraltar as if to give jealousy to those in the Rock for the sports culture of Spain. Dictatorship things.
It's true that at that time Spain was struggling more than anything else on the international scene. It did not qualify for the 1974 World Cup because of Katalinski's goal in the play-off match in Frankfurt, and in both the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 European Championship the team fell in the first round, but there is still no one from that era who will make a judgement against Kubala.
"Kubala, one ahead of his time. No doubt he had a lot to do with his past as a footballer. And not just like any other player, like the best! I remember him always saying to me: 'Ruben, you have to get out of the way on the other side of the ball. Look for the space, not the ball. The goal I scored in Yugoslavia has to do with everything he taught me," he told Fermin de la Calle in an interview with AS Ruben Cano, the hero of the famous 'Battle of Belgrade' in the match that took Spain to the World Cup in Argentina. Yes, the one with the goal by Cardeñosa that could have changed Kubala's record with the national team.
He did a lot to improve Spanish football and his idea regarding the incorporation of foreigners to improve the level of Spanish football was key in the future development of the Spanish competitive level.
His players remember him as a didactic person, tactically bold and very close. At a time when fury was the hallmark of the game, Kubala never forgot that he was the heir to the Magyar tradition of the Honved and the Hungary who, by moving the ball, shocked the world the day they destroyed England at Wembley 3-6.
For the average football fan, Kubala may have been a half-hearted coach who embodied an era of the national team in which nothing was won, as has been the case most of the time, and he became popular for his expressions that would now be meme material on social networks. The national team was known as the 'Kubala boys' and the coach's catchphrase before the matches saying "boys well, optimal morale" was the fashionable phrase in the coffee shops of the 70s in Spain.
But among his colleagues, Kubala still deserved reverential respect. "The first goal was authentically Latin, cunningly scored and perfectly studied. I can only congratulate Kubala on his previous tactical work," said German boss Helmut Schön after facing and losing to Spain in a friendly in which the recent world semi-finalist and next world champion fell to the Kubala boys at the Sanchez Pizjuan with two strategic goals from Arieta. Yes, Arieta against Müller. Seeler, Beckembauer, Maier, Netzer and company.
He left the national team in 1980 to join Barça as the coach of Núñez's second project in an operation that was the prelude to what would happen in the World Cup in Russia with Lopetegui. Kubala committed to Barça while he was coach and tried to alternate functions, but Porta refused. Finally, on 8 June 1980, four days before the start of the European Championship, Kubala signed for the Blaugrana team, which he would join after the European Championship.
His second spell at the head of Barça did not go well either and he was dismissed mid-season. He continued his adventure on the bench as coach of Saudi Arabia (in that he was also a pioneer), training Malaga and the Paraguayan national team before retiring from football on the bench of Elche.
He spent his final years in Barcelona as active as ever. Playing with Barça veterans, helping his teammates, not having a no for anyone and playing tennis every day or going for a run or cycling routes exhibiting an enviable physical condition.
Until the light of genius and the glory faded away 18 years ago. A degenerative brain disease put an end to the adventure, but not to the legend of a world football myth. An icon that changed the lives of so many people that they wouldn't fit even in a stadium.
The coffin with the mortal remains of Kubala was carried on shoulders, amidst the applause of the fans who gathered at the doors of the church of Santa Tecla, by Alfredo Di Stéfano, Gustau Biosca, Eduardo Manchón, Estanislao Basora, Joan Segarra, Josep Bartomeu, Luis Suárez, Antoni Ramallets and Gonzalvo III.
He rests in the cemetery of Les Corts, next to the Camp Nou because that is what he left written in his will, while Serrat sang to him about how...
...Pelé was Pelé and Maradona was the one and that's it. Di Stéfano was a pit of mischief. Honour and glory to those who made the sun shine on our football. Everyone has his merits; to each his own, but for me none is like Kubala. Respectable silence is requested, for those who haven't enjoyed him, I'll say four things: he stops it with his head, he drops it on with his chest, he sleeps it off with his left, crosses the pitch with the ball attached to the boot, leaves the midfield and enters the box showing the ball, hides it with his body, pushes with his ass and gets in with his heels. He pisses on the centerback with a dedicated piece. and touches her gently to put her on the path to glory.

by Santi Gimenez for AS.com (2020)

Nothing in Kubala's life was normal. Now that TV series about sportsmen are fashionable, the one that could be made about the adventures of Ladislao Kubala Stecz (Budapest, 1927) would raze through many seasons. In one season we could go deeper into his facet of legendary footballer, capable of changing the way of playing this sport, how he saved his life at the very last moment by not getting on the Torino plane that crashed in Superga, or how he was ten minutes away from signing for Real Madrid or enrolling in the Pirate League of Colombia, all of this in order to end being Barcelona's biggest icon... who ended playing for Espanyol.
We could add a season of adventures due to his incredible escape from communist Hungary. His journey through Italy with a football team, the Hungaria, of stateless people in which in addition to Hungarians also played Croats, Albanians, Romanians and Serbs who were looking for a life as good as they could get. One could also add to this the facet of the social phenomenon that dazzled a country during the dark years of Franco's regime by becoming a pop star, and end up with another season about the legends, real, invented or simply exaggerated, of his adventures in Barcelona's nightclubs.
Everything about Kubala is like a movie.

The legend of the escape.

Born in Budapest to a Hungarian man and a Slovakian woman, he always considered himself as both Hungarian and Slovakian, even when this republic was part of the now extinct Czechoslovakia. By the age of 20, Kubala was a football star known for his performances with Slovan Bratislava and Vasas Budapest. In fact, he had already been capped by Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Later, he would go on to play for Spain, and is still the only player to have been capped by three countries. But fed up with the system that was preventing him from developing his professional football career, he embarked on an escape proper of a movie to the West. He contacted a human trafficking organisation, a mafia that, in exchange for a large amount of money, facilitated a partial escape. As is now the case with criminals who gamble with the lives of people who want to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe or pass to the United States through the southern border, the smugglers did not secure anything. The last part of the journey depended on the luck and expertise of the escapees and often ended tragically.
"I remember that when I escaped from Hungary I was just a kid. The traffickers left us in the middle of a mountain to do the last stretch on foot. We were a large group. The adults gathered the children and gave us palinka. A liquor similar to brandy to get us drunk and fall asleep. A child's cry could alert the border guards patrolling the mountain. And they had orders to shoot to kill. The group split in two. My group was lucky and we were able to win the Austrian border. Once we were safe, we learned that the other group that had travelled with us and took another road was discovered and killed." The chilling story is that of Zoltan Czibor, the son of the former Barça player who tells how he had to flee Hungary with his family to join his father in Italy. The odyssey of Kubala, six years earlier, was mirrored.
The traffickers disguised Kubala as a Russian soldier and put him in a truck that would leave the escapees at an undetermined point in the mountains so that they could cross the border into Austria on their own. Kubala remembered that this journey scared him to death because unlike his comrades, he was a national celebrity and any soldier who checked the military truck would recognize him. He was endangering his life and the lives of those who accompanied him.
When they were left in the mountain on January 27, 1949, Kubala walked, and crossing a river helped by a tire that carried him, managed to reach Innsbuck, Austria, without any documentation. He was a stateless man starting from scratch.
In Austria he managed to sign with Pro Patria, a team from Milan, but he could only play friendly matches. His escape provoked the anger of the Hungarian regime, which denounced him and blocked his registration. Kubala had married Anna Daucik two years earlier, sister of Fernando Daucik, a veteran player of the era who would later become a famous coach. When Kubala fled, he left behind his family, whom he was unable to reunite with until six months later, when Anna was able to cross the border and meet Ladislao in Udine. He arrived with one more member of the family. A baby, her firstborn, whom Kubala did not yet know.
While he is irregularly enrolled in the Pro Patria, he gets the chance to sign with Torino, Italy's dominant team at the time. He is offered a trial match. Nothing better than a friendly match that Il Grande Torino had in Lisbon as a tribute to Xico Ferreira. However, when the Turin team's plane is about to take off, the president of Torino prevents Kubala from boarding because he fears a federal sanction. On the return flight, on 4 May 1949, the Fiat G 212 of Avio Linee Italiana crashed into the retaining wall of the Basilica of Superga due to the wind, poor visibility and an error in the altimeter of the aircraft. At 180 kilometres per hour and with a visibility of 40 metres, the pilot saw the stone wall of the basilica too late when he thought the plane was at 2,000 metres and was actually at 690 metres above sea level. The 31 people who were travelling in that aircraft died. Kubala had saved his life again.

The legend of Hungaria.

With no possibility of playing in Italy because the back then very powerful Italian Communist Party was pressing to prevent people fleeing from countries in the orbit of the USSR from taking refuge in Italy, Kubala had no choice but to form a team of stateless people who hired their services throughout Europe to play friendly matches against whoever hired them.
The team was called Hungaria, was managed by his brother-in-law Fernando Daucik and was mainly made up of Hungarians, although there were also players of other nationalities. It was made up of: Kis, Marik, Torok, Mogoy, Lami, Rákosi, Hrotko, Majteny, Nagy, Kubala, Otto, Licker, Turbeky, Monsider (Croatian), De Lorenzi (Albanian), Szegedi (Romanian) and Arangelovic (Serbian).
They played their first match against Italy's B team, but again pressure from the PCI forced them to play outside Italy. And that is how they arrived in Spain, hired by Santiago Bernabéu. On June 5, 1950, they faced Real Madrid in Chamartin, losing 4-2, but with a stellar performance by Kubala, who scored both of his team's goals. Three days later, they beat the Spanish team that was preparing for the World Cup in Brazil, where they came in fourth, 1-2 again with a great performance by Kubala, who received an offer from Real Madrid to be signed.
Kubala requires that to join the team, Madrid must also hire Daucik as a coach, something that Bernabéu does not agree to. The Madrid coach at that time was the Briton Keeping, a great connoisseur of WM tactics. Daucik is offered to train the Plus Ultra, a Madrid branch that plays in the third division. That negative and the federative problems that drags Kubala cause that Madrid becomes disinterested in his transfer, that was already agreed lacking of some fringes that turned out to be determinant.
The Hungaria moves two days later to Barcelona, where on June 10 plays against Espanyol losing 6-4 in a match with Pepe Samitier, the technical secretary of Barça, in the stands. It is necessary to emphasize that Hungaria had been playing three matches in five days with a very short team and without being able to make substitutions. Even so, Kubala amazes and Samitier does not mess around. Six days after that match, on 16 June 1950, at half past six in the evening, Kubala signed his three-year contract with Barça at the Pasaje Méndez Vigo. Obviously, with Fernando Daucik as coach. President Montal, Sr., signed him as an "amateur player" in order to avoid any trouble for the federation.
Real Madrid rages and is shocked. Pablo Hernández, general secretary of the white entity and Santiago Bernabéu's right hand, assures that Barça had broken a non-aggression pact between both teams and had hired a player with whom they were in talks. Samitier, who was unbeatable in the media, declares that he had been following Kubala for months and that the pact had not been broken because it referred only to players who played in Spanish teams. And Hungaria was not Spanish. In fact, it wasn't from anywhere.
But Kubala's problems didn't end there. He still didn't have a registration card or an international certificate. Vasas in Budapest and the Hungarian Federation had reported him to FIFA. Barça used the weak argument that since professionalism had been abolished in Hungary, any amateur player could choose his destiny. But the fight was not going to be so easy.
Barça, it is fair to say, had the total support of the regime and the Federation to carry out the transfer. At the level of anti-communist propaganda, Kubala was perfect. A young and extraordinary sportsman who fled from the red hell to take refuge in Franco's Spain was a candy too sweet to let go. Muñoz Calero, president of the Federation, rowed in favor of Barça as did Ricardo Cabot, secretary of the organization, who, in addition to his affection for the regime, was a well-known Barcelona supporter.
But the procedures were very slow and Kubala could only play friendly matches. He made his debut against Osasuna on 12 October, scoring two goals on the day the Barça fans knew instantly that they had just signed a star. Then he played against Zaragoza, Frankfurt twice, Girona and the Badalona. In six friendlies he scored 11 goals. The fans and the player himself were eager to meet in an official match. For all this, the Federation to play the role with FIFA fined Barça every time he lined up Kubala with the symbolic figure of 50 pesetas.
It is at this time that Kubala is about to leave everything and go away from Barça. He needed the money and wanted to play at the highest level and in Colombia he was offered the chance to do so. The South American country had organised the so-called Pirate League outside FIFA and many of the world's biggest stars joined, including Alfredo Di Stefano who went to Millonarios in Bogota. Kubala had a tempting offer from Atletico Bucaramanga. With the option of Kubala leaving, events accelerated. To begin with, Barça fixed his financial situation by means of a peculiar amateur contract in which they paid him 1,200 pesetas for "compensation" and 3,800 for "encouragement and overfeeding".
On April 2, 1951, he was granted the status of political refugee as a stateless person, which was a step towards granting him Spanish nationality. But for this step, Kubala first had to be converted to Catholicism through the sacrament of baptism. Every Spaniard had to be a Catholic. Kubala was baptized in Aguilas, Murcia, the birthplace of Muñoz Calero, president of the Federation. It is then when Barça, to avoid problems, settles its differences economically with Vasas, which despite being against capitalism accepts a payment of 300,000 pesetas to provide the transfer, while the Pro Patria, which also complained, is satisfied with 12 million lire.
The Kubala era could now really commence.

The legend on the field.

Kubala made his official debut with Barcelona in Sevilla in a cup match. The Sevillistas at that time were one of the best teams. Sevilla and Barça had developed in that period a great rivalry in the high places of the table. In 1946 Sevilla had stolen the possibility of winning the championship from Barça by drawing in Les Corts on the last day, in 1948 Barça beat the Sevillians in the final of the Eva Perón Cup (which would be the current Supercup) and in that campaign a Barça without Kubala had lost all its options to win La Liga after losing 4-0 in Nervión three days before the end of the season.
The Cup, by that time was played once the regular season was over and in those circumstances the official debut of Kubala took place. On April 29th in Nervion, Barça arrived to play against Sevilla in the middle of a difficult atmosphere. The Andalusians had lost the league in a dramatic outcome when they drew at home in the last match against Atletico Madrid with a refereeing performance that the locals judged scandalous. For further concern, the Federation allowed Kubala to line up with Barça in the first round of the Cup, which in Sevilla was taken as a surprise.
With the stadium full to the flag, Barcelona defeated Sevilla in an exhibition of Kubala. He wasn't just the best of the match but he showed Spain a way of playing football unthinkable until that time: chest controls, shots with curve, millimetric changes of play of 40 meters, protection of the ball with his back, use of the body in the shot and touches with the heel.
Domenech, Sevilla's attacker who was the direct protagonist of that match, explained years later how he remembered that day.
"It was something never seen before. Ramallets kicked it and he would receive her with his chest, or with either of his legs. If you tackled him he would dribble you in a brick. He'd put the ball where he wanted her. Besides, from time to time he changed with César, he'd be a center forward and César would be a midfielder. They drove us crazy. The anger of the people became clamours. We were witnessing something extraordinary. It was like going from black and white cinema to colour," explained the former Sevilla player. The Sevilla crowd, who had welcomed Barça and its new superstar with anger, ended up giving Kubala a standing ovation for every action as if they were watching a glorious bullfighting performance.
Kubala's actions on the field change football forever. Since there was no television, his exploits are reported orally. There is no other way to see it than to go to the field of Les Corts, which is packed for every game Barça plays as a local. It is a very common argument to say that Kubala forced Barça to build the Camp Nou because the old Les Corts was not enough to accommodate all the people who wanted to admire him. Maybe he had an influence, but as the journalist Frederic Porta, author of an interesting biography of Kubala (Kubala, l'heroi que va canviar la història del Barça. Ed. Saldonar) explains, "the truth is that Barça had already bought the land to build the Camp Nou two years before and the idea of making a bigger field already existed, but Kubala advanced everything and justified the change".
Blessed with brutal technique, a sensational strike of the ball and an unusual physical strength, Kubala changed football. He would throw free-kicks over the wall with curve or by making the ball bounce in front of the goalkeeper, he would take penalties (he was practically infallible) with what was later called paradinha and was credited with the Brazilians although he was the first in Europe to do so. Physically he was a bull. In his youth he had practiced boxing and if he didn't become a recognized fighter with a great career it was because he had short arms. His lower body was sensational. He had a butt and legs that allowed him to protect the ball like no one else. Frederic Porta says that "in his time of splendour they measured his thighs and each one had a circumference of 69 centimetres, which would be the waist of one of his companions". He was also capable of running the 100 metres in less than 11 seconds. A total athlete with a very refined technique.
However, that physical strength and the confidence he had in her, for he never avoided a collision, were his downfall. Kubala became the target of a hunt by rival defenders. He never went into hiding and that's why in eleven years at Barcelona he suffered up to eleven injuries of some seriousness. With matches without television, the harshness that bordered on violence was the order of the day. He was being kicked to death.
But Barça was living its most golden period to date. Moreover, the club revolved around Kubala. Frederic Porta compares it with the present time: "Now they say that Messi commands the club and surely he commands, but nothing to do with the influence that Kubala had. Kubala was the boss and even the one who decided the transfers. And no one was surprised. That Barça adopted the socks with the horizontal stripes blaugrana is his imposition. He saw them on the rugby team, liked them and incorporated them into the football team by decree. In fact, it is he who insists on signing Luis Suarez when he impresses him in a match against Deportivo. Kubala was Suarez's first fan, but what happened in the stands, which was divided between Suaristas and Kubalistas, is another matter.
Suarez was eight years younger than Kubala. He arrived at Barcelona at the age of 19, Kubala was 27 and his physique was very punished by his injuries and the life he was living, as he did not deprive himself of anything. If he held out, it was because of privileged genetics.
Therefore, there never was a real competition between them, but there was a lot of influence here from the figure of Helenio Herrera, the Barça manager, who saw Kubala as older and slower and was looking forward to a quick change by the young Galician as the leader of the team. The debate reached the stands and the media. It was an absurd debate, because they didn't play in the same position, with whom Kubala really had a certain rivalry with Eulogio Martínez, who was the one with whom he alternated the position.
Kubala's physical problems were not only due to injuries. He had the whole of Spain in suspense when he suffered a tuberculosis that could have cost him his life. There are apocryphal versions that explain that this tuberculosis was actually a stab wound he suffered in a fight in a cheap pub in the fifth district (Barcelona's Chinatown) and he has to retire to Montseny to recover. Nobody is betting on his return to the pitch if he survives a "hole in the lung the size of a silver bullet" according to the chronicles of the time. But once again, Kubala's ability to survive prevails. He returns to the pitches, but already heavily punished and slowed down.
It is against this backdrop that the 1961 European Cup final arrives, with Kubala arriving at the age of 34 with a herniated disc that barely allows him to walk, but he wants to play. He knows that the club is going through a critical situation despite having reached the final of the maximum trophy for the first time: the club is bankrupt because of the construction of the Camp Nou, the fights in the board of directors are chaotic, Luis Suarez has signed for Inter (the one in Bern will be his last game with Barça), which was where Helenio Herrera had left the team in the hands of Enrique Orizaola.
Kubala tells Orizaola to line him up, that like all the Portuguese will go for him and he can barely move because of the back pain and will play with painkillers, it will give more opportunities to his teammates. But the match is a pile of misfortunes for Barcelona. Ramallets scores an own goal, Barça shoots three times to the damn square posts of the goals (from then on they would change their shape) even Kubala kicked a ball that hit a post, went through the goal line until it hit the other post and came out repelled. Barça lost and Kubala's time at Barcelona came to an end.

The man of the year.

Kubala's significance goes beyond the playing field. According to a vote made for Radio Barcelona by journalist Joaquín Soler Serrano in the mid-50s, the Catalans most loved by their fellow citizens were Doctor Barraquer and Ladislao Kubala.
"He was literally the most famous person in the city, people really venerated him, and even Messi's influence cannot be compared to that of Kubala in those years," explains Porta.
His life off the field was notorious. An unrepentant night owl, it was common to see him in Barcelona's fashionable coffee shops and nightclubs. He was a man who stood out. Alfredo Relaño defines him in some of his articles as "a demigod. Tall, strong, blond with blue eyes and an overflowing personality. He aroused the admiration of men and women alike. An idol". Frederic Porta sums it up with the argument that "he would be the sum of Messi and Beckham and on top of that, he would go out every night".
Faced with Kubala's disorganised life, the Barcelona management decided to set up a private detective agency to follow him at night. The reports of the detectives are still in the Centre de Documentació del FC Barcelona and Frederic Porta published them in the history magazine 'Sàpiens'. In them, he gives a detailed account of the nocturnal wanderings of "Mr. K.", the code name of the Blaugrana star in an exercise in absurd discretion. There is also a letter from a Sabadell businessman in the club's archives, expressing concern that Kubala and Czibor had been "found in a Sabadell establishment after 2.30 in the morning accompanied by some of those ladies who were once gentlemen, I don't know if you understand". What the businessman doesn't explain in the letter is what he was doing in the same place.
Kubala's fondness for drinking was no secret. Helenio Herrera explains in a television interview that "one day at an airport in customs they asked Kubala if he had anything to declare and he said two bottles of whisky. The official asked him to show them to him and he, laughing, touched his belly and said: 'X-ray, I have them inside'. On another occasion, in the same situation, but carrying the bottle in the bag, he was told to leave it at the airport because no alcoholic drinks were allowed to be taken on board. Neither shy nor lazy, he drank it in front of the astonished official.
The legends about the occasions when the night was made longer and he did not arrive at training sessions or matches were recurrent. In that case, he called on the services of Angel Mur Sr., the team masseur who knew where to find him. He would start a pilgrimage through the usual places or floors until he found him, took him to the changing room, gave him a cold shower, a coffee with salt, a massage and played. The fans forgave him everything and were aware that their star was a man of joyful life. But he never failed on the field. Among the crowd at the time there were comments about the Kubala ritual in those games that followed a busy night. "He started off badly, and vaguely, but the signal was when, ten minutes into the game, he rolled up his sleeves as if to say 'I'm here, let's start, I've already cleared off', and the machine started to work.
You can't find anyone in the world who speaks ill of Kubala. Absolutely no one. Everyone highlights his huge heart and that despite being by far the highest paid player of the time (he earned six times more than his teammates) he didn't have a no for anyone. His detachment from money was legendary.
As proof, the anecdote explained by his biographer Porta: "one day he arrived at the dressing room and commented that his car had been stolen and that in the glove compartment he was carrying an envelope with 200,000 pesetas, which was a fortune for the time (a good apartment could cost 130,000 pesetas). When his colleagues tried to encourage him, he simply said: someone who needs it more than I do must have taken it".
It was also usual for him to take off his coat and give it to a poor man who begged in Barcelona's winter, or to take in any Hungarian who came to Barcelona asking for help in his house in Carrer Duquesa d'Orleans. Kubala, remembering his times as a stateless refugee without papers, asked nothing. He would take them home and pay them a boat ticket to America. The motto among the refugees fleeing the Iron Curtain was that "if you get to Barcelona, look for Kubala, he will help you". He never failed.
Later, now retired, he set up a bar next to Czibor in Capitan Arenas Street, the mythical Kep Duna (blue Danube in Hungarian) that became an unofficial refugee reception centre that was monitored by the secret services of the United States, the USSR and the Spanish police. Something like the Rick's Café in the film Casablanca, but in the upper area of Barcelona.
He was the great character of Barcelona loved by all, but there was a moment when this was almost broken, strange as it may seem. It coincided with the defeat in Bern, when a part of the press came to write that "Barça must be de-Kubalized as the Soviet Union must be de-Stalinized" and, especially, when he signed for Espanyol. The earthquake was a huge one.

From the bench to Sarrià.

After the defeat in Bern's final, Kubala announced his retirement from the fields. He had taken the coaching course and was ranked number one in his class. He made a pact with the president Llaudet, who was also an interesting character as we will see, that in principle he would take charge of the footballers' school of the club and that in a couple of years he would be in charge of the first team.
Meanwhile, Barcelona is directed by Lluís Miró who faces a team in disarray. Suarez has been transferred to Inter in the worst decision in the club's history and myths such as Ramallets, Tejada and Czibor were in the decline of their careers. The season starts badly and after losing at Mestalla to Valencia by a humiliating 6-2 that forces the resignation of Miro. It was time for Kubala, who was promoted to the first team in front of the joy of the fans. And the project results from the beginning. The Barça of the second part of season 61-62 recovers in La Liga and finishes second (the distance with the white ones when Kubala arrived was almost insurmountable) and avenges the 6-2 of Mestalla beating Valencia in the Camp Nou 4-0.
Facing the next season, the 62-63, Kubala can make his team by giving painful drops of some of his former teammates as it is the case of Eulogio Martinez or Evaristo. One of Llaudet's reluctances to give Kubala the job of coach was that he would have to manage some of his former teammates.
The positive expectations about Kubala's first full project were frustrated at first when the Blaugrana team had to play the final of the Copa de Ferias against Valencia, the team that caused the fall of Miró and the promotion of Kubala. And the history, by rare that it seems, repeats: Valencia returns to him to put 6-2 to the Barça. The fans explode against the team. In the return match, obviously, there is nothing to do, but Llaudet's ability to self-flagellation has no limits. As Alfredo Relaño writes, the Blaugrana president calls a dinner with the press the day before the game and makes this statement that if it happened today would open all the news.
Llaudet, in front of the press and accompanied by the coach Kubala and Gràcia as captain, asks the fans to forgive him and announces changes in the protocol of the start of the second leg. "Valencia will go out first to receive the applause, then Barcelona, to receive the whistles. Then Kubala will come out, so he can get the thunders. And finally me, so that all the whistles fall on my person, because I am the barcelonist who loves the club the most and who is destined to die on the pitch, if necessary...". He ends his speech crying. As we can see, Gaspart didn't invent anything.
The match ended in a draw and Kubala's project as Barça's coach was doomed. The manager is fired in the middle of the season and then a bomb explodes in Barcelona. Kubala accepts the offer to return to the pitch, but not as a coach, will be as a player and nothing more and nothing less than in Espanyol, Barça's eternal rival.
On 3 September 1963 Espanyol, then Español, announced that Kubala would be hired as a player. At 36 years of age, he was capable of being competitive.
His decision divides the public opinion. On the one hand, Federico Gallo and Juan José Castillo support his decision, on the other hand, Carlos Pardo or Ibáñez Escofet shoot at him. They call him a "Jew who sells himself for a plate of beans", a "traitor" and they see political interests in his decision.
Kubala explains that he wanted to continue playing and that he saw himself capable of doing so, although he accepted that he was not at Barcelona's level. He had received offers from important clubs, including River Plate and Juventus, but he doesn't want to leave Barcelona, where he feels like another Barcelonian. The Espanyol meets his expectations.
His start of the season is not bad, on the contrary, he scores in his first two games, but the team doesn't work out. The coexistence between the veteran newcomer Kubala and the team's symbol, Argilés, is not easy. Scopelli is dismissed as coach and de facto command of the team is given to the two team leaders despite their differences. The crisis erupts when the Spaniard visits the Camp Nou. The periquitos lose by 5-0 in a match in which the Barcelona crowd booed Kubala who they are eager to humiliate with his new team. Even so, at the end of the match, Kubala has a gesture to his former team that shows that he does not hold any grudge against what he has heard from the stands. At the end of the match, he organizes his teammates to make the corridor to Barça applauding the rival in recognition of the exhibition made. That gesture feels bad among the Espanyol fans and among some of his teammates. Argilés does not make the corridor and goes straight to the changing rooms.
The following year, Kubala becomes a manager-player and among the departures that he causes, there is the one of Argilés, but by contrast, Di Stéfano arrives, also hurt by his bad exit from Madrid fighting against Bernabéu.
Di Stefano and Kubala are like brothers. Even though they haven't officially played together, they have a special chemistry. A friendship that is forged when the Argentinian is about to sign for Barcelona.
When Di Stéfano arrives in Barcelona to sign for Español, he stays first at the Avenida Palace Hotel, but after a month he is living in Kubala's house as one of the family. The children of both always maintained a relationship as if they were brothers.
One of the players under Kubala's command was Jose Maria Rodilla, one of the players who would soon form the famous 'Dolphins' forward line. At 80 years of age, Rodilla remembers Kubala.
"I have a wonderful memory of Kubala, I always had a special affection for him. Not in vain, he was the one who signed me for Espanyol", he remembers when answering the call of this newspaper to which he confesses that* "normally I do not make declarations, but to speak about Kubala I do whatever is needed"*.
Rodilla, former teammate at Espanyol, has clear that "he was the best player in the world in terms of technique. Di Stéfano was the best footballer, but he didn't have his technique. Alfredo was more intense and more player of the whole field, but he could not do things that Kubala did"
Those who had the privilege of playing with both of them remember that "for example, Di Stefano wouldn't leave you alone for a minute, he was all over you and the fights were intense, but he always set an example, he never asked you for anything that he didn't do. Kubala was more paternalistic and tolerant. For example, he would ask us to do as he did in training, and while sitting down he would be able to make 3,000 touches on the ball without dropping it. Only he could do that."
Rodilla adds a story that explains Kubala's quality as a player-coach at the age of 38: "We went to play a friendly at Amposta and they called a foul on the edge of the box. Kubala takes the ball and whacks it into the corner. The referee made him repeat it because someone had moved or I don't know what. Kubala takes the ball and wham, back to the square. And the referee tells him that he has to repeat. That day Kubala got angry and left the field."
Rodilla recalls that Kubala's move from Barça to Espanyol created controversy in the city, but that he was oblivious to it. "He was still a magnificent person, I never heard him say a bad word against anyone. He never got into an argument, he was goodness personified, he was unlucky in his time as a coach, but as a coach he is one of the best I've ever had, with a great love for young players and always trying to help you improve."

Boys well, optimal morale.

He extended his playing career for a couple more years by playing for Zurich and even trying out the American adventure at the Toronto Falcons, where he coincides with Branko and Daucik's son. At the age of 40 he played 19 games and scored 5 goals.
In 1968 he returned to Spain and trained the Córdoba team for a short period of time until he was called up to the national team. Kubala will manage the Spanish team until 1980, when he signs for Barcelona again as a coach.
Kubala's debut with Spain was, once again, a propaganda match for the regime. It was played in the Estadio de la Línea de la Concepción against Finland and Spain beat their rivals 6-0 in a match that was no longer useful. Spain had missed out on qualifying for the Mexico '70 World Cup, but the idea of that game was to showcase a great field that could be seen from Gibraltar as if to give jealousy to those in the Rock for the sports culture of Spain. Dictatorship things.
It's true that at that time Spain was struggling more than anything else on the international scene. It did not qualify for the 1974 World Cup because of Katalinski's goal in the play-off match in Frankfurt, and in both the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 European Championship the team fell in the first round, but there is still no one from that era who will make a judgement against Kubala.
"Kubala, one ahead of his time. No doubt he had a lot to do with his past as a footballer. And not just like any other player, like the best! I remember him always saying to me: 'Ruben, you have to get out of the way on the other side of the ball. Look for the space, not the ball. The goal I scored in Yugoslavia has to do with everything he taught me," he told Fermin de la Calle in an interview with AS Ruben Cano, the hero of the famous 'Battle of Belgrade' in the match that took Spain to the World Cup in Argentina. Yes, the one with the goal by Cardeñosa that could have changed Kubala's record with the national team.
He did a lot to improve Spanish football and his idea regarding the incorporation of foreigners to improve the level of Spanish football was key in the future development of the Spanish competitive level.
His players remember him as a didactic person, tactically bold and very close. At a time when fury was the hallmark of the game, Kubala never forgot that he was the heir to the Magyar tradition of the Honved and the Hungary who, by moving the ball, shocked the world the day they destroyed England at Wembley 3-6.
For the average football fan, Kubala may have been a half-hearted coach who embodied an era of the national team in which nothing was won, as has been the case most of the time, and he became popular for his expressions that would now be meme material on social networks. The national team was known as the 'Kubala boys' and the coach's catchphrase before the matches saying "boys well, optimal morale" was the fashionable phrase in the coffee shops of the 70s in Spain.
But among his colleagues, Kubala still deserved reverential respect. "The first goal was authentically Latin, cunningly scored and perfectly studied. I can only congratulate Kubala on his previous tactical work," said German boss Helmut Schön after facing and losing to Spain in a friendly in which the recent world semi-finalist and next world champion fell to the Kubala boys at the Sanchez Pizjuan with two strategic goals from Arieta. Yes, Arieta against Müller. Seeler, Beckembauer, Maier, Netzer and company.
He left the national team in 1980 to join Barça as the coach of Núñez's second project in an operation that was the prelude to what would happen in the World Cup in Russia with Lopetegui. Kubala committed to Barça while he was coach and tried to alternate functions, but Porta refused. Finally, on 8 June 1980, four days before the start of the European Championship, Kubala signed for the Blaugrana team, which he would join after the European Championship.
His second spell at the head of Barça did not go well either and he was dismissed mid-season. He continued his adventure on the bench as coach of Saudi Arabia (in that he was also a pioneer), training Malaga and the Paraguayan national team before retiring from football on the bench of Elche.
He spent his final years in Barcelona as active as ever. Playing with Barça veterans, helping his teammates, not having a no for anyone and playing tennis every day or going for a run or cycling routes exhibiting an enviable physical condition.
Until the light of genius and the glory faded away 18 years ago. A degenerative brain disease put an end to the adventure, but not to the legend of a world football myth. An icon that changed the lives of so many people that they wouldn't fit even in a stadium.
The coffin with the mortal remains of Kubala was carried on shoulders, amidst the applause of the fans who gathered at the doors of the church of Santa Tecla, by Alfredo Di Stéfano, Gustau Biosca, Eduardo Manchón, Estanislao Basora, Joan Segarra, Josep Bartomeu, Luis Suárez, Antoni Ramallets and Gonzalvo III.
He rests in the cemetery of Les Corts, next to the Camp Nou because that is what he left written in his will, while Serrat sang to him about how...
...Pelé was Pelé and Maradona was the one and that's it. Di Stéfano was a pit of mischief. Honour and glory to those who made the sun shine on our football. Everyone has his merits; to each his own, but for me none is like Kubala. Respectable silence is requested, for those who haven't enjoyed him, I'll say four things: he stops it with his head, he drops it on with his chest, he sleeps it off with his left, crosses the pitch with the ball attached to the boot, leaves the midfield and enters the box showing the ball, hides it with his body, pushes with his ass and gets in with his heels. He pisses on the centerback with a dedicated piece. and touches her gently to put her on the path to glory.

by Santi Gimenez for AS.com (2020)

Who is up for helping create a base concept for this? I emailed SEGA and have had response back from SEGA Licensing, and am implementing a strategy for them to have this IP remade for current generation to a more strategic degree.
Imagine traveling through terrain high above as a Bird Warrior being able to keep out of range of many adversaries, or traversing cliffs and difficult terrain as a Wolf Baron, perhaps a Mage has a levitation spell for the group to lift above low areas. New strategies could include team attacks and defensive parries to better add complexity to characters with more dynamic skillsets.
Create a character? What about 12 characters for Online battles. Lightning Dragon? Ancient Robot? How about a Century with a Canon? The Online PvP would be a staple in the new generation of gaming. And lets not forget about the classic cinematic attack screens, while characters could traverse across the map much like Divinity: Original Sin 2, cinematic attack scenes could take a more Final Fantasy approach to bring more visual splendour.

Who's up for crafting the game dynamics and narrative format for a pitch to SEGA Licensing and game developers?

Game Information

Game Title: Fallout 76
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9FGaan35s0
Developers: Bethesda Game Studios
Publishers: Bethesda Softworks
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 54

Reviews

Areajugones - Víctor Rodríguez - Spanish - 5 / 10.0

Fallout 76 is a failed experiment. A game that, even with some good points, ultimately fails to deliver an entertaining experience due to its terrible combat system and some technical problems.

Atomix - Alberto Desfassiaux - Spanish - 55 / 100

Fallout 76 has a lot of technical difficulties that makes it a pretty uncomfortable and frustrating experience. Also, its new ideas doesn't work a lot. A huge disappointment.

Attack of the Fanboy - Kyle Hanson - 2.5 / 5 stars

Fallout 76 is a bold experiment with one of gaming's biggest and most beloved franchises. Unfortunately the experiment seems like a failure so far.

BaziCenter - Milad Taher Nejad - Persian - 5 / 10.0

The main problem with Fallout 76 is that it is built by a company who is specialized at creating solid single-player titles, and the result is countless bugs and technical issues. Maybe Bethesda is laying foundation and gaining experience for future MMO titles, or maybe they’ll improve it by releasing patches and stuff, but at its current state, Fallout 76 is a not a title worthy of Fallout name.

Cerealkillerz - Manuel Barthes - German - 7.3 / 10.0

Although Fallout 76 looks like Fallout 4 right from the start, there are some technical and play-related drawbacks. The V.A.T.S., which acts as the showpiece of the series, comes too short due to the online component, which enormously reduces the RPG portion. Even though this is a multiplayer title that takes place in a huge game world, Fallout 76 looks frighteningly unfinished for a full-price title. Away from these criticisms, you can expect an enormously extensive Appalachia full of adventure, which together with friends offers numerous hours of fun!

CGMagazine - Preston Dozsa - 3 / 10.0

Fallout 76 shows potential, but it can’t quite coalesce into a compelling game due to numerous glaring flaws.

Cheat Code Central - Sean Engemann - 3.7 / 5.0

Bethesda claims that the Fallout 76 servers will last “forever” and, while it may not take that long to patch bugs and improve the experience, my foray with the launch version has left me with an abundance of bullet points that need attention. My biggest hope is that Bethesda will take our suggestions and criticisms as a call to action to tweak the faulty mechanics and build more features into a game that has a ton of potential.

Critical Hit - Alessandro Barbosa - 4 / 10.0

Fallout 76's mundane quest and lifeless story put too much weight on the aged combat and trivial crafting for them to bear. It's a multiplayer experiment with far too many flaws to put up with, both in its limiting player interactions and its woeful technical polish. Fallout with friends is still an idea that could work one, but that's not what Fallout 76 is serving up.

Destructoid - Unknown - No Verdict

This is why I'm ultimately enjoying Fallout 76. Yes, the game's systems push back every opportunity they get and that's oftentimes frustrating. This is certainly the entry that strays furthest from what people loved about Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. But Fallout has created a universe where every region's history is worth learning. It holds true for West Virginia, even if I can't shake the feeling that this will be the least memorable of Fallout's stories. Well, unless you and your friends create your own memories.

DigitalCentralMedia - Jordan Micheal - 16%

Fallout 76 is one of the worst games of this year. It's a huge mess and Bethesda must go back to the basics after this game.

EGM - Nick Plessas - 6 / 10.0

Many of the issues Fallout 76 currently faces could eventually be fixed, which is why this mess is such a pity. The potential is clear, but a reluctance to commit to one direction or another leaves the game in an awkward and broken void.

Eurogamer - Wesley Yin-Poole - Avoid

Bethesda's attempt at Fallout multiplayer is, like so many of the series' vaults, a failed experiment.

Forbes - Paul Tassi - 5 / 10.0

This is a huge, rare, total miss by Bethesda, and even if it’s improved in time, I can only judge it by the hours I’ve lost to it so far.

Gadgets 360 - Rishi Alwani - 5 / 10

Hopefully, Bethesda reboots Fallout 76 like it did with The Elder Scrolls Online. Right now though, the game is hard to recommend to anyone but the most faithful of Fallout fans.

Game Informer - Andrew Reiner - 6 / 10.0

When Fallout 76 is working as intended, it's an easy game to lose yourself in, as meaningful discoveries are everywhere. But those moments are often destroyed by glitches, crashes, and technical issues

Gameblog - Jonathan Bushle - French - 6 / 10

Fallout 76 is a good coop Fallout in a new charming land, but a poor solo Fallout, and a poor survival game, with poor graphics.

GameCrate - Christopher Atwood - 7.5 / 10.0

Fallout 76 might have a bright future ahead of it, but ultimately, Fallout 76 is a multiplayer survival game set in the Fallout universe, not a Fallout game where you get to play with your friends.

Gamefa - Mohammad Mahdi Hossein Zadeh - Persian - 6.5 / 10.0

Fallout 76 is not the game that we expected from Bethesda and its high quality standards of its games (specially with the name of Fallout), but it does not mean that it's completely a bad game. Fallout 76's world is so beautiful with unique art style of Fallout games but on the other hand it's really bad in the story-telling and design. Gameplay is fun but also it isn't perfect. The point is, None of these is the main problem of the game. The main problem with Fallout 76 is that it lost its identity.The problem is that the game has not been able to maintain the boundary between a multiplayer game and a single player game, specially a Fallout. Fallout 76 does not disappoint fans of the series, but those who expected Bethesda to create an amazing game (like almost every Bethesda's games) with the label of Fallout, have to wait more.

GameMAG - ASarafanov - Russian - 5 / 10

Fallout 76 requires serious rework. Strange decisions of game designers make it difficult to comfortably explore an interesting world of the game. Interaction with other players is minimal and absolutely unjustified for an online project. Sometimes it feels that there is no online at all. New mechanics do not look as impressive as we were promised during the early presentations, and the lack of optimization, ton of bugs and a terrible economy spoil the experience. Bethesda needs to rethink its production process, do serious work on all the errors, add normal PvP and full-fledged quests with NPCs.

Gamers Heroes - Johnny Hurricane - 5 / 10

Fallout 76 feels like an early access title and should have been labeled as such. The game was not ready for launch, and even hardcore Fallout fans will have a hard time ignoring its problems.

Gamersky - 楚楠 - 7.6 / 10.0

Exploring is still the most interesting part in Fallout 76, but your adventure tour is limited by empty open-world, and outdated graphics performance. It is more like a MMO mod of Fallout 4, rather than a brand-new work.

GameSpace - Robert Baddeley - 7.2 / 10.0

Fallout 76 would have been best served by a longer, continuous B.E.T.A. cycle. Numerous small issues like bugs, stash size, push-to-talk, and other quality of life issues could have been identified before asking people to spend $60 and working on them after release. Despite this faux pas, there is still a tremendous amount of fun to be had either solo or with friends. Multiplayer is a wonderful addition to the Fallout franchise and the world created in West Virginia is unique, gorgeous, and fun to explore. It may not be in line to win any awards but if you enjoyed the previous installation, Fallout 4, it's quite likely you'll find the same fun in Bethesda's Fallout 76.

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 2 / 10.0

I really hope Fallout 76 is turned around, I really do. I have a lot of respect for Bethesda for publishing quality single player releases such as The Evil Within 2, but Fallout 76 is just dire. It shouldn’t have seen the light of day, and you shouldn’t buy it

GameSpot - Edmond Tran - 4 / 10

Fallout's mutation into an online multiplayer hybrid leaves it weak and soulless.

GamesRadar+ - Zoe Delahunty-Light - 2.5 / 5 stars

Fallout 76 has glimmers of the trademark series' sci-fi splendour, but they're few and far between.

GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat - 4 / 10.0

Fallout 76 is not a completely broken game. It's not absolutely devoid of enjoyment, and every once in a while, it can live up to the franchise name it bears. The problem is that that enjoyment is buried under a mountainous pile of long stretches of boredom and emptiness, tedious and mind-numbing quests, baffling design choices, unbelievably bad technical issues, and a host of other problems that turn this into an experience that, frankly, has no business being out on shelves as a full-priced AAA game in its current state. What's concerning is that even if the issues that can be fixed through patches and updates are ironed out, the core fundamentals of the game are deeply flawed.

GearNuke - Humad Ali Shah - 5.5 / 10.0

If I had to describe Fallout 76, I will say it is a flawed idea that never works well. It is simply broken and feels boring but offers a redeeming factor with the open world exploration in some well-crafted environments. The buggy nature of the game is its biggest hurdle and some quality of life changes will go a long way in molding it into something enjoyable in the future.

Generación Xbox - Alberto Rocha - Spanish - 7.8 / 10.0

With the classical Bethesda core gameplay that all we love, and also the old flaws (with a bunch of new additions) Fallout 76 is possibly the worst modern Fallout, but the worst Fallout is still a title a lot of games would want for themselves.

GRYOnline.pl - Patryk Manelski - Polish - 5.5 / 10.0

Fallout 76 is a broken, unfinished and "un-SPECIAL" game that consists of many cut-down elements. Despite that, it can be enjoyable for players who love to explore the post-apocalyptic world and invent their own, private role-playing story. F76 looks so constrained that it should have been released as a paid DLC to Fallout 4. Shame.

Guardian - Holly Nielsen - 2 / 5 stars

Half-baked conflict ideas and witless quests to unearth the dead – this soulless sequel is perfect if you enjoy picking up rubbish in a wasteland

Hobby Consolas - Álvaro Alonso - Spanish - 65 / 100

Behind a mess of technical problems and bad decisiones, hides a Fallout: a post-apocalyptic survival game, with mechanics from another era, but undoubtedly fun. If you can see beyond all the mistakes and consider yourself a fan of the universe, you may enjoy Fallout 76 (especially playing with others), but there's still a lo to do to improve.

IGN - Brandin Tyrrel - 5 / 10.0

The rich wasteland map of Fallout 76 is wasted on a mess of bugs, conflicting ideas, and monotony.

IGN Spain - David Soriano - Spanish - 5.2 / 10.0

Neither in its concept nor in its execution has convinced us the first Fallout Online, which perhaps should have looked a little more in the mirror of The Elder Scrolls: Online for its debut. Will it come back? Only time will tell.

Just Push Start - Oliver East - 3.5 / 5.0

Whether swapping NPC conversations for other players works is a bit subjective, though the change is not as severe a detriment to the experience as expected. While the roots of Fallout 76 are firmly in Fallout 4 the final gameplay experience is quite different and so there's no guarantee that fans of that game will enjoy it. Fallout 76 is worthy of recommendation with two caveats. You have to go in expecting a light multiplayer survival game in an interesting setting, rather than a deep story-focused role-playing game. On top of this, Fallout 76 is a game that really is better with friends, as that is the real replacement for the NPC dialogue in the world – if you're going in as a solo player you might come away dissatisfied.

Merlin'in Kazanı - Furkan Sakoğlu - Turkish - 65 / 100

Fallout 76 is one of the games which makes us uncertain. I can't call it a complete trash, but can't call it a good game either. But somehow, I believe in it. If Bethesda keeps working hard on the game, in a year, it will become a game which deserves to be played.

Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 3 / 10

A disastrous failure whose technical shortcomings may one day be fixed but whose design failings, and obliviousness to its own potential, suggests a game that is irrevocably broken.

Nexus - Sam Aberdeen - 6 / 10.0

Fallout 76 boasts an impressive open world in West Virginia, but it's a lonely journey on the country roads. It's greatest aspects are buried under a myriad of nagging technical issues.

Niche Gamer - Brandon Orselli - 6.5 / 10.0

All in all, Fallout 76 comes off as the core gameplay experience you’d find in Fallout 4, only with multiplayer sort of tacked on somehow. There’s no real overarching story and no NPCs to really speak of, and yet there’s a giant map to explore and collect things while just getting stronger. It’s the modern Bethesda Fallout experience, distilled to that core gameplay loop.

NoobFeed - Adam Siddiqui - 55 / 100

Fallout 76 entices that same feeling of exploring a vast open world full of unknown locations in a vast world. Constantly uncovering hidden areas and finding exotic items is here but it's hindered by the game's massive technical problems and multiplayer balancing problems. Fallout 76 is a technical mess that will have you fighting the game itself.

Oyungezer Online - Emir Ataç - Turkish - 6 / 10.0

Different, confused but still a Fallout game in its essence. I really hope updates will help Fallout 76 to reach its potential one day.

PC Gamer - Christopher Livingston - 60 / 100

A beautifully crafted but ultimately repetitive world, and a disappointment when it comes to options on PC.

PCGamesN - Julian Benson - 5 / 10

Fallout 76 isn't to be compared with other Fallouts - it's a spin-off that wants to be something new. Unfortunately, the multiplayer sandbox it tries to be is stagnant and intensely frustrating to play.

PlayStation LifeStyle - Dylan Bishop - 6 / 10.0

I want to love Fallout 76, namely for its addition of co-op play and the representation of a region dear to my heart. I simply can't. I wouldn't say the latest Fallout title is abysmal or even bad, just very middling. It removes many of the series' strong suits and attempts to make up for it by adding in new mechanics or strengthening lesser ones. That move creates interesting situations, but they don't always pay off for the player. The story falters, the crafting and building doesn't fulfill, and the exploration means next to nothing. Fallout 76 is just barely good at best, when you're jaunting around with your friends. But at its worst, it's vapid, basic, and boring, meaning I'd rather see co-op and the wild and wonderful West Virginia in any other adventure.

PlayStation Universe - Garri Bagdasarov - 7 / 10.0

Fallout 76 is a blast to play. It's easily my favorite Fallout title to date. Fallout 76 has it's fair share of problems but they don't make the game unplayable. Fallout 76 isn't for everyone but for those who stick with it will definitely find what it has to offer.

Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 3 / 10

Fallout 76 is a seriously shoddy attempt at trying to cash in on the multiplayer survival market. Fallout with friends is an intriguing concept on paper, but we can't think of many more ways that Bethesda could have screwed it up.

RPG Site - Bryan Vitale - 5 / 10

Fallout 76 offers a large playground with some potential, but is heavily lacking in purpose.

SECTOR.sk - Branislav Kohút - 7 / 10.0

New Fallout is atypical game in series but online survival is not bad at all. Just full of bugs and technical issues.

Softpedia - Andrei Dobra - 6 / 10.0

With some more time and more inspired gameplay design, it could have been a much better experience. Right now, unfortunately, its great world feels like a missed opportunity that's mostly not fun, only in very few scenarios and for very few people. Bethesda proved with The Elder Scrolls Online that it can turn things around but 76 may require some sweeping changes until it's ready to be recommended to others.

Stevivor - Steve Wright - No Verdict

So far, Fallout 76 seems like a half-baked, early access entry, equal parts buggy as ugly

The Digital Fix - Stephen Hudson - 5 / 10.0

Despite Appalachia's appeal, Fallout 76 is broken mess of a game that, in its current state, feels nothing more than a shamefully unfinished cash-grab that isn't fit to use the Fallout name.

The Games Machine - Daniele Dolce - Italian - 6.2 / 10.0

Putting aside the many technical issues, Fallout 76 offers an empty world in which, paradoxically, there are many things to do, but everything appears to be an end in itself. There is something good in this game, but it's crippled by a bland world design and a non-existent plot. This is a game that may be able to entertain, but boredom is always dangerously around the corner.

The Jimquisition - Jim Sterling - No Verdict

Quote not yet available.

TheSixthAxis - Jason Coles - 3 / 10

Fallout 76 had a lot to say when it was revealed. It was multiplayer, it had the largest world of any Fallout, it was going to be fun. The trouble is that it just doesn't work, the world is too big and empty, and the quest design as uninspired as it gets. If the only way for a game to be entertaining is by having your friends make jokes about it as you journey together, then it has failed at one of the things that most games should be. It has failed at being fun, it has failed at being entertaining in its own right. If you want to hang out with some friends in an a post-apocalypse, then just go to a pub and watch the news.

TrustedReviews - Alastair Stevenson - 3.5 / 5 stars

Fallout 76 is one of the most interesting entries to the series since Fallout 3. The addition of multiplayer elements to the apocalyptic wasteland should on paper make for a wonderfully immersive, tense experience, and for a good while it does. Playing with buddies looting collapsed shopping centres and derelict towns is a blast and the robust crafting and character development mechanics are excellent.

Twinfinite - Chris Jecks - 2.5 / 5.0

The wasteland of West Virginia is a dangerous one, filled with interesting things to uncover off the beaten path and the potential to improve. But right now, it's hard to recommend it to anyone outside of die-hard fans of the series.

USgamer - Mike Williams - 2 / 5 stars

Fallout 76 is not a great Fallout game, but it's also not a great online survival experience. In failing to do either, Fallout 76 consigns itself to a mire of mediocrity.

VideoGamer - Joshua Wise - 4 / 10

Fallout 76 is an ambitious game that's burned by it. The online features hamper what could have been a great Fallout game.

Wccftech - Chris Wray - 5 / 10.0

Fallout 76 lacks the heart and soul of what is a Bethesda RPG. The exclusion of NPC's and, in general, decent quest givers makes an emotional (or any) connection to the world near-on impossible and manages to shatter any immersion. The inclusion of other humans does nothing to remedy the fact that these core elements are missing. What it does do right, though, is having built by far the most varied and engaging Map yet, which is a pleasure to look at and explore - even if it looks dated up close. Furthermore, teaming up with other people to take on high-end creatures, particularly after the launch of a nuke, makes for compelling gameplay. As can be expected from a Bethesda title, it's riddled with bugs and glitches, many are game breaking, though Bethesda is already working on fixing them. What Fallout 76 really needs is an infusion of NPC's, even if only at a single hub, to give the game purpose.

Xbox Achievements - Dan Webb - 65%

Fallout 76 is effectively about base-construction, survival and world-building, not the story and your part in it, which isn’t a bad thing. The execution is though.

Game Information

Game Title: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Platform: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC
Media: E3 2014 Mass Effect (Untitled) Teaser
E3 2015 Announce Trailer | EA Play 2016 Video
N7 Day 2015 Video | N7 Day 2016 Cinematic Reveal Trailer
4K Tech Video | 4K Gameplay Trailer
'Join the Andromeda Initiative'
Cinematic Trailer #2
Combat Weapons & Skills | Combat Profiles & Squads
Exploration & Discovery | Multiplayer
Scott Ryder Launch Trailer
Natalie Dormer
Sara Ryder Launch Trailer
Developer: BioWare Montreal ^Info
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: NA - March 21 2017
EU - March 23 2017
More Info: /masseffect | Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 72 [Cross-Platform] Score Distribution
MetaCritic - 70 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 77 [XB1]
MetaCritic - 73 [PC]
Arbitrary compilation of BioWare games -

Entry	Score ^(Platform, ^Year, ^# ^of ^Critics)
Baldur's Gate	91 ^(PC, ^1998, ¹⁶ ^critics)
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn	95 ^(PC, ^2000, ³⁰ ^critics)
Neverwinter Nights	91 ^(PC, ^2002, ³⁴ ^critics)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic	93 ^(PC, ^2003, ³³ ^critics)
Jade Empire	89 ^(XB, ^2005, ⁸⁴ ^critics)
Mass Effect	89 ^(X360, ^2007, ⁷⁴ ^critics)
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood	74 ^(DS, ^2008, ⁵⁵ ^critics)
Dragon Age: Origins	91 ^(PC, ^2009, ⁶⁷ ^critics)
Mass Effect 2	96 ^(X360, ^2010, ⁹⁸ ^critics)
Dragon Age 2	79 ^(X360, ^2011, ⁷⁵ ^critics)
Star Wars: The Old Republic	85 ^(PC, ^2011, ⁷³ ^critics)
Mass Effect 3	93 ^(X360, ^2012, ⁷⁴ ^critics)
Dragon Age: Inquisition	85 ^(PC, ^2014, ⁴⁵ ^critics)

Reviews

Attack of the Fanboy - Kyle Hanson - 4 / 5 stars (PC)

Mass Effect: Andromeda fails to deliver a compelling plot and the journey to a whole new galaxy offers little that's new or exciting. Still, it does give you the same quality gameplay the series is known for and you'll enjoy your time with your new crew, even if they're no replacement for the originals.

CGMagazine - Chris Carter - 7 / 10 (XB1)

At times, Mass Effect: Andromeda can feel like an expansion and not a true follow-up.

COGconnected - Paul Sullivan - 88 / 100 (PS4)

The fantastic combat and strong story points far outweigh the technical missteps and more cringeworthy moments.

Destructoid - Brett Makedonski - 6.5 / 10 (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda spends a lot of time not really feeling like a Mass Effect game. If anything, it feels like a spin-off -- the sort of thing created by another studio that's unsure about what direction to take it. Like in the game itself, there are problems with the atmosphere. But Andromeda is very clear that it doesn't aim to be like the other Mass Effects. New beginnings, not funerals -- for better and for worse.

GameSpot - Scott Butterworth - 6 / 10 (PS4)

In many ways, Andromeda feels like a vision half-fulfilled. It contains a dizzying amount of content, but the quality fluctuates wildly. Its worlds and combat shine, but its writing and missions falter--and the relative strength of the former is not enough to compensate for the inescapable weakness of the latter. As a Mass Effect game, Andromeda falls well short of the nuanced politics, morality, and storytelling of its predecessors. For me, the series has always been about compelling characters and harrowing choices, so to find such weak writing here is bitterly disappointing. Yet even after 65 hours, I still plan on completing a few more quests. The game can't escape its shortcomings, but patient explorers can still find a few stars shining in the darkness.

GamesRadar+ - Andy Hartup - 3.5 / 5 stars

Andromeda provides an interesting premise and story, but is let down by poor combat, excessive padding, and over-complication

Gaming Nexus - Kinsey Danzis - 8.8 / 10 (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but it comes close. Considering the situation in which the developers found themselves, they put out an addition to the franchise that really feels like returning home even though you’re millions of light years from Earth. With stunning scenery, a distinct Mass Effect feel, and an abundance of things to do, it’s a worthy investment for any Mass Effect veteran or newcomer—but don’t expect it to be perfect.

Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 3.5 / 5 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an unbalanced experience.

PC Gamer - Chris Thursten - 80 / 100 (PC)

Marred by inconsistency and in need of a polish pass, this vast new sci-fi frontier nonetheless rewards dedicated exploration.

PlayStation Universe - Kyle Prahl - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Andromeda’s first adventure is plagued by frustrations. But memorable characters, a satisfying story, and deep RPG systems ultimately win the day.

Press Start - James Mitchell - 9 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda manages to successfully bring back the sense of exploration and discovery that fans have longed for since the original Mass Effect, whilst honing and improving the already enjoyable combat mechanics of Mass Effect 3. The result is something truly special – a metaphorical slow burn, a hybrid that is sure to appeal to fans of both the original game and its flashier sequels. Despite this, Andromeda is hampered slightly by its lack of visual polish and presentation, which can kill the wonder and fantasy as quickly as it builds it.

USgamer - Kat Bailey - 3 / 5 stars (PS4)

Mass Effect Andromeda falls short of its predecessors, but it's still a competently executed open-world action RPG with an interesting world and tons of quests to complete. Its biggest shame is that it doesn't make better use of its setting, opting instead to go with more of the same. Hopefully BioWare will be more ambitious when it comes time for the inevitable sequel.

Xbox Achievements - Richard Walker - 80% (XB1)

You might initially turn your nose up at Mass Effect: Andromeda, but stick with it and you'll be richly rewarded with a vast space opera that gets better and better. It has problems, but they pale into insignificance once you're swept up in the exploits of Mass Effect: Andromeda's Pathfinder.

Stevivor - Steve Wright - 9.5 / 10 (XB1)

Savour the experience, boys and girls, and delight in carefully-placed groundwork that will ensure more adventures to come… and hopefully more for your twin to do.

Eurogamer - Edwin Evans-Thirlwell - Unscored (PS4)

It's gripping stuff, and a reminder of the greatness of the Mass Effect trilogy - its intelligent reworkings of pulp sci-fi cliche, the taut splendour of its scenarios and aesthetic, the colour and dexterity of its writing. All that's still in here somewhere, I think. But then you pop out the other end of the mission, back into Andromeda's labyrinth of drudgery and obfuscation, and remember that you're a long way from home.

GamingTrend - Travis Northup - 80 / 100 (XB1)

Mass Effect Andromeda is a return to the original Mass Effect game in ways both good and bad. Interesting characters, solid gameplay and RPG mechanics, and the revival of the open-world elements of the series will immerse and delight longtime fans. However, wooden characters, a light story, and plenty of glitches hold this title back from fulfilling its full potential.

MMORPG.com - Catherine Daro - 8.7 / 10

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a very solid game. BioWare had obviously taken their lessons both from original Mass Effect trilogy as well as Dragon Age series and mixed it with fair dose of experience of other AAA titles of late. It is not Inquisition in space, although the influence of it is clearly seen.

RPG Fan - Derek Heemsbergen - 78% (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda presents plenty of great ideas, but these tend to be either aped too closely from its predecessors or buried under issues that are surmountable yet frustrating all the same.

Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 6 / 10 (PS4)

What could have been an all-time classic action role-player is let down by a surprisingly poor script and unengaging characters.

TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 8 / 10 (PS4, PC)

I found it hard to be excited during the opening hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda. It feels too safe, too much like what’s gone before, but then it clicks. There’s a moment where the galaxy opens up and you find yourself embarking once more on a huge mission across compelling, beautifully constructed planets, surrounded by memorable characters. Sadly the glut of technical missteps serve to cheapen proceedings, but this is still an adventure you don’t want to miss out on.

PlayStation LifeStyle - Keri Honea - 6.5 / 10 (PS4)

With the vast love of the Mass Effect series, Andromeda was never going to make people 100% happy, the same way the ME3 ending didn’t make people happy. The BioWare team put so many great things in place, but the main story, the characters, and most of the writing keep the game from being great. Sadly, technical mess keeps it from being good.

Shacknews - Brittany Vincent - 6 / 10 (PC)

Unfortunately, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a frustrating mess of bad design decisions, bugs, glitches, and narrative missteps. It could have been so much more, but it ends up falling flat on its face. While there are things to enjoy about it, they're few and far between -- your time is much better served replaying the original trilogy or exploring the widely available mods out there. You'll end up being much more fulfilled and feeling as though you've used your time in a productive manner.

Polygon - Arthur Gies - 7.5 / 10 (PS4, XB1)

But it’s my time with the cast that I’m still thinking about, and the mysteries about the world that haven’t been answered that make me feel like I’m waiting once again for a new Mass Effect game. And if I’m judging a game by where it leaves me, Andromeda succeeds, even if it stumbled getting there.

Ars Technica - Lee Hutchinson - Early Review (PC)

If you are a die-hard Mass Effect fan who has a personal Shepard head-cannon, Andromeda is an insta-buy, no questions asked. It's the first Mass Effect game we've gotten in five years and potentially the starting point for a new series. It has many of the same traits that made the original Mass Effect trilogy great, and it feels right. If you’re not a die-hard Mass Effect fan, watch some YouTube videos first to make sure the game will be for you.

Post Arcade (National Post) - Chad Sapieha - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

But for each hour I spent participating in humdrum combat I spent at least two or three engaged in thought provoking conversation or exploring strange new environments, learning more and more about the fascinatingly complex web of worlds, people, and problems that BioWare’s writers have woven. That’s why I play Mass Effect games. And it’s why Mass Effect: Andromeda, like its predecessors, is a blissfully easy recommendation for anyone looking for more than just another run-of-the-mill shoot ’em up set in space.

RPG Site - Andrea Shearon - 7 / 10 (PS4, PC)

Ryder’s tale feels like a solid beginning to something new. It needs more than a little polish, and probably some extensive work under the hood, but Andromeda has reassured me Mass Effect can exist without the Citadel, Earth, Shepard or even Ryder. This new galaxy left me with more questions than answers, but I’m okay with that. I hope another entry to the series means more exploration into every corner of humanity’s new home.

AngryCentaurGaming - Jeremy Penter - Rent (PC)

This is actually a 'Rent' or 'Deep, Deep Sale' on PC. The game has enough issues that right now there is no way I feel comfortable telling people to run out and get it. Because sure it can offer 60 hours, but I can flick my nuts for 60 hours, but it doesn't mean I want to.

IGN - Dan Stapleton - 7.7 / 10 (XB1, PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda only occasionally recaptures the series' brilliance, but delivers a vast and fun action-RPG.

Forbes - Paul Tassi - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

I have a feeling that Mass Effect fans will enjoy the game, but I don't think anyone will claim it outclasses the original trilogy, outside of maybe the very first game. If you could combine the story and memorable quests of the originals with the combat, visuals and scope of Andromeda, you would have the perfect video game, though I think what's offered here will satisfy most.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - John Walker - Unscored (PC)

As a follow-up to the previous trilogy, it's a timid and tepid tale too heavily reliant on what came before, too unambitious for what could have been, trapped in a gargantuan playground of bits and pieces to do.

Digital Trends - Phil Hornshaw - 2.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda often comes off like a giant checklist of Mass Effect–themed content, but what it's missing is the wonder and excitement that made the last Mass Effect games feel special. The previous games had their issues, but combined their elements to create a vast, interesting world full of deep characters with conflicting desires and experiences that made us feel connected to it.

Critical Hit - Geoffrey Tim - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect Andromeda is a fresh start – but in borrowing liberally from the first game it’s made many of the same mistakes. In spite of them, it’s an exciting space adventure that delivers everything that’s become important to Mass Effect: Great characters, fun exploration and a climactic tale of good vs evil.

Game Revolution - Aron Garst - 3.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

Although familiar in some regards, this is a positive in Andromeda’s case. Though, a truly successful revival needs to be innovative, not repetitive, and Andromeda often falls into a trap of tedium. It's a shame because it could have been so much more.

Fenix Bazaar - Gaetano Prestia - 8 / 10 (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an important first step for a franchise looking to enter into a new generation. It might get off on the wrong foot, but some crafty navigation quickly gets it back on track.

Video Game Sophistry - 6 / 10 (PS4)

Ultimately, there is a lot of fun to be had here. There are moments here that matter, but this game requires that confluence of idea to really shine, it needs a thesis. Great art needs to tell a story in it, and subjectively if you found something beautiful in this I understand, but there is objectively some problems with this masterpiece that make me want to go back to the Milky Way galaxy, find my crew, and never go to Andromeda.

God is a Geek - Chris White - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

A welcome return to Bioware’s space opera, introducing great characters, an interesting story and some fantastic designs, always providing things to do.

Areajugones - Antonio Vallejo.T - Spanish - 9 / 10 (PC)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a great project by BioWare and it is a stunning experience. Amazing narrative and plot, a true feeling of exploration and a very dynamic combat system. Even though its animations may not be the best ones, this game offers hours and hours of action and entertainment.

Arcade Sushi - Luke Brown - 7 / 10 (XB1)

Bioware brought a lot more planets, combat, exploration and mechanics to the table this time around, but more isn't always better. There may be no stronger case for keeping things simple than Mass Effect Andromeda.

IGN Spain - José L. Ortega - Spanish - 8.5 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a great game, but far from being perfect. It will satisfy the expectations of the fans but fails on delivering a master piece with errors in almost every aspect of the game.

GameInformer - Joe Juba - 8 / 10 (PS4)

When taken as its own journey (and not in comparison to Shepard’s saga), Mass Effect: Andromeda is fun, and the important parts work. The narrative isn’t astounding, but keeps you invested and drives you forward. The combat is entertaining whether you're in single-player or multiplayer. The crew isn't my favorite, but I like them and they have some good moments. Even with its other problems, these are the largest forces shaping your experience with Mass Effect: Andromeda, and they make it worth playing. At the same time, I was often left looking through a haze of inconveniences and dreaming about the game it could have been.

GameMAG - xtr - Russian - 7 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda has many noticeable problems, including strange animation, ugly characters, logically incomplete quests and numerous minor flaws. But this game offers an interesting main plot, nice RPG system and a huge world where you can explore different planets, solve puzzles, fight giant monsters, uncover secrets of the universe and participate in the colonization of deep space. Of course, this is not the Mass Effect we wanted, but a very large and interesting game, which significantly extends the known universe.

GamesBeat - Jeff Grubb - 55 / 100 (PC)

Games have to fit into our lives, and that's not always fair. Mass Effect: Andromeda might've worked a decade ago on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it doesn't work in a world that is delivering games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In this reality, BioWare's latest role-playing game is old, broken, and often boring.
Worst of all, it's going to disappoint fans of the Mass Effect series.

GamePro - Rae Grimm - German - 87 / 100 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a gigantic Sci-Fi epic and brave restart for the series, that doesn't reach the magic of its predecessors.

M3 - Niklas Alicki - Swedish - 5 / 10 (XB1)

Bioware's highly anticipated space adventure sadly fails to deliver on some critical points. Wonky animations, a boring set of characters and so-so story elements have officially de-railed the hype train for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

GamePlanet - Matt Maguire - 8 / 10 (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a paradox: it's both disappointing and excellent. A mammoth title, it delivers tons of great content, but hamstrings itself with a poor first few hours, a few horrible systems, and some uninspired scenarios. Even so, it's pretty great!

IGN Italy - Francesco Destri - Italian - 7.8 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is disappointing in many aspects (not just the visual ones), even if sci-fi mood, exploration, crafting and multiplayer are well done.

GameSpace - Suzie Ford - 8.5 / 10 (PC)

Whether it’s the combat system that is both new and familiar or multiplayer with its improvements or the interesting variety of quests or the epic score that screams Mass Effect, it all gels together into a whole. Ryder’s galaxy is as well-suited to her as the Milky Way was for Shepard. If we’re lucky, there are a lot more adventures in store for Ryder and her crew.

LevelUp - Luis Sánchez - 7.5 / 10 (PC)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a game that forgot how to be a Mass Effect game. While it fails to deliver a compelling narrative and has little to offer, It’s the combat and planetary exploration the element that holds together this contrasting experience. The result is a game drifting away in the open and cold space.

DualShockers - Giuseppe Nelva - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)

Perhaps Mass Effect Andromeda will serve as a wake-up call for BioWare, letting them realize that it’s time to evolve beyond the change of setting and cast. In the meanwhile, we’re still given a game that might not be the monumental fresh start that the masses expected, but is still a quite solid experience than many will enjoy.

Atomix - Alberto Desfassiaux - Spanish - 85 / 100 (PS4)

Despite its problems with the facial animations, Mass Effect Andromeda is a great entry of one of the must beloved franchises of all time. Great side quests, a compiling story, memorable characters, a solid combat system, decisions that matters and a deep atmosphere, makes this game a must have to every SciFi fan.

GamingBolt - Rashid Sayed - 8 / 10 (PS4)

Despite its vague links to the trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda can largely be described as a soft reboot for the series. For the most part, this has worked out really well for Bioware, giving them a launching pad to take the story ahead in future installments. The game is not without its problems, but the wealth of content on offer here will suck you right into the experience.

We Got This Covered - Edward Love - 3.5 / 5 stars (PS4)

Good? Yes. Great? No. This new Mass Effect is full of stuff to do, but it's a game that's been designed by consensus, not conviction.

PCMag - Gabriel Zamora - 3.5 / 5 stars (PC)

Despite its rougher edges, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a fine third-person shooter that features terrific space exploration. If you can overlook the clunky menus and graphics issues, you're in for some fun space hijinks.

Kotaku - Patricia Hernandez - Unscored (PS4)

Nobody anticipated how much work building a new home would really take, and in a way, the entire game is about mitigating everyone’s disappointment. The truth is that Andromeda itself isn’t the promised land players hoped for either, but there is a lot that’s good in this flawed new frontier for Mass Effect. The question is: will you play long enough to find it?

Generación Xbox - Felipe Ubierna - 9.2 / 10 (XB1)

After 5 long years of waiting, Mass Effect returns in a big way with a new title that meet our expectations. A more polished combat system, good RPG elements, an intriguing plot and a high level secondary missions that lay the foundations of this new story. It does not reach the perfection, but it is one of the best games that we have been able to play this generation.

GamePlanet - Chris Brown - 7 / 10 (PC)

Judged purely on its own merits, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a good game. But this is BioWare, and Mass Effect being merely good feels like a failure. It's a little clumsy in places, and daft in others, but I found it mostly endearing despite these quirks.

Oyungezer Online - Utku Çakır - Turkish - 5 / 10 (PC)

Mass Effect Andromeda is a souless and a poor game that gets overwhelmed by the success of its predecessor. It's bug filled gameplay, non-inspired storytelling and horrible animation quality makes it one of the the biggest disappointments of all time. Will we ever see a new Mass Effect game? To be honest I couldn't care less after Andromeda.

Cheat Code Central - Lucas White - 3 / 5 (PS4)

There's a decent game in here somewhere, but Mass Effect: Andromeda feels like a collaboration from Mass Effect fans rather than a group of known and established developers.

GameSkinny - Synzer - 9 / 10 stars (XB1)

The negativity around the game baffles me, because I have had an overwhelmingly positive experience with it. I guess that's why they're called opinions. If you are a fan of Mass Effect, RPGs, or open-world games, this is one to pick up.

Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 6 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect deserves better than Andromeda. The series has stumbled into a new generation, weighed down by tedious open world tropes and a catalogue of performance issues on the PS4. That said, it's not quite the disaster that some would have you believe. There really is a good Mass Effect game here, complete with endearing characters and great combat, but it's buried beneath a mountain of unnecessary clutter. In time, patches may sort many of its problems out, but until then, we can only recommend Andromeda to the BioWare faithful.

PCGamesN - Kirk McKeand - 8 / 10 (PC)

If you look at it as a reboot, a starting point for the series, there's lots of promise in that future. The first Mass Effect had countless problems, far more than here, but that will always be remembered as a classic, despite leaving similar threads hanging. Ultimately, this is a story about laying the foundations of a civilization, and it feels like BioWare were doing the same for the future of the franchise. In that way, these RPG developers have become Pathfinders themselves.

GameCrate - Nicholas Scibetta - 7.4 / 10 (PC)

Mass Effect: Andromeda manages to feel both overloaded with content and spread too thin. There are great battles to be won, puzzles to solve, and satisfying social interactions, but they're hidden behind layers of presentation problems and tedious travel times.

SA Gamer - Garth Holden - 8 / 10 (XB1)

Get ready for a whole new galaxy and more problems than you can shake a soap opera at.

EGM - Ray Carsillo - 6 / 10 (XB1)

There is a strong core of characters and story bedrock laid down in Mass Effect: Andromeda, but between questionable design choices, boring missions, and glitches galore, it’s hard not to view BioWare’s journey to a brand new galaxy as anything less than mission failure.

NZGamer - Keith Milburn - 7 / 10 (PC)

Exhilarating combat, marred by awkward interactions and pervasive bugs.

Guardian - Jordan Erica Webber - 3 / 5 stars

Problems are inevitable in a game of such epic proportions but there is a lot here that will make you want to keep playing

GBATemp - Austin Trujillo - 5.9 / 10 (PC)

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In Andromeda, I was beholden to beautiful environments and robust gameplay, yet marred by inhuman animations and a story more loose than spare change in a long woolen sock. Andromeda is a galaxy of empty promises and one I could not find enjoyment in.

The Escapist - Ron Whitaker - 3.5 / 5 stars (PC)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a game that takes few risks and pushes few boundaries. It's a Mass Effect game designed to make fans of the series feel at home, but technical issues and lackluster writing leave it feeling like a missed opportunity to regain the prestige the franchise once enjoyed.

Azralynn - Azralynn - 79 / 100 | Written (PC)

Andromeda builds on most of the things I liked in the earlier Mass Effect games and exceeds at creating more satisfying gameplay mechanics. It's a real shame that the game didn't get more polish in the character animation department, but if you can look past all these issues there's still plenty of fun to be had with it.

VGChartz - Brandon J. Wysocki - Unscored (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is like a good book that you don’t want to put down, nor do you want it to end. The litany of complaints and problems are little typos or creases in the pages. You’d be hard pressed to miss them, but you gladly look past them to continue the stellar experience.

Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 7.5 / 10 (PS4)

Mass Effect: Andromeda is an action-packed parody of the previous titles. Besides countless technical issues it feels like the developers really don't know where to take the series. If you're looking for a thrilling story or thoughtful dialogues, you'll probably be disappointed. Action-Fans will still get some carefully thought out Gameplay-mechanics and a fun multiplayer-part.

Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 7 / 10 (PS4)

At the end of the day, Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't bad so much as it is disappointing. The core gameplay has been improved from Mass Effect 3, and the multiplayer is almost worth the price of admission on its own. Alas, it's dragged down by a weak presentation, poor plot, and a general lack of ambition.

Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner - 7 / 10 (XB1)

I look forward to the next entry, but there are steps needed to bring Mass Effect back to its proper form.

ZTGD - Ken McKown - 8 / 10 (XB1)

Mass Effect Andromeda is a great game with some serious side effects.

IBTimes UK - Holly Nielsen - 3 / 5 stars (XB1)

To the credit of BioWare, despite Andromeda's many flaws I still wanted to visit the planets with my teammates, to progress and colonise new worlds. It is a solid game, but one with issues that appear worse than they are due to high expectations the developers have earned from a stellar history of better RPGs. Would I be thrilled about the prospect of another game set in the Andromeda galaxy? Probably not. However, if future games can push past the familiar and embrace ideas of the "unknown" that Andromeda aspires to, but never realises, then I do think the series still has something to offer.

Game Rant - Denny Connolly - 4 / 5 stars (XB1)

Mass Effect: Andromeda starts out just a bit too slow, but is sure win over fans of sci-fi action RPGs once the real open-world space exploration begins.

Gadgets 360 - Pranay Parab - 8 / 10 (PS4)

There are several annoyances with the game, but, overall, BioWare has delivered yet another stellar role-playing experience with a fascinating story to boot.

TotalBiscuit - John Bain - Unscored | Multiplayer (PC)
Pause Resume - Craig Shields - 3 / 5 (PS4)

Andromeda isn’t the return to form for Mass Effect that we were hoping for. Its issues are obvious from the opening few hours and if you can manage to accept them, Andromeda is capable of providing an interesting and combat heavy RPG.

Use A Potion - Daryl Leach - 8 / 10 (PS4)

I have no doubt that it’ll probably be one of the most divisive titles released this generation, but for me it certainly delivered on its promise of providing a compelling, action-packed adventure.

Brash Games - DjMMT - 8 / 10 (PS4)

It is not the best the franchise has to offer but it’s definitely a great start to a whole new trilogy and I highly recommend it to both veteran players and those who have never played Mass Effect before.

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - 7 / 10 (XB1)

Once you get over the fact that it’s not quite as polished as its predecessors nor does it further the series in any meaningful way though, you can still appreciate what it is: a Mass Effect game through and through.

Giant Bomb - Brad Shoemaker - 2 / 5 stars (PS4)

Andromeda largely feels like a shoddily assembled facsimile of the previous Mass Effect games.

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Confessions of a Boros Player

Boros Commanders I have played over the years

1. You need to embrace Land Destruction.

2. Play risky - accelerate without breaks.

3. Removal, removal, removal.

4. Don't underestimate small points of damage.

5. One Neheb to rule them all.

Closing ...

Kubala, the path to glory of Barcelona's most loved legend: A story of overcoming, adventures, crazy nights, majestic matches and of a good man who made everybody around him happy.

The legend of the escape.

The legend of Hungaria.

The legend on the field.

The man of the year.

From the bench to Sarrià.

Boys well, optimal morale.

by Santi Gimenez for AS.com (2020)

Kubala, the path to glory of Barcelona's most loved legend: A story of overcoming, adventures, crazy nights, majestic matches and of a good man who made everybody around him happy.

The legend of the escape.

The legend of Hungaria.

The legend on the field.

The man of the year.

From the bench to Sarrià.

Boys well, optimal morale.

by Santi Gimenez for AS.com (2020)

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