Copy-pasted from Doyce Testerman’s thread, just in case the action ends up being here (as it often does):

Really strong criticism.

As I’ve been saying elsewhere, so far, Atomic Robo is my favourite implementation of Fate, and I’m getting closer to really understanding why that is by reading other people’s criticism.

Where AR brings “surprises” back in is through the Brainstorm system. Sure, players get to choose what elements come out of the Brainstorm and become Aspects, but because of the dice element and the fact that the players are all contributing their own weirdest ideas, the strange gestalts that come out of a Brainstorm are often very different than what would have been expected by looking at their “ingredients”.

None of that invalidates any of your issues, it’s just a realization that I might not have had without your comments.