Anthem - EA’s next PR disaster after BF 5

[Polystyrene Glioblastoma]

Anthem has no emotion to it. It's too sanitized for a speculative dunk in the shit-tier section of the MMO market. It's also too revolting to the consumer base Bioware established years ago. There's no way Anthem will do well. Even the gun recoil and sound has no life to it, and a boring, Disney inspired villian to top it off. There's nothing fun to do in this game, no matter how pretty it looks.

 

[Haramburger]

It should be very concerning to every AAA publisher when Resident Evil 2 is capturing an ever-growing portion of the industry's critical and consumer attention

LMAO when a game is so well made you can sell it again 20 years later
Does it still have Hunk and Tofu unlocks for speedruns, and extra weapons?

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

What it strikes me is that it wasn't so long ago a game like Anthem would've had everyone furiously masturbating, but here in 2019 it feels like a game from 2009. The core thinking behind it is rapidly going obsolete, and I think the alarmingly tepid reception drives home that people are tired of it.

It should be very concerning to every AAA publisher when "traditional blockbusters" like Anthem are getting shrugs while more forward thinking titles like Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, The Last of Us, Resident Evil 2 and Death Stranding are capturing an ever-growing portion of the industry's critical and consumer attention.

The problem is the issue of cost. Really, most summer blockbusters we should be paying $80-90 for the base game with how much money, tech, skills etc actually go into it. This is the first reason monetization became a thing to try and cover that gap using whales instead of the general consumer.

The problem is, EA is not exploiting the IPs it holds properly. It could very very easily charge this price for the Madden, Fifa and even the Star Wars brands with nobody who'd actually buy those games batting an eye, mostly because this is a core of highly casual gamers who might buy six-eight games a year, tops. Heck, if it threw in some extra maps after the fact it could even roll it out as far as DICE's general output.

Your more general consumer, however, isn't just running on the summer blockbuster any more. They want a bit of variety in subject matter and concepts. Gaming, Netflix and Amazon are all in on this and we've seen unusual runaway successes which have made the studios behind it good, solid money. They're still relying on the concept of the modest profit (which still, at the end of the day runs to literal millions of dollars) but it's not the "looks good to the executives and shareholder" of one release making ALL THE MONEYS.

 

[RJ MacReady]

They're still relying on the concept of the modest profit (which still, at the end of the day runs to literal millions of dollars) but it's not the "looks good to the executives and shareholder" of one release making ALL THE MONEYS.

Which is, of course, why Anthem might be BioWare's death knell. EA spent $100+ million on the game and they don't want to just break even, they want utterly ridiculous profit and if they don't get it then it's "underperforming" and that studio faces the glue factory. And it's not like they can count on Dragon Age 4 because that series had its chance and it's not nearly big enough to satisfy EA's greed no matter how ruthlessly it's exploited. It's hard to imagine any outcome where BioWare keeps in EA's good graces. I think they'll see layoffs this year at the very minimum.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Which is, of course, why Anthem might be BioWare's death knell. EA spent $100+ million on the game and they don't want to just break even, they want utterly ridiculous profit and if they don't get it then it's "underperforming" and that studio faces the glue factory. And it's not like they can count on Dragon Age 4 because that series had its chance and it's not nearly big enough to satisfy EA's greed no matter how ruthlessly it's exploited. It's hard to imagine any outcome where BioWare keeps in EA's good graces. I think they'll see layoffs this year at the very minimum.

The fact we are 21 days to release and I have not seen a single TV advert means this is Bioware's death knell. There's no doubt about it. This game has had a huge, huge budget but seemingly fuck all (as ever) on advertising.

Bare in mind, a 30 second TV advert in this day and age is hilariously cheap (£100 or less) on most UK digital channels. I remember ME2 and ME3 both had adverts running for a good, solid month before both of those games dropped and they shipped bigly.

Like ME:A it's like EA's marketing department is asleep once again so they have an excuse to murder the studio for underperforming twice.

 

[RJ MacReady]

The fact we are 21 days to release and I have not seen a single TV advert means this is Bioware's death knell. There's no doubt about it. This game has had a huge, huge budget but seemingly fuck all (as ever) on advertising.

Bare in mind, a 30 second TV advert in this day and age is hilariously cheap (£100 or less) on most UK digital channels. I remember ME2 and ME3 both had adverts running for a good, solid month before both of those games dropped and they shipped bigly.

Like ME:A it's like EA's marketing department is asleep once again so they have an excuse to murder the studio for underperforming twice.

Flashy AAA titles like Anthem live and die at the will of the casual market which scoops up anything that looks cool. I have no idea why EA isn't pimping the fuck out of it to get their attention. They clearly don't even give enough of a shit to bribe the usual suspects for media spotlight on its diversity and wokeness.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Flashy AAA titles like Anthem live and die at the will of the casual market which scoops up anything that looks cool. I have no idea why EA isn't pimping the fuck out of it to get their attention. They clearly don't even give enough of a shit to bribe the usual suspects for media spotlight on its diversity and wokeness.

Nobody will sign a contract with EA any more after they all got fucked over by the Battlefront issue, where they offered the Youtubers a fully unlocked game, then slammed everything shut behind the paywall when the game came out to public release. Cue a bunch of Youtubers having to huck this thing because they got to play what was effectively a different game.

A number of Youtubers I follow (namely Yogscasters) got fucked over by this with Hat Films playing to the absolute fucking minimum and Rythian playing the single player campaign and being suspiciously worse than usual to run out the clock. Both of them dropped the game like a fucking stone.

The Yogs haven't touched the Demo since the single livestream (where Duncan's game crashed) and you have to hit something like the eighth result before you see something neutral about it.

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

It should be very concerning to every AAA publisher when "traditional blockbusters" like Anthem are getting shrugs while more forward thinking titles like Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, The Last of Us, Resident Evil 2 and Death Stranding are capturing an ever-growing portion of the industry's critical and consumer attention.

Because multiplayer "games as services" is a shitty idea. Single player games with a beginning and end (plus dlc) will always be loved by gamers.

 

[Polystyrene Glioblastoma]

How plausible is it that Anthem will lead to the shut down and full absorption of Bioware into EA? Sabatoge, so to say.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

How plausible is it that Anthem will lead to the shut down and full absorption of Bioware into EA? Sabatoge, so to say.

Ooooooh, about as likely as this is what they did to Maxis, Visceral, Bullfrog etc etc etc etc etc.

 

[YM 621]

RIP Bioware

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

What strikes me is that it wasn't so long ago a game like Anthem would've had everyone furiously masturbating, but here in 2019 it feels like a game from 2009.

What is it about Anthem as a game that couldn't have been done in 2009? I say it's very little. Fewer shinies and lower resolution, sure, but the actual game and how it plays doesn't seem far from what could be expected on a 360.
I think that's where the fatigue sets in, nothing comes off as new about it, it feels old. From the footage I've watched I feel that I have maybe an 80% understanding on exactly how it plays and what the game is.

Cyberpunk looks interesting and the next console generation might be a savior with those beefy CPUs, if the rumor is true and they get some ray tracing/tensor cores into their GPUs that would be exciting and it could be used in interesting ways.

 

[Jinmen]

that's the wrongest opinion ever
baldurs gate 2 is one of the best classic PC RPGs ever created, and they have plenty of other games under their belt that range from good to great (neverwinter nights, mass effect, jade empire, knights of the old republic, ...)
hate on modern bioware all you want, but nobody can seriously deny their past achievements

Fact: Bioware went to complete shit once EA took over. You can see it in ME2 where the game was steadily dumbed down and lots of stuff from the first game, like ammo types, were removed. I can't remove when the first Dragon Age was made but I think that was Bioware's last true rpg.

Its easy to forget how Bioware use to be a name associated with awesome titles. How the mighty have fallen..

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Fact: Bioware went to complete shit once EA took over. You can see it in ME2 where the game was steadily dumbed down and lots of stuff from the first game, like ammo types, were removed. I can't remove when the first Dragon Age was made but I think that was Bioware's last true rpg.

Its easy to forget how Bioware use to be a name associated with awesome titles. How the mighty have fallen..

The first Dragon Age had someone who had a legit PHD in Mythos and ancient history or some shit like that. The woman's name escapes me.

The second one had Hamburger Helper in it.

The first Dragon Age had three years of worldbuilding before they even began development. DA2 had a year deadline.... start to finish.

I don't even fucking like Dragon Age but even that is such a huge pile of bullshit.

 

[_blank_]

Okay, so just I would have some actual firsthand reference, I downloaded the public demo.

From the onset... I have no fucking idea what is going on. I'm going into this game blind. I know there are mech suits called javelins, and we are some planet annnd that's it. The demo makes absolutely no effort in trying to explain what is going on and why I should care. You start off in the hub and there are some books you can pick up, but to actually get any information from them, you have to go into your "Cortex" library and read it. And it's just walls of text. Bioware, I know you like writing and reading is fundamental etc. etc., but so is telling a story WITH the video game.

But anyway, back to the hub annnd it's extremely weird. It's a town of mannequins. This game is being released in 2019 and the hub is populated by about 10 NPC characters, just cloned a few times and sometimes wearing different outfits, but it's the exact same head. I walked from one NPC pantomiming they're writing something on a clipboard to another one less than twenty steps away and its the exact. same. NPC model. Also, for whatever brainless reason, 90% of the characters don't talk or make idle chatter, they just pantomime like they're talking to each other. You can be standing three feet away from them and they are completely fucking silent. It's jarring to say the least.

But anyway, the few character you can talk to all seem to be taking cues from the Andromeda "How to Write Characters" handbook. All of them got that "got to be witty with everything I say" mentality.... except the one white guy. The one white guy you can talk to in the demo is some actor from a TV show (apparently this strange alien world has syndicated TV... although you never see a single TV anywhere...), and he's just kind of your basic wide-eyed, hollow headed stereotype.

Worst part however in the hub however in the insulting dialogue wheel options. It gives you the illusion of choice but right from the onset, your choices in responses are "positive diligent response" or "positive somewhat aloof response." There is no fucking reason for this at all because it doesn't change the conversation in any capacity.

So okay, you're given the mission to go talk to Mathias. Mathias is a 20-30-something hanging around in some building off to the side who needs you pick up something called "The Manifold." So you go and suit up after talking to your mechanic, Zoe, who I'm 90% certain is voiced by the same VA who voice Cait in Fallout 4. Because apparently in wacky super spaceworld there will still be Irish lassies.

So you get into your javelin and head out on "expedition." Customizing your Javelin is okay, I honestly didn't spend oodles of time in this as the UI is kinda trash. But, I made myself a fancy purple drank colored javelin, time to hunt down a macguffin.

Annnd so we enter into the actual bang-bang shooty part of the game. Annnnd honestly best way I can describe it is you take the shooting mechanics from the Mass Effect series (you get two weapons in your loadout, and a smattering of secondary weapons which never fully deplete but have cooldown periods) and a maneuvering system from a stripped down Just Cause (mostly the flying bits which looked cool, but felt honestly slower than I expected). There are no real cover-based mechanics, it's mostly just running and hopping around like a jackass and ducking behind barriers to let your shields replenish.

I solo'ed the first mission and I was wholeheartedly unimpressed. It wasn't terrible (mostly, more on that later), but at the same time other that impressive looking backdrops, none of the character designs jumped out at me. They literally felt like re-purposed Destiny grunts. And if you've played a Mass Effect game, you already know the varieties. You got your cannon-fodder grunt, your floaty bois with shields, your tanky bros that you gank from a distance, and you got your alien doggos whose sole purpose is to make sure you can't just camp in one place for too long. It's pretty bog standard.

I didn't have a lot of technical issues, although I did have a couple of instances where some squads of enemies vanished into thin air in front of me. I also had one instance where I was being ganked by some invisible doggos which proceeded to fuck me up and manage to kill me, which was thus far the only time the game WAS able to kill me thus far. The AI isn't completely braindead, but as previously stated, the enemy AI is about on par with Mass Effect enemies. Keep moving around and you'll be fine.

So after having to find two parts to open a door, you get to a fucking color puzzle. I'm not sure if some hint elements didn't load in correctly, but it was complete obtuse as fuck and I just looked up the answer. Then you get your macguffin. Mission Comprete, return back to base.

THat's as far as I've gone thus far. Again, the whole experience has been very very hollow for me and i don't know if I want to spend more time with it. But we'll see.

 

[DarkSydePundit]

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

THat's as far as I've gone thus far. Again, the whole experience has been very very hollow for me and i don't know if I want to spend more time with it. But we'll see.

The only thing that could save this is if the story and the character interactions are really good later on in the game, but chances of that are slim at best.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

RIP Bioware

 

[Basketball Jones]

This came out yesterday for anyone that cares. The bulk of the article is reminding you how not like Destiny the game is and literally referencing Destiny to explain that they’re different from Destiny.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/variet...bioware-hopes-to-hook-players-1203125590/amp/

“Anthem” is an entirely new approach for BioWare. The games-as-a-service format will be a divergence for a studio better known for large chunks of narrative DLC. Games don’t often end anymore, especially when recurrent spending (that’s the fancy term for microtransactions and in-app purchases) is an important piece of how games become profitable in 2019.

The trickiest part of developing a games-as-a-service title that also has a narrative thread is figuring out how to keep players coming back when they’ve mined all the content. “Anthem” has been compared to Bungie’s “Destiny” on endless repeat since its E3 2017 reveal. That sentiment amplified after E3 2018, during which BioWare showed off some of “Anthem’s” endgame.

When you wrap up the main story, a protracted fight between the people of Fort Tarsis and the evil Dominion, there’s still more to do. Freeplay remains available, allowing players to explore the world on their own or with friends. It’s an opportunity to harvest crafting mats, fight powerful Titans, and take on world events

So like...(in an effort to not mention Destiny) Monster Hunter World? Where there’s a main story, but after it ends you can still do assignments and participate in events? I mean that’s cool and all...but I could also not be online while playing MH. I never felt constricted about having to wait for other people to show up if I decided to go do assignments, and whether or not I wanted 2 or more people was my decision.

They also mentioned back in Dec that Not-Destiny was going to focus more on the story so it’s a bit weird that the story is planned into the release. But maybe that’s just me being a pessimist because this game has 90 awards and hasn’t launched or some shit.

Part of what makes these longer missions more enjoyable is how “Anthem’s” gear contributes to a growing sense of power. There is palpable difference between the options and incentives players have throughout the game. At level 10 (where the Anthem demo places players), it’s prudent to equip the highest power gear. In fact, you might not have access to any items that confer additional benefits. At the level 30 cap, there’s a greater need for synergistic loadouts. This is a common feature in games like this, sure, but “Anthem” does a better job than most making players feel powerful from the start and continues to ramp that up through the endgame.

I feel like they just described a really common thing in video games and tried to make it sound unique. @_blank_ you mentioned not messing with it that much, but did you ever feel it was imbalanced in any way?

That means that the only thing barring players from partaking in endgame content with their friends is whether or not they’ve earned it through narrative progression. There are no hard and fast rules about your pilot level or individual suit power level. However, that may be gently introduced in post-launch content called Cataclysms.

“We unlock one stronghold during the main story,” Darrah says. “The other strongholds don’t unlock until you get to the endgame and finish the main story,” Darrah explains. “There is power gating in a way, in that you have to have unlocked it in order to play it. We’re not going to force you to be at a certain suit level, at least not yet. The Cataclysms will be more like that. Anyone can go into them, but your degree of success will be more driven by your strategy and gear. It’s a soft gate. You can experience the content. We don’t want to have content that people feel like they can’t see because they aren’t good enough.”

Cataclysms will function similarly to seasonal content found in games like “Fortnite,” with a global change to the map, or what DICE is doing with “Battlefield V’s” Tides of War. These will be time-limited, thematic content that gives BioWare the chance to change how the world looks, feels, and reacts to players. Cataclysm events will only last for a limited period of time and the core experience tied to them will also fit somewhere on the spectrum between a “Destiny” strike and a raid.

Yeah...that doesn’t sound very “story-driven,” if you can blaze through the story and get to the real game, but again I might just be jaded.

BioWare is following the rest of EA’s shift away from DLC and premium passes toward games-as-a-service. This is how the publisher has handled post-launch content for “Star Wars Battlefront II” and “Battlefield V,” both of which notably abandoned season passes and large, paid content drops that have traditionally split the community.

OH THATS A GREAT BUSINESS MODEL. EVERYONE LOVES THAT ONE. HOW ARE EA’S STOCKS DOING BTW?

“What I want to move us toward is more of a conversation with the people playing the game,” Darrah says. “Our DLC has always been story-driven in the past, which is great, but it’s always been really infrequent and really big, partially because it’s been really infrequent, so it had to be really big. What that means is that it’s not a conversation. It’s more, ‘Here’s a thing we hope you like it. Here’s a thing we hope you like it. Here’s a thing we hope you like it. Too bad if you don’t, we can’t do anything about it.’ When you can get more of that more often, then we’re able to react, evolve, and change. The people playing the game can influence what the game becomes over time. That’s going to be true, not just for Anthem, but for our games going forward in a way they haven’t been able to in the past.”

But why does it matter what the game becomes when it’s supposed to be more story-driven? Or is this because players are supposed to view the game as having two plots? Because that just sounded like a PR way of saying, “we threw together a story and after that you just do the same shit again and again until we make a new patch or some shit.”

 

[Fuzhou]

So last night I gave the beta a shot on both Xbox (One X because why not) and my PC (1050 ti, Ryzen 5 1600 and 16 GB of DDR4-2666 RAM) and shockingly, medium settings got me a solid 30FPS but anything lower and it looked like ass, and anything more and my PC was shitting itself.

It seemingly is like a mix of Medium and High settings on One X from what I can tell, sadly, my capture card doesn't come until Monday so i can't tell if it is those settings via pixel peeping but hey.