The more I hear about developers the more I think they just don't realistically have or take the time to play and learn from similar games in a meaningful enough way. At least not the people who are making decisions anyway.
We already hear these stories of insane work hours, we also hear stories of developing ruining many peoples enjoyment of games. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they don't learn because they simply never even knew because they never got that experience. Which is a failing imo, but not all that surprising.
Just take a look at the road WoW has been on over the years. How many changes invoke people saying "they don't play their game". It also makes a lot of sense in the whole "its like these dudes are in a time capsule" kind of way as well. Have you ever watched Kevin Jordans streams? When he actively talks about WoW its literally like he's been in a time capsule this whole time. His opinions on designs etc are clearly dated, now imagine if he got hired back on the team.
We sit here acting like these guys have anywhere near the experience people like us who spend a disgusting number of hours playing games do. A career in game design simply doesn't seem like it really allows for that. The age of games being made by hardcore gamers is long gone.
Frankly that's every game though, there's always something that one just can't wrap their head around.Anthem has amazing potential, but it keeps being dragged down by these outright "u did wat?" decisions they made.
That said, there's two things that all the reviewers seemed to completely ignore even though they're arguably thee most important.
1~ The devs are so insanely engaged and transparent with the community while listening to feedback to the point where people started to freak out when they went pretty much silent for a single day while they were discussing the loot changes. They're so engaged that one single day of not communicating had the community worried. Blizzard built their entire company on less communication than this. Blizzard earned players trust over the years through all sorts of nonsense specifically because of this kind of behavior, the same goes for Warframe and PoE's devs as well. People put them up on a pedestal and forgive issues because these guys are engaged and making good changes based on interacting with the community.
This not coming up in reviews for a live service game blows my mind, as its easily one of if not thee most important thing for these kinds of games.
2~ The turnaround time on fixing things and response to feedback thus far has been incredible. Its been 2 weeks... the launch weeks riddled with all sorts of issues on a clearly unfinished game... and they're overhauling the entire freaking loot system while fixing all sorts of issues. D3 didn't fix their loot until RoS came out. Destiny 2 didn't fix their loot until Forsaken, and from my understanding Destiny 1 was the same kind of story relying on paid DLC to fix their game.
As backwards as it sounds, specifically because of these 2 things its almost better that the game released unfinished. Now instead of them investing all that time and effort into making more content that would probably be flawed with poorer designs and then either entrenching in those bad designs or taking months to fix them like you see in WoW right now... they get to build this stuff with the community from now on guiding things every step of the way.
If they released the game as is and didn't have this level of engagement I'd have enjoyed the time it took to finish up the story and dropped it, but this situation has such incredible promise for the future. Its really the only reason I'm still paying attention to this game.
Seems like its just another one of those unfinished systems, though honestly this one has me worried the most.
I honestly have no idea how they're supposed to make money off this game. The shop isn't predatory at all and one could reasonably get everything for free in a reasonable time frame. Supposedly they're putting 100 cosmetic items in those stronghold boxes which is likely the bulk of what's missing from the vods right now. Supposedly we won't get duplicates from those stronghold boxes, so we'll be able to spam up all that stuff for free. They've said they aren't charging for DLC.
Either EA actually learned something from BF2 and are trying to use this game to regain our trust while letting it operate at a loss... or I have no idea how this games going to bring in enough revenue to keep going the way its going.
..and so he left, with terrible power in shaking hands.
As I've been playing tonight the two things I thought the Interceptor reminded me most of were elves or Spider-Man
Also,
Stupid sexy Flanders.
- - - Updated - - -
So far my biggest complaint in this game is the Titans, they're just stupid bullshit bullet sponges who put fire everywhere. It doesn't make me feel skilled or awesome when I take one down, it's just a drudgery of plinking away with my rifle and occasionally running away until my shield comes back up.
On the topic of Javelin fashion: Does anyone else wonder how much the pilot's feet must hurt after wearing those suits for any length of time? I mean, you'd have to point the toes of your feet almost straight down in the interceptor, probably causing the same kind of foot pain women get when wearing heels too long?
And I'm still trying to figure out how the arms of the colossus are supposed to work. Seems like it would have to use some kind of movement multiplying system to exaggerate how much the pilot's arm bends at the elbow or something? There's no way to have the actual arm bend enough inside the armor to make sense.
With the Interceptor you probably don't have any weight on the actual foot, you'll be sitting on the crotch of the suit like a saddle with your legs hanging down. With the Colossus I think the pilot's elbows would go as far as the machine's shoulders, their hands reach no further than the suit's elbow.
Yep! it is great.
Got a Radiant Fortress legendary just now too. 200% physical damage, and a universal 18% weapon damage
xD
Took 80 hours, but I finally saw not just my second legend, but my third!
Edit:
Anecdotal, but it feels like loot rate got buffed.
6 masterworks in one stronghold, 4 in the other.
Not including the guaranteed ones.
Last edited by Sixnalia; 2019-03-01 at 01:51 AM.
I honestly can't figure out how we could reasonably fit inside the suits. There just straight up is no room for your feet in the interceptor, Colossus arms you'd have to have them sticking straight out from your body with your arms hanging downward which would then only fit into the upper arm part. So there'd have to be a mechanism to control the rest of your arm / fingers.
..and so he left, with terrible power in shaking hands.
I've seen people mention the elbow reaching the colossus shoulder, with the rest of the arm reaching the colossus Elbow and having controls to do the rest of the colossus arm/hands. Kinda like those old toys with 5 pulleys for each extended finger.
Anthem also made life-size cosplay suits. Though they cheated on the arms with colossus, lessened them super shoulders xD
Last edited by Sixnalia; 2019-03-01 at 02:01 AM.
..and so he left, with terrible power in shaking hands.
That's pretty cool that they made actual suits that real people can wear. Although the Arms on all of them look really out of proportion(except the colossus, which clearly isn't fully articulate or controlled).
I wonder if there's some commentary by the people who wore the suits. How long did they wear them? How hard was it to move around in as opposed to just standing?
Fair enough, I've seen that trope filled with a male character before too, but it's usually females in the shows I watch or games I play. Log Horizon, Ninja Scroll, Soul Eater, Full Metal Alchemist, The Avengers, Final Fantasy 7, Rise of the Kasai, even ninja games like Tenchu wrath of heaven had a male ninja and a female ninja and the female was the quicker one of the two.
Nah, in this case it looks like the feet are just articulated like standard drywall stilts are. They basically mimic the motion of the ankle to allow you to walk around taking firm flat-footed steps rather than some sort of heel-toe motion like trying to walk around in ski boots.