Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Video Games]

Considering all the news surrounding the title...

I'm so glad I didn't buy the game. How could Bioware screw this so damn much? Back in the Mass Effect 2 days, I was pretty much infatuated with their games. Even Jade Empire, ME1, DAII, I ended up loving them. When I got 10 hours of trial, it was so boring I couldn't even finish the gifted time. Damn. What the hell.

Protip: stop loving companies and be objective on a game by game basis. Capcom might be incredible again right now, but you wont see me praising them if they manage to fuck something up.

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Its freaking weird, we literally just had people singing Apex's praises and how EA being hands off could make an amazing game and now we have the opposite.

Though who knows what game we would have gotten if they didn't have to impress that one EA dude with nothing more than just flying and graphics.

All that means is bioware actually sucks and respawn doesnt. People just dont want to admit it.

[Baconeggcheese]

Probably an uglier game where we wouldn't be able to fulfill Iron Man fantasies. It amuses me that some of the best parts of the game came from EA telling BW that the demo they showed off was hot-garbage and they needed to fix it ASAP.

Its hard to say, remember that the E3 demo was the game the EA person saw, not what we ultimately got which was downgraded from that. More than likely we'd have gotten something pretty similar to what we have graphics wise.

On the gameplay front though, you ever play risk of rain 2? Because when I play that game, it sounds a hell of a lot like what they had planned for Anthem to be. I could very easily see Anthem having been that game instead of what we got, and people seem to be pretty damned happy with it even in early access.

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All that means is bioware actually sucks and respawn doesnt. People just dont want to admit it.

We're talking about people saying EA should have been involved...

[Edge-]

Its hard to say, remember that the E3 demo was the game the EA person saw, not what we ultimately got which was downgraded from that. More than likely we'd have gotten something pretty similar to what we have graphics wise.

It's an E3 demo video. Those always look far better than the final product. I don't know why anyone treats marketing materials as "this is how it will be when I play it!", it's no different than the pictures of burgers on a fast food menu when you know you'll never get anything that looks like the pretty picture.

[Gorsameth]

Its freaking weird, we literally just had people singing Apex's praises and how EA being hands off could make an amazing game and now we have the opposite.

Though who knows what game we would have gotten if they didn't have to impress that one EA dude with nothing more than just flying and graphics.

If a studio has competent project leads you can be hands off and let them work to make the best product they can.

If a studio doesn't have competent project leads you need to be right on top of them to make sure it goes alright.

Some people need structure imposed on them, others can be left to their own devices.

[Video Games]

Its hard to say, remember that the E3 demo was the game the EA person saw, not what we ultimately got which was downgraded from that. More than likely we'd have gotten something pretty similar to what we have graphics wise.

On the gameplay front though, you ever play risk of rain 2? Because when I play that game, it sounds a hell of a lot like what they had planned for Anthem to be. I could very easily see Anthem having been that game instead of what we got, and people seem to be pretty damned happy with it even in early access.

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We're talking about people saying EA should have been involved...

Im aware. but they weren't and they still made a bad game

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It was a different era. Bioware had only good products from Baldur's Gate to ME3. Blizzard had only good products from WC3/Startcraft (when I first played their games more seriously) to Burning Crusade. Things looked incredibly positive, seemed as if this will be the best entertainment ever for decades to come, after all, what was keeping games behind was a lack of processing power, not creativity, that much was clear.

Yet... here we are now.

All the talent left so I dont know what you really expect.

[Baconeggcheese]

It's an E3 demo video. Those always look far better than the final product. I don't know why anyone treats marketing materials as "this is how it will be when I play it!", it's no different than the pictures of burgers on a fast food menu when you know you'll never get anything that looks like the pretty picture.

So... the demo they showed at E3 was the gameplay demo they showed the EA dude to win him over according to what info we have. They had to spend the time to get the fully functional game looking like that for the lil demo to show him between that level of graphics and the flying.

That was the point.

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If a studio has competent project leads you can be hands off and let them work to make the best product they can.

If a studio doesn't have competent project leads you need to be right on top of them to make sure it goes alright.

Some people need structure imposed on them, others can be left to their own devices.

Ofc, but people are nowhere near that nuanced when talking about whether or not EA should be involved.

Its literally just whatever is convenient to allow them to hate the thing they want to hate on.

[Makabreska]

Its freaking weird, we literally just had people singing Apex's praises and how EA being hands off could make an amazing game and now we have the opposite.

Though who knows what game we would have gotten if they didn't have to impress that one EA dude with nothing more than just flying and graphics.

It's simple, if a studio has almost 7y to make a game, but the real vision and development starts 1.5y before the release, they need someone to slap them into shape. And Apex is not doing so good anymore after that explosion of popularity. Updates are slow and many players went back to Fortnite.

[szechuan]

Ofc, but people are nowhere near that nuanced when talking about whether or not EA should be involved.

You mean people who barely see the nuanced difference between the 2017 E3 trailer and the released product?

[Eleccybubb]

Wasn't this game also supposed to be a 10 year IP for Bioware?

Because right now it's looking like it will barely be a 1 year IP.

Getting bored of the whole "we remain committed" hot air lines they keep blowing out. We get it. Now actually show us.

All I see around forums these days are how the games a scam, people who got refunds, quit or are sick of Bioware. I can't fault them.

[quras]

Considering all the news surrounding the title...

I'm so glad I didn't buy the game. How could Bioware screw this so damn much? Back in the Mass Effect 2 days, I was pretty much infatuated with their games. Even Jade Empire, ME1, DAII, I ended up loving them. When I got 10 hours of trial, it was so boring I couldn't even finish the gifted time. Damn. What the hell.

If we are to believe the Kotaku article and there isn't any reason not to. It's the wasted over 5 years that screams incompetence and a number of other words - none good. We learned it was management most likely those same lead designers who were in charge and they are the ones that carry a lot of of the responsibility for anthems screw up and years of nothing but getting paid for that nothing. Now, they are the ones that are being moved/reassigned as new leads come in to take over.

Whats that say for the games they are being moved to? It's not a project I'd support thats for sure knowing what happened here.

It's an E3 demo video. Those always look far better than the final product. I don't know why anyone treats marketing materials as "this is how it will be when I play it!", it's no different than the pictures of burgers on a fast food menu when you know you'll never get anything that looks like the pretty picture.

I get your point but Sorry but that doesn't fly with me given how this was handled.

At least my burger has all the "components" of what they showed me in the commercial. The ones my burger should have anyway. Anthem cannot say that from that trailer which we learned wasn't a real trailer combined with so many things they showed that were not even there. Downgraded is just a good word but things were also completely missing. Thats a bit more than downgraded to most people I think.

Anthem was pretty far off the mark for a company that showed that E3 video that claimed, "Everything you are about to see was captured in game running in real time." and it pretty much wasn't. More like an on the rail video production.

So no, it's a good bit different than my burger as it's wasn't just how it looked that was missing from anthem.

[Makabreska]

Anthem was pretty far off the mark for a company that showed that E3 video that claimed, "Everything you are about to see was captured in game running in real time." and it pretty much wasn't. More like an on the rail video production.

And we know now that when this trailer was released, game basically didn't exist yet. Only after E3 they got the clear goal.

[Shinzai]

Jesus christ, can we just drop the E3 video defending already. Watchdogs took flack for it, Alien: Colonial Marines, Killzone 2 did and a shit load of others.

Visual downgrades have got a long history in gaming. Core aspects of Anthem were straight up gone though.

Like, there's no reason to defend it, as the developers themselves saw it and went "Oh, that's what we're trying to make.". Of course the whole thing was a lie: it didn't even exist at that point in time.

And on the flip side, at this point, who even cares?

My main issue with this whole debacle from start to finish is what it means for Bioware and the fact that any semblance of "old Bioware" is dead and gone.

I feel that a lot of people hoped that Anthem would signify a return to Bioware's glory days, given their recent releases. As this is not the case, it's become vastly more of an issue that the game is in the state it has been the past 3 months.

Now, as I foresaw, there's a skeleton crew left trying to keep a baying crowd of gamers in line for as long as they can.

And that's basically it. Anthem's done at this point. Whatever.

Guess I'll just look forwards to Obsidian's upcoming games.

[Charge me Doctor]

Even Witcher 3 who is widely praised and sometimes even presented as the best modern RPG did it, and there was huge outrage over it. Difference was that Witcher 3 proved to be a great game, unlike Anthem, so in the end they got a pass. Just like Bioware, CDPR also lied about it. Hopefully they learned from it and now they understand it's not necessary to do it, with Cyberpunk.

To be completely fair, witcher 3 wasn't a "downgrade" in sense that graphics just got worse, it had plenty of redesign, at least, according to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD7K..._channel=Cycu1

[Baconeggcheese]

I feel like ya'll completely glazed over why I brought the E3 demo up.

It's simple, if a studio has almost 7y to make a game, but the real vision and development starts 1.5y before the release, they need someone to slap them into shape. And Apex is not doing so good anymore after that explosion of popularity. Updates are slow and many players went back to Fortnite.

Yeah the server stability seems to have gotten worse as time went on and the battle pass was extremely underwhelming. They've said themselves that they just weren't prepared for the popularity.

BW apparently has a leadership problem, I'm not sure EA leadership is what you want. From what I understood of the EA guy they needed to impress, he would not have been a positive influence on the game.

People just like to blame EA when its convenient, then oddly turn around and say they want more EA when its also convenient. What a world.

[szechuan]

BW apparently has a leadership problem, I'm not sure EA leadership is what you want. From what I understood of the EA guy they needed to impress, he would not have been a positive influence on the game.

Did you forget that a EA Executive liked the Jetpacks which was a major deciding factor as to why it was added in the game? He seemed like he was more of a positive influence on the game compared to the poor leadership coming from Bioware.

People just like to blame EA when its convenient, then oddly turn around and say they want more EA when its also convenient. What a world.

Interesting the quote you're quoting doesn't even mention EA. Blame EA when it's Convenient? You mean like the majority of people such as yourself who seemed to blame EA for most of Anthem's Issues before the article came out?

[Yriel]

On the gameplay front though, you ever play risk of rain 2? Because when I play that game, it sounds a hell of a lot like what they had planned for Anthem to be. I could very easily see Anthem having been that game instead of what we got, and people seem to be pretty damned happy with it even in early access.

I doubt that. Many people want an Iron Man-like shooter and Anthem is exact that.
Their first idea of some nature exploration game with heavy duty spacesuits doesn't really sound very exciting.

[Baconeggcheese]

I doubt that. Many people want an Iron Man-like shooter and Anthem is exact that.
Their first idea of some nature exploration game with heavy duty spacesuits doesn't really sound very exciting.

I don't think risk of rain 2 sounds very exciting on paper either, but again... people speak highly of it and it is genuinely fun. It also easily fits what was described as the original idea in the article.

So its plausible, though we'll never know.

[Yriel]

I don't think risk of rain 2 sounds very exciting on paper either, but again... people speak highly of it and it is genuinely fun. It also easily fits what was described as the original idea in the article.

So its plausible, though we'll never know.

Well Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike and many people (me included) love them. And it's a nice change to have a 3d one. Great game, even though it's still in early access.

[Baconeggcheese]

Well Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike and many people (me included) love them. And it's a nice change to have a 3d one. Great game, even though it's still in early access.

Yup, which was the point being made if you look at the context of said conversation. It looks like where their head was at originally wasn't terribly far off something like risk of rain 2, but they ended up trying to awkwardly make a destiny clone that wasn't destiny but was supposed to be more like D3 with the top priorities being flying and graphics because they needed to impress the EA guy. People seem to put EA guy on a pedestal because those 2 things are some of the best things they did in the game... ignoring that they're the best things in the game because they needed them to be in order to specifically impress EA guy meaning everything else took a back seat.

[D3athsting]

I'm keeping my origin premium to see how the game looks like when maxed out at 2k 144fps when i get new pc