Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[orsraunia]

Just wait for Dragon Age 4 to fall flat on its arse.

So we get Dragon Age World? :P

[Nerovar]

A pretty simplistic view is this: They failed to make ME Andromeda interesting enough and then they decided to undertake a more ambitious project... and they failed again. Strange.

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

[Ophenia]

This rework sounds great (on paper...). Problem with Anthem has always been the content though, it's very solid gameplay-wise currently, even with the lack of customization. It's the lack of content that killed the game for me, and in the end when I re-tried it, the Matchmaking which never find anyone to play with due to the lack of players. That's an awesome game for teamplay, that's not as fun in solo.

I really hope they can pull out something that works without breaking what makes flying/fighting feel so good in Anthem.

[Lahis]

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

Bioware games don't fit GaaS model.

[Gorsameth]

They still working on this?

No amount of polish can resurrect this game.

NMS managed and apparently even Fallout 76 is 'playable' now so I wouldn't say never.

[orsraunia]

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

Because they want to maximize profit, meaning implementing online elements to milk cash out of players through micro transactions, etc. So, they focus on that and neglect other parts of the dev process, like developing the story and characters enough, etc. Delivering a sound RPG, with good story, etc and selling boxes is not good enough for them nowadays, not even if you add the cash they can make through DLC, if they deliver a good game. No, they want to go where the real cash is, some form of online "competitive" play and micro transactions.... That's my take on it.

EDIT: In other words, they consider what used to make great RPGs great, not really profitable, so they focus on different things.

[Xilurm]

They still working on this?

No amount of polish can resurrect this game.

Well it worked for No Man's Sky.

[D3athsting]

Artifact weapons like in legion?

[Super Kami Dende]

Holy shit, I saw this thread pop up in the latest post list and for a moment I thought "oh Bioware is making a new game?" then remembered this game actually existed.

Surprised its still being actively worked on.

[ONCHEhap]

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

Bioware has been long dead,so it doesn't really matter. EA is just puppeteering the corpse in order to get every last cent they can get from brand recognition

[Edge-]

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

They literally did. Both teams concepted out their own games, and there's little reporting of EA really forcing them to take any specific directions or meddling. Both were just huge swings and misses from the BW teams (Edmonton and the now defunct Montreal), because the writing couldn't overshadow the design flaws like usual.

IMO their writing was usually enough for folks to overlook pretty poor design (sup ME1 like...most of the game), but Andromeda and Anthem didn't have it. And they had a mountain of other issues that stemmed from, in both instances, stunningly poor leadership and project management within BW's studios.

The fact that it's out of BW Austin now and BW Edmonton, who previously led the project (including ignoring mountains of advice from the Austin team who have actual experience with online games), is pretty great and it's showing already. EA ain't meddlin in this really, and the fact that they haven't yanked support shows that they view this as a big investment. It's BW that's been dropping the ball.

Bioware games don't fit GaaS model.

Sure they do, there's nothing stopping that. You're not going to have the massive, detailed options of an offline game, but it can absolutely be fully functional. SWTOR has some pretty rad BW writing and "choices" that affect the flavor of the story. Other games with more narrative focuses have been able to deliver those narrative focused updates alongside gameplay expansions.

BW just didn't really have the writing or the gameplay to support Anthem, because they fucked their development process.

And yes, it can be saved and redesigned and polished. No Man's Sky, Destiny, FFXIV etc. all had pretty poor launches in terms of quality, only to turn around and become pretty great games over the years.

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Bioware has been long dead,so it doesn't really matter. EA is just puppeteering the corpse in order to get every last cent they can get from brand recognition

No, that's when EA was stupidly slapping the BW brand on every studio they could (BW-Mythic, BW-Victory etc.)

Based on all reporting, BW's problems are BW's alone. EA isn't meddling, they're giving the studios broad freedom by and large.

Garbage leadership.
Poor tech management.
Disasters project management.
Massive blown budgets and wasted time.

Seriously, if you haven't seen the reporting on the troubled development of ME:A and Anthem, I highly suggest you do. They're fascinating reads, and paint a very different picture than the one you view.

[Miseration]

I honestly don't understand why they don't let Bioware just make Bioware games.

off topic but, that avatar cracks me up man. thank you lol

[thilicen]

I usually hate comments like "people still play [game]?" but.. yeah.

[minteK917]

With some luck nobody get scammed again. Its pretty obvious its a handful of people working to reforge the game using the least ressources possible to save the house. Dont encourage this type of garbage developping/publishing. Dont rebuy the game, dont buy in their cash shop. Just let that effort to scam you twice go into the wind. Otherwise the future will be filled with that type of garbage, because it goes unpunished, infact some of you clowns suck it up smiling and reward them, applaud them as saviors for giving you half of what you probably paid for in a normal game, spread across two years.

[Edge-]

With some luck nobody get scammed again. Its pretty obvious its a handful of people working to reforge the game using the least ressources possible to save the house. Dont encourage this type of garbage developping/publishing. Dont rebuy the game, dont buy in their cash shop. Just let that effort to scam you twice go into the wind. Otherwise the future will be filled with that type of garbage, because it goes unpunished, infact some of you clowns suck it up smiling and reward them, applaud them as saviors for giving you half of what you probably paid for in a normal game, spread across two years.

Yeah it's a small team, they said it would be from the beginning. Because it's easier to make and test a ton of changes with a smaller team than it is to deal with huge teams working on large sections simultaneously.

That being said like...what if it's really good? Like, what if they spend the next year or so working on it, it comes out, and it's addressed issues with the narrative, with the loot, with gameplay, with the amount of content etc.? It's definitely possible, and we've seen big turnarounds for games like ESO and FFXIV before.

And you think that it will encourage more risky attempts at a reboot for future titles? Really? In what world does that make sense? We've seen some reboots fail so they're never a guarantee, and the cost to rebooting a game far exceeds the cost of simply doing it right the first time.

[Nerovar]

off topic but, that avatar cracks me up man. thank you lol

Me too, man. Me too.

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They literally did. Both teams concepted out their own games, and there's little reporting of EA really forcing them to take any specific directions or meddling. Both were just huge swings and misses from the BW teams (Edmonton and the now defunct Montreal), because the writing couldn't overshadow the design flaws like usual.

IMO their writing was usually enough for folks to overlook pretty poor design (sup ME1 like...most of the game), but Andromeda and Anthem didn't have it. And they had a mountain of other issues that stemmed from, in both instances, stunningly poor leadership and project management within BW's studios.

The fact that it's out of BW Austin now and BW Edmonton, who previously led the project (including ignoring mountains of advice from the Austin team who have actual experience with online games), is pretty great and it's showing already. EA ain't meddlin in this really, and the fact that they haven't yanked support shows that they view this as a big investment. It's BW that's been dropping the ball.

Anthem and Andromeda's development suffered from Bioware struggling with the Frostbite engine which is something that is pretty much mandatory at EA. Also the game was changed pretty heavily because EA's CEO at the time was unsatisfied with their initial demo.

[minteK917]

Yeah it's a small team, they said it would be from the beginning. Because it's easier to make and test a ton of changes with a smaller team than it is to deal with huge teams working on large sections simultaneously.

That being said like...what if it's really good? Like, what if they spend the next year or so working on it, it comes out, and it's addressed issues with the narrative, with the loot, with gameplay, with the amount of content etc.? It's definitely possible, and we've seen big turnarounds for games like ESO and FFXIV before.

And you think that it will encourage more risky attempts at a reboot for future titles? Really? In what world does that make sense? We've seen some reboots fail so they're never a guarantee, and the cost to rebooting a game far exceeds the cost of simply doing it right the first time.

Im tired of clowns trying.to use ff14 or eso as some kind of.model.for garbage like anthem. Both these.games where full.games right off the bat. FF 1.0 was a real game, it was a.flawled.but fully made project, not.something.someone rushed.in half.a year with a fake trailer. Same.for.eso. Athemn was a fucking scam. It was never anything. Ff 1.0 closed to make a better game.out of a game that already existed. Anthem is just.mabye making.a.scam.into a real.game.

You dont even realise why it will never be a story like ff14. As you said yourself.its a small.team. FF14 was a full team, dedicated.to.making a new.game.using.the.engine.and story.of 1.0. And no rebooting.their scam.with.a small.team.is not a.risk, it just takes a tiny fractions.of idiots.to go into the cash shop. They lose nothing this, they already made hundread.of millions.with the first scam. If they had a.full.studio.like.se had.on ff14,.youd have a point, but they dont its a handful.of.people, another.scam.you are.buying into.already.

[Cattleya]

Me too, man. Me too.

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Anthem and Andromeda's development suffered from Bioware struggling with the Frostbite engine which is something that is pretty much mandatory at EA. Also the game was changed pretty heavily because EA's CEO at the time was unsatisfied with their initial demo.

The Anthem devs chose Frostbite themselves, and the result of the EA higher-up not being impressed with the internal demo resulted in the addition of what is widely regarded as the best part of the game

[Edge-]

Anthem and Andromeda's development suffered from Bioware struggling with the Frostbite engine which is something that is pretty much mandatory at EA.

Again, it's not. The teams have come out and said it's not. It's most likely strongly encouraged, but there's no evidence it's mandatory.

Beyond that there are other factors - Engineering has never been BioWare's forte, and their games are rarely ever technically impressive. When they've tried new engines, like the Hero Engine for SWTOR or their first attempts with Frostbyte, they generally run into tons of technical problems as a result. Beyond that, we know for a fact that they've scraped huge amounts of work done to modify Frostbyte for RPG needs from DA:I and ME:A, rebuilding those systems and tools from scratch each time which is pointless, time consuming, and prone to more problems. They've reversed course on this now and will keep updating/improving existing tech rather than starting from scratch once more.

Also the game was changed pretty heavily because EA's CEO at the time was unsatisfied with their initial demo.

Because the game floundered for 5 years, going absolutely nowhere and leaving team members crying in offices and having mental health issues due to terrible management. The CEO came in to play a build and functionally said, "This fuckin sucks. I needs to be prettier and the flying is great, add more flying."

Guess what the two most praised parts of the game were? Flying and the visuals.

If anything, he saved the game from being an even bigger disaster after BW Edmonton spent half a decade spinning in circles and burning money without getting anywhere.

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Im tired of clowns trying.to use ff14 or eso as some kind of.model.for garbage like anthem. Both these.games where full.games right off the bat. FF 1.0 was a real game, it was a.flawled.but fully made project, not.something.someone rushed.in half.a year with a fake trailer. Same.for.eso. Athemn was a fucking scam. It was never anything. Ff 1.0 closed to make a better game.out of a game that already existed. Anthem is just.mabye making.a.scam.into a real.game.

Bad, rushed games aren't scams. They're just bad, rushed games.

FFXIV is a fine example, the game literally required a rebuild from scratch because almost everything about it was painfully awful. Reduced XP the longer you play? Are you kidding me?

It, like Anthem, was a full game. Anthem had much less content, sure, but both were full games. Games that were deeply flawed, requiring extensive work to improve them.

[rhorle]

Anthem and Andromeda's development suffered from Bioware struggling with the Frostbite engine which is something that is pretty much mandatory at EA. Also the game was changed pretty heavily because EA's CEO at the time was unsatisfied with their initial demo.

While that may have played a role but it wasn't the only thing. Bioware hasn't really been the greatest with the implementation of their game. Even Inquistion wasn't the best but had really good story with the DLC. They just get some things really good but miss the mark on others by a lot and seem to have trouble with "open world" games but do good when stuff is more level based.