Anthem

[Orogun01]

I guess I'm technically "Ancient" although I really only feel like an Immature Adult 

I think that's sort what Adulthood means, cause it is literally everyone I've spoken to.

[alanschu]

Playing at a friend's place as I didn't buy the game (he's my guinea pig), so I've only played it sporadically. But things that I've noticed that are lacking, either compared to previous Bio games or games in the loot shooter genre that Anthem is competing with:

 

-Character stats. I can't tell how strong my character is, or how each piece of gear actually impacts my overall build

-Story. What exactly is the story? I think me and my friend are about halfway through the main story (got to the grind part where you have to freestyle to finish challenges to open the 4 tombs) and I honestly couldn't tell you what the main story really is about other than the freelancer doing unconnected tasks for people.

-Loot is terrible. The guns all look the same, the drops from encounters suck, and the stuff I can craft is terrible.

-It's impossible to find "world events" on the freeplay map. You almost have to luck into them because there's nothing like in Destiny that indicates a world event is taking place in a certain spot.

-Unable to access inventory and change gear except when you're back at the Forge

-Transitioning between the Forge and Fort Tarsis is a load screen.

 

Those are the main things. It just seems like the game is in the early stages before all the final touches are put on it. And the story seems like they didn't even want to add a story, but decided they needed some minor thing just to give you an excuse for doing these various errands. Even Destiny, whose story I thought was only average, seemed to be telling a more coherent story.

Re: Story

 

A lot of the early going is just about "surviving as a freelancer after the events of the prologue" Have you reunited yet with Haluk or anything like that (it sounds like you have - but that's where I just got and it feels to me like the main crit path is starting to come into focus - it's possible you just don't like it which is fair too!). The story aspect is different compared to our other games by design as it is a different type of game (we tried to be reasonably open about this, and it's a big reason why we wanted to have a prerelease demo for people to play - I don't want someone to pick up the game if they're looking for a DA or ME type of experience).

 

I'm not sure I grok what you mean by loot is terrible, beyond feeling that the weapon models are too similar. Are you feeling you're not getting decent loot upgrades? Or that they're not interesting? Or that you're not able to do sufficient damage?  Loot progression has seemed reasonable enough by my take, but I'm still pretty early in the game (level 11 IIRC). I tend to get a handful of greens every mission though and I don't feel like I'm struggling to get through missions either, so it doesn't feel like loot "sucks" in the sense that I'm not able to be effective in combat, but you're mileage may vary. There's issues with the inscriptions being sometimes oddly matched (all energy gun gets bonus to physical damage) though that was addressed in a patch today. But I'm also early enough that I'm not really worrying yet that much as my gear still tends to be pretty temporary. I have found 2 legendary yellows and 1 blue in my past few missions.

 

Stuff you can craft seems to be based on your own level. You can unlock higher tier recipies by using the weapons and getting kills. I can craft green Sledgehammers (a light machine gun that I dig). Getting the next level recipe looks a fair bit trickier as I'll need to kill Elite level baddies with my sledgehammer. Just checking out the Challenges tab in the journal right now.

 

The load screens for Forge (and just in general) are no arguments here. I've read some have had success putting the game on their SSD, though not everyone is able to do that and we should work on improving it for everyone (I still use a HDD for most of my games)

Edited March 1, 2019 by alanschu

[alanschu]

GoA, here's a screencap from the challenges as an example of crafting recipe progression.

 

 

[injurai]

So is the end of grognards near?

[IndiraLightfoot]

So is the end of grognards near?

Not by a long shot. They have another ageing curve altogether, and they really get into their groove when they leave the Statler and Waldorf phase

and enter the undead section of aging, starting with the skeleton phase, and then you have:

-Zombie

-Ghoul

-Ghast

-Wight

-Wraith

-Ghost

-Vampire

-Demi-lich

-Lich

Edited March 1, 2019 by IndiraLightfoot

[Fenixp]

Wait, Vampires are just really old ghosts? "We figured you people aren't scared of immaterial figures so we'll frighten you with rampant murder"?

[Flouride]

I will not cheer people losing their jobs even though BioWare hasn't made a game in years that I would be interested in buying and playing. I felt betrayed by rushjobs that Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 were. Both games should have released later without the huge hurry to hit some quarterly release date for profits.

 

Also I would put the blame on BioWare when it comes to the Games as a service method, that's clearly corporate greed by EA and I doubt that will change unless they run out of the franchises to milk dry. Maybe some day they will realize that what works for their sports games doesn't work for everything else. If they do realize that, then we might see actually interesting games coming out by EA. Before that, I don't think I will even bother getting excited about any upcoming releases.

 

EA as a corporation hasn't delivered anything for me in the longest time, while they've killed so many companies they bought, that produced quality games that I enjoyed playing.

[Gfted1]

I wouldnt mind being a Litch. You know, minus all the rotty bits.

[Chilloutman]

 

So is the end of grognards near?

Not by a long shot. They have another ageing curve altogether, and they really get into their groove when they leave the Statler and Waldorf phase

and enter the undead section of aging, starting with the skeleton phase, and then you have:

-Zombie

-Ghoul

-Ghast

-Wight

-Wraith

-Ghost

-Vampire

-Demi-lich

-Lich

 

 

Where are my Banshees at? Also I didn't know Undeads can regrow .. flesh?

Edited March 1, 2019 by Chilloutman

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

 

So is the end of grognards near?

Not by a long shot. They have another ageing curve altogether, and they really get into their groove when they leave the Statler and Waldorf phase

and enter the undead section of aging, starting with the skeleton phase, and then you have:

-Zombie

-Ghoul

-Ghast

-Wight

-Wraith

-Ghost

-Vampire

-Demi-lich

-Lich

 

 

Where are my Banshees at? Also I didn't know Undeads can regrow .. flesh?

 

As a skeleton, the grognard is freezing. so she collects flesh and sinews until she can tie herself a fleshy body onto her skeletal frame.

However, as a zombie, that craving for flesh is so hard to reign in that she begins to eat the rotting flesh of dead corpses, and then she becomes a ghoul.

And ghasts are more slender and evolved ghouls, you might say.

Well, when there are no more flesh fuelling her undead craving, she gets infused with hatred and violence, leading to the ability to drain the life out of victims just by touch.

And so the slightly ghost-like wight is born. A wraith is an even more ethereal and horrific version of a Wight, now leaving barrows for other spooky abodes.

Not surprisingly, the ghost, of which banshee and revenant are subforms, take shape, an all-ethereal life-draining apparition.

Here, it comes full circle, since the ghost has reached ethereal perfection it becomes obsessed with the essence of life and and its fuel: blood.

And over time, this sanguine urge takes on a ferocious animalistic craving, inserted into a mastermind, and this leaves us with the vampire. 

After centuries of feeding and sleeping in coffins, it's easy to lose one's head, so the vampire does the opposite. In an effort to live forever, and keep this mastermind, they sacrifice all their abilities in order to become a master wizard in a cranial package: the demi-lich. 

But soon, this body envy ensues yet again, and we see this undead master wizard regain her skeletal shape, granting them a handy osseous construct that can carry robes, hats, and fancy rings and bracelets, albeit a rickety ride with skeletal feet planted into hundreds of years old boots.

Edited March 1, 2019 by IndiraLightfoot

[GhostofAnakin]

Also, freeplay mode (or whatever it's called) is so empty.  My buddy and I spent about an hour roaming around and stumbled upon no wold events, and the only enemy encounter was a pack of scar who were easily dispatched.  And we never saw any of the other players on the map the entire time.

[ktchong]

Stay away from that game if you value your console.

 

EA has basically been shutting down any discussions or complaints of the problem as damage control - which has led to even more players unknowingly continue to play Anthem and damage their consoles.  (The type of ethics as we can expect from EA.)

 

Sony is currently offering refunds for Anthem on their end.  Not sure if the refunds cover just the game or the game + damaged console.  (Obviously do not expect to EA or BioWare to take on responsibility and pay for your console if their game destroys it; but I do expect an incoming class action.  Customers might have agreed away their rights to sue over the game itself in an EULA, but that agreement does not cover the console.)

 

Another nail in BioWare's coffin. Good riddance. As a former fan of BioWare, let me say this: EA should just put BioWare out of our misery already. At this point, I won't miss or feel sorry for BioWare if EA permanently shuts down the studio for good; BioWare totally deserved it.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by ktchong

[ktchong]

Edited March 5, 2019 by ktchong

[Fenixp]

That's at least 40 more minutes of your life spent just watching videos on news which can be conveyed in two paragraphs that you can skim through in, like, 3.
 
Incidentally, here's the source that won't waste your time if we absolutely must have a separate thread on this as opposed to it being posted to News section - writer himself experienced weird shutdowns with Anthem, seemingly related to the console overheating.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Fenixp

[Gorth]

Some people like attention.... judging buy the constant tabloid style posts....

 

 

Which Tabloid Lies Sell the Most Magazines?

 

Edit: I guess an existing thread on the subject of Anthem already existed. Merged and renamed.

[Lexx]

Funny, I never liked any BoyoWare games outside of Mass Effect. And I only liked Mass Effect, because it was some sort of space opera. Tried to replay it again last year, but quit after 5 mins, because apparently PC version doesn't support gamepad or whatever... I don't remember. Wouldn't want to play the games with keyboard and mouse anymore, honestly.

[ktchong]

Frankly, I think this is the last straw for BioWare.   Right now, BioWare is "dead man walking".

 

• The Verge: EA says it’s ‘aware’ that Anthem is crashing some PS4 consoles

 

• Eurogamer: EA asks for help to diagnose Anthem's alarming PS4 crashes

 

This must have turned into the PR embarrassment and nightmare for EA.  Even if EA was going to give another chance to BioWare after the disastrous sales of Anthem, now EA will definitely shut down BioWare over this disaster.

 

I think EA will shut down BioWare before the end of 2019.

Edited March 5, 2019 by ktchong

[Fenixp]

Likelihood of foretold events coming true increases geometrically with font size used to predict said events. Science.

[Malcador]

Unless Netcraft confirms it, I'm not convinced.

[Katphood]

Funny, I never liked any BoyoWare games outside of Mass Effect. And I only liked Mass Effect, because it was some sort of space opera. Tried to replay it again last year, but quit after 5 mins, because apparently PC version doesn't support gamepad or whatever... I don't remember. Wouldn't want to play the games with keyboard and mouse anymore, honestly.

If you still haven't thrown out your PS3, you can buy the ME Trilogy for it for 20 bucks or so. It doesn't have the dlcs though so you have to buy those seperately.

[Lexx]

Was thinking about it, but then I thought meeeeeh what if I won't like it anymore.

[Kefka1134]

Haven't played it, don't know what to make it of it honestly... I'm sure it will sell quite a bit though. 

[Chilloutman]

why would anyone ever throw out PS3? Its blue ray player, it got free interent access, i can stream videos from my computer to TV with it...

[LadyCrimson]

That's at least 40 more minutes of your life spent just watching videos on news which can be conveyed in two paragraphs that you can skim through in, like, 3.

This is why I don't often watch videos to get actual information or even tutorials, unless said video is 2-3 minutes or less. People talk a lot slower than I can read and thus videos just waste my time. Not to mention all the extra non-info prattling or "humor" some like to toss into it.

 

Some people are very verbally or visually oriented or don't like to read, however.

[majestic]

Funny, I never liked any BoyoWare games outside of Mass Effect. And I only liked Mass Effect, because it was some sort of space opera. Tried to replay it again last year, but quit after 5 mins, because apparently PC version doesn't support gamepad or whatever... I don't remember. Wouldn't want to play the games with keyboard and mouse anymore, honestly.

 

Why would you not play a shooter on KB+M, peasant?

 

edit:

 

Anthem effectively killing PS4s is probably in the same ballpark as the Switch dock scratching the console. People confusing cause and effect, in other words that PS4 would probably have died soon even without Anthem and people scratching their Switch consoles in the Ninendo dock are most likely spastics.

 

The crashing I'll buy immediately - console games are nowhere near as stable as they used to be and the technical underpinning of Anthem doesn't seem to be that awesome (and that it apparently hangs and freezes during matchmaking is telling). Still takes two to tango, Sony isn't entirely without blame here either.

Edited March 5, 2019 by majestic