Anthem (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

[Sheikah]

 

 

 

 

And I think about half a percent of people who bought it at launch bought it at that £30 retail version you keep mentioning. The vast majority of sales will have either been £45-50 retail or £60 digital. The fact that you can buy digital codes for £35 for PC shows the game performed even better than NPD is suggesting because digital PC sales aren't counted.

 

 

Less than half a percent, that's a pretty crazy figure. This was at ShopTo and The Game Collection, hardly unknown places.

 

It's not just those sites though; to give you an idea of the scale of the discount, it was also at £35 on Amazon within just days of launch. There were even news articles documenting how this price decrease must be a sign of the game struggling.

 

Just to reiterate, the game is £60 on the PSN store and before launch was around £32 physical, and after launch it's £35. It doesn't matter what type of game it is, if you're buying the digital copy for nearly £30 more you're either seriously damn lazy or don't ever think about shopping around.

 

Just to touch on the point you said earlier about a higher proportion of Anthem purchasers going digital versus those buying RDR2 due to the nature of the game - by comparison, RDR2 was an expensive game on all formats (physical and digital), so buying digital if anything made more sense due to the price not being much more than physical.

 

 

[drahkon]

Looks like the recent patch broke the game even more.

This isn't funny anymore...Bioware's reputation is ruined, I'd say.

[Ganepark32]

Great article from Jason Schreier over at Kotaku about the mess that was Anthems development.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2019/04/02/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong

Reading it reminded me so much of the article that Jason wrote back in 2017 about the mess that was the development of Mass Effect Andromeda. It's like no lessons were learnt from that game (probably not helped by the fact that BioWare Montreal got shuttered) when developing this and it sounds like there really needs to be some higher up changes at BioWare if they're going to keep going because that set up for development is not conducive to making quality titles without losing the respect of your developers and fans.

It's noted that apparently they're already making some changes for Dragon Age 4 and using Anthems code base as a starting point rather than starting from scratch but given how much of it was a mess to begin with, and how utterly horrendous Frostbite seems to be to work with and how EA are absolute shits for not giving enough support to BioWare because their games don't make as much as say FIFA, I don't know whether that's a good thing or not.

Seems that there are some bigger changes that are needed at BioWare and within EA but I don't see a company focused solely on making more and more profit each financial year doing that. Again though, great reporting from Jason on this one.

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, read it earlier and it's a fantastic read. It's no wonder the game launched the way it did.

It was awful reading about the anxiety and depression that Bioware workers were experiencing. No game is worth that amount of misery being inflicted on someone. The AAA model needs to make some drastic changes. There were similar stories coming out of Rockstar during the development of GTAV and Red Dead Redemption 2 and I imagine this kind of thing goes on at other big publishers as well.

[Mandalore]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-04-02-bioware-admits-theres-room-to-improve-after-new-report-reveals-worrying-impact-of-crunch-during-troubled-development-of-anthem

Eurogamer also reporting on the crunch culture.

It's so sad to see such a great developer brought to its knees by EA. The staff really don't deserve this.

[Hero-of-Time]

It looks like this story has ruffled some feathers over at EA and Bioware. Apparently Bioware issued a response to the article but they posted it before the article was even published, which suggests they heard about it before it was due to come out and wanted to post something before Kotaku did.

Bioware Response

Polygon have now published an article calling out Bioware on what's been going on and the way they have responded to Jason Schreier's investigation. 

Polygon Article

I'm happy Polygon and Eurogamer and backing up Kotaku with this. More reports and proper journalistic investigations into situations like this need to happen more in the industry and it's nice to see major outlets doing this kind of work. They aren't afraid to call out these publishers, many of which do help support these sites by sending review copies out. 

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Hero-of-Time

[Ronnie]

The Weasel's article is a great way to torpedo a development team's trust in one another, especially when they're still together and working on content. Classy as always. God forbid he waits a little while before making his cherrypicked article of all the bad comments. I suspect you could write that sort of article about any game, and they'd probably be more interesting than that one which frankly wasn't even that compelling. "Frostbite is shit" really, we had no idea.

[Hero-of-Time]

11 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The Weasel's article is a great way to torpedo a development team's trust in one another, especially when they're still together and working on content. Classy as always. God forbid he waits a little while before making his cherrypicked article of all the bad comments. I suspect you could write that sort of article about any game, and they'd probably be more interesting than that one which frankly wasn't even that compelling. "Frostbite is shit" really, we had no idea.

Your hatred for Jason is hilarious. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Hero-of-Time

[Ganepark32]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

The Weasel's article is a great way to torpedo a development team's trust in one another, especially when they're still together and working on content. Classy as always. God forbid he waits a little while before making his cherrypicked article of all the bad comments. I suspect you could write that sort of article about any game, and they'd probably be more interesting than that one which frankly wasn't even that compelling. "Frostbite is shit" really, we had no idea.

I don't think the article is meant to take a swipe at the game itself. It was meant to illuminate issues within BioWare and EA in general, applicable to many other big third party studios. It goes beyond the mere statement that "Frostbite is shit" and points out issues with indecisiveness, crunch culture and mismanagement of pre and production of a new IP.

While there is a big point about how problematic Frostbite is for anything that isn't a FPS title, things like EA pulling the developers with the most experience with Frostbite from Anthem to help the FIFA team get their game running on that cesspool that is a suite of tools and doling out support for Frostbite on the basis of how much value your title/franchise is worth to EA is just not on. Yes, as a bigger third party publisher and developer, you're always going to get games that generate more revenue than others but the should never limit the amount of support any of your teams get when it comes to getting their game working with the set of tools they're being made to use because the higher ups don't want licencing fees.

Indecisiveness and mismanagement are huge issues within many big developers but it's become a running theme for BioWare to anyone who's had an ear to the ground or has spoken to anyone working within the industry in the last 10 years. Dragon Age Inquisition suffered problems along these lines, Mass Effect Andromeda too and now Anthem. If it had been a one off then I could see why it might be blowing things out of proportion but it's clearly not and speaks to bigger issues.

That extends to the process of getting all of the last 3 BioWare games out to market. The indecision over key aspects of core elements of the gameplay, and even aspects that are simply a requirement for any gane nowadays, and it taking so long to implement them leads to a protracted development time. It's leads to last minute crunch to get a game ready for market in a "that'll do state" because EA is so insistent on pushing its games out by the end of the financial year to bolster their earnings reports (this isn't just an EA thing either, there's a reason so many publisher have moved their game releases to the start of the year and it's to hit on what was a largely unpopulated release schedule and bolster year earnings before the end of the financial year and means no carry over costs for development into the new financial year).

It's chaotic and does a huge disservice to the people putting in ridiculous amounts of hours to get these games to market. Whether the game is ultinately good or not, a developer should never be made to feel undervalued for his or her comment on what they're doing, which is also a big issue within BioWare and again has been for many years and has been spoken of in hushed tones for most of that time. The egocentric view that the Edmonton studio is number 1 has been going for some time and ignoring input from BioWare Austin, who let's not forget made Star Wars: The Old Republic and made it a success, or even the people at BioWare Montreal when it was around is inexcusable, especially when the issues pointed out by developers from other teams are still there at launch and are lambasted for it by the gaming press.

It's easy enough to say that article had it out for Anthem but it at no point reads like that. It reads as another damning indictment of modern game development at a big publisher where it's just assumed that everyone will keep working till it's ok in the end, ignoring the intermediary time in between where nothing was ironed out. It goes hand in hand with the previous report into what happened with Mass Effect Andromeda, with the report on working conditions at Rockstar's studios and many other stories about poor working conditions are places like Activision and Uibsoft amongst others. It's garnering the support it is, much like the look at Rockstar, because of the fondness many have for BioWare and their work. Many of their games in the 90s and early 2000s are considered some of the all time greats in gaming and so I really don't see this as anything other than wanting to spread the word on poor working conditions and why it needs to change so the BioWare of old can resurface.

BioWare Austin, who I believe are now running the show for Anthem while Edmonton goes back to restart on Dragon Age 4, shouldn't be disheartened by this. Getting their voice out there can only be a good thing for helping people understand what the issues are at BioWare and EA and why it needs to change. Whether Anthem sinks or swims is nothing to do with this article, that's solely on the work they'll put in over the coming months to ensure it's as successful as it can be.

Whether you like him or not, it's the kind of journalism that needs to exist in the industry to shine a light on issues. This is an article that was needed because change needs to happen to minimise and stop crunch culture. Just because a game is only a month and a bit old doesn't mean we shouldn't be discussing this. Much like the Rockstar one, it's hopefully a starting point for wider change within EA and BioWare.

I do wish all the success for Anthem because I want BioWare to stick around. They've made game I love (hell, I even enjoy Andromeda). I just can't abide by poor working practices in the gaming or any industry.

[Hero-of-Time]

Fantastic post and good read, Ganepark32. 

2 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

Whether you like him or not, it's the kind of journalism that needs to exist in the industry to shine a light on issues. This is an article that was needed because change needs to happen to minimise and stop crunch culture. Just because a game is only a month and a bit old doesn't mean we shouldn't be discussing this. Much like the Rockstar one, it's hopefully a starting point for wider change within EA and BioWare.

Exactly. Game developers shouldn't have to put up with the conditions that are being forced upon them. For too long these practices have gone on without anyone in the gaming media willing to put their neck out there and get to the bottom of just what the hell is going on. Both Kotaku and Eurogamer are at least trying to change that. Due to the lack of unions in the industry, developers don't have a voice and it's good that this kind of reporting is giving them one.

The AAA developers/publishers really needs to change how they make games. Yeah, these huge open world games looks pretty and have massive worlds to explore but is it worth the pain and anguish people have to go through in order for them to get made? Not at all. Just look at how successful the indie scene is these days. It's proof that you can make a well received game without breaking the spirits of those who work on the game. You can tell a lot of these games are made with real passion because it comes through when you play the game.

At the end of the day, most of all of this just comes down to the greed of the publishers. As Jim Sterling has said many times, publishers don't just want a bit of money they want all of it and it's costing people's health in the long run.

 

[Goafer]

I've been wanting to buy this since it came out, but couldn't find it for a decent price. Found a cheap copy today, so I'll finally get to see what all the fuss (good and bad) is about.

[Sheikah]

The Weasel's article is a great way to torpedo a development team's trust in one another, especially when they're still together and working on content. Classy as always. God forbid he waits a little while before making his cherrypicked article of all the bad comments. I suspect you could write that sort of article about any game, and they'd probably be more interesting than that one which frankly wasn't even that compelling. "Frostbite is shit" really, we had no idea.

God help you, you are in your own little world Ronnie. Never have you been more wrong. The human cost of this game is real and this article highlights that, and as a result Bioware have internally communicated that they're going to improve. BioWare have had a string of flops/below standard games now and that’s nothing to do with Jason. They NEED to change and it’s articles like this that can cause change to happen.

 

That you would find a problem with this article that shines a light on a very troubled studio that shows no signs of change really says something about you.

[Goafer]

My initial thoughts after a day with the game:

Overall pretty good.

Load times aren't great. I don't know if they're long compared to other games or if they're just boring load screens, but it seems to take forever. I've found myself reaching for my phone a few times whilst waiting.

The main hub town seems a bit empty/pointless. It's an awkward balance between single player and multiplayer. There are no other players in the hub, which makes the whole game feel a bit lonely at times. You finish a mission, then back to you the empty town. One great thing about Destiny was the shared hub world. There's the hangar thing, but it seems like an afterthought.

There's a cutscene whilst matchmaking that just seems to cut out when a match is found. It's the one where you get a nice shot of your suit. It cutting out suddenly makes it seem like a bug.

I'm not far in, but I can see the missions getting repetitive. So far it's only been kill stuff and fetch the orb things. Maybe it'll get better.

General gameplay is fun enough. I've gone with the heavy suit, as I normally pick faster characters and fancied a change. There's a nice weight to the movement and the transition between ground and flight is great.

Overall, fun with a few issues that could do with addressing. I definitely see potential in it though.

 

My only issue with GaaS is that there's no guarantee that the additional content/changes will happen. I don't pay £50 for a basic game and the "promise" they'll do more later. If I pay that, I want £50 worth of content, or at least a 100% guarantee the rest is ready to go and will be released on a set schedule.

[Goafer]

So I've basically finished the main story as far as I can tell. I'll cover why I say "basically finished it" later. It certainly is an interesting game, as it's so close to being great, it's just let down by a few things (and one major one for me).

The Good
The gameplay is great.

I've only played the Colossus, but the feeling of weight is brilliant. The way it slams down from the air, the clunking as it runs, the way it slams into enemies when doing a shield charge is all pretty much perfect. 

The graphics are some of the best I've seen. The hub world still looks like a cutscene to me. The cutscenes all look amazing too, with the added bonus of actually seeing your character/javelin in them. I don't know if the cutscenes use the in-game models, or a special high quality version of them, but everything looks great. The fire effect especially looks good.

The customisation is good. There's not a great deal of options in terms of parts (only 2 sets for the Colossus so far), but the paint options are great. Plus there's no cost for changing colours, so you can change things up whenever you want.

Matchmaking is good so far. I've only had one or two missions where I had to solo it.

There's a good variety in the special weapons and the Colossus' Ultimate Weapon is one hell of a show. You basically fire 3 nukes, which look amazing and the whole area goes dark.

The microtransactions may as well not exist. It's never advertised them to me, nor have I ever felt the need to buy anything with real money. To be honest, I'm not actually sure what can be bought with real money, that's how little the game mentions them. All meaningful upgrades/weapons can only be found or crafted (they can't even be bought with in-game currency), so I think it's just the cosmetic parts, which I've had no problem getting with in-game money. I've bought every part for my Javelin and never felt like I had to grind to do it.

The Mildly Annoying - The things that are a bit sloppy, but don't really take away from the fun)
The load times. Good lord they're long. It wouldn't be so bad if it was one long load at the beginning, but it's every time you go between the city and the main gameplay area. Load times between the main area and dungeons aren't too bad though.

The main weapons are a bit dull, but serviceable. Other than the stat boosts, there really isn't much variety within each type. They all look pretty much the same and each type handles exactly the same. Not a huge deal, as the third person perspective means you don't really get a good look at them anyway.

A lot of textures can take a while to load in. The place I notice it most are the doors in the city as you go right up to them to open them.

Characters in the main city occasionally jump all over the place. I've walked down the main street a few times, only to see a character walk insanely fast into position. I've also seen character icons on the map jump all over the place.

When I go straight to the forge after a mission, then back to the city, the icon for my Javelin's level/rarity doesn't disappear, meaning it appears under the city HUD elements and during cutscenes. My entire hud has sometimes vanished, requiring me to open the launch expedition menu and come back.

Had a bug where I tried to change the colour of one of my Javelins, only for it to turn entirely blue and not save any changes. Don't know if that was the games way of telling me I couldn't paint that part that colour, but if that was the case, it wasn't obvious.

The Downright Broken
Now for the reason I say I've basically finished the main story. The end boss. For me, it's completely broken. 

Attempt 1: Me and some other guys beat his first stage, only to be instantly killed. No warning or gradual damage, just instant death with no clear cause. We retried a few times, each with the same result. There's a mechanic where you clear meteor things during the fight, but they were never enough to instantly kill us. From what I've read online, a lot of people experience this. Eventually gave up and went back to the city.

Attempt 2: After reading online, someone said they got past the first stage by triggering their ultimate weapon (which makes you invincible for it's duration) to avoid the instant death. I didn't want to gamble on my last attempt being a one-off, so I did this and it worked a treat. Annoying to waste my ultimate attack on merely surviving a bug, but at least it worked. I think the bug would have happened, as one player died at this point and the other person who survived also seemed to have triggered his ultimate.

So the door opens and we fly to the second area to take on his second stage. All is going well for a few minutes, when I get a warning saying I've gone to far from the gameplay area and will be warped back. I assumed that maybe I had to be closer to the boss, but when I was warped, me and the others were back in the first stage area, whilst the boss was still going apeshit in the second. The door to the second area is now closed, so we're trapped in the wrong area and can't continue the mission. We tried forcing a respawn by going back to the entrance, but that just warped us back to the first area. We couldn't die, as although some of the bosses attacks spilled over to the first area (glitching through the floor no less), they weren't enough to kill us, as our health regenerated faster than the damage. So attempt 2 was over.

So not wanting to have to sit through 2 long load times and then do the lead up to the boss every time I quit and retried, I gave up. I may give it another try later, but it's proper soured the experience. I will now have to save an ultimate just to get past a fairly consistent bug (I've heard others get lucky, but I've yet to experience it working properly), only to be constantly wary of the second stage. What lies beyond the second stage? God knows.

 

I think what makes all the issues so annoying is that there's a great game there somewhere. The core gameplay is brilliant, but it just feels a bit unfinished/rushed.

[Goafer]

So, update on the end boss. The first bit isn't a bug, just piss poor design. It was indeed the meteors that killed us instantly. I destroyed a few and stood out of the blast zone of the others and I survived, whereas everyone else died. 

The meteors seemed to do very little damage during the fight, but when the boss runs to the second area, they're instant kills. They also look like they'll only effect the ground, but one guy who was stood up on some scenery also died, so no luck there. Bullshit design.

The glitch I had earlier with being transported back to the first area also makes a bit more sense now. The third stage of the boss takes place back in the first area. What must have happened was the game thought we had defeated the second stage and warped us to the next/first area. The attacks I thought were glitching through the scenery were actually the 3rd stage electric attacks, but the boss was nowhere to be found, leaving us in a soft lock.

Still, a very disappointing experience, especially after enjoying the game up to this point, despite its many (fairly minor) flaws.

[Goafer]

Hit the level cap today and I'm still enjoying the game. It still feels like there's a lot of progress to be made in terms of equipment level, so hopefully plenty more life left in the game.

I would like a few more missions though, so I'm looking forward to future content updates.

I've briefly tried the other Javelins, but nothing feels as good as the Colossus. The Autocannon is a hell of a weapon class. The thing just rattles out bullets and even on the higher difficulties, the enemies life bar just drains.

[Deathjam]

Personally, I have stopped playing in wait for fixes and additional content. The niggling issues that annoy as you may become much more significant when you reach end game.

Watching the live streams in hopes of communication on addressing of issues is disappointing as they due to cherry picking and the actual solutions sometimes being a band aid rather than a fix.

I stand by what I said earlier about the gameplay though and even@Goafer has reiterated some of the stuff I said. But THE ARTICLE explains so much about the niggling issues that become major ones and the copious amount of bugs and issues that were fixed or avoided in destiny, division and diablo.

Since division 2, I have been waiting to see what bioware are doing but its harder to see me going back

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[DriftKaiser]

On 27/02/2019 at 12:49 PM, Ronnie said:

In what way. Specifics please.

Bullshit. Utter bullshit. You haven't even played it! And now you're making these claims as if you know what you're talking about. Enough with the passing off your own ignorant judgement as fact.

6.5/10 on Metacritic is not review bombing. Especially for a live game that improves over time. Destiny 1 was a disaster at launch. Division was a disaster at launch. Diablo. etc.

Every single Anthem review will be out of date in a month, just as the No Man's Sky, Destiny 1, Splatoon etc original reviews are now obsolete.

You still play the game now? It's already 10 weeks and they just dropped a post which they admitted that Anthem is an "Early Access release" game and delayed all upcoming features to finish the game properly. 😂 

[Julius]

Seems like the destiny of Anthem should be decided shortly. 

 

[Cube]

Abandon it. Focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

[Goafer]

Well it's EA, so they'll probably just give up, shut the studio and move on to something more profitable.

Shame really, as I still maintain that it was a good game. Not great or groundbreaking, but way better than everyone seemed to make out.

[Sheikah]

Seems like the destiny of Anthem should be decided shortly.

Inevitable closure. I didn't believe that they would see a complete overhauling through to completion. The name of this game now is toxic and there's nothing they can do to remedy it.

[Goafer]

2 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Seems like the destiny of Anthem should be decided shortly. 
 

Inevitable closure. To think they suggested they were massively overhauling it, didn't believe that for a second. The name of this game now is toxic and there's nothing they can do to remedy it.

I think they could, especially after seeing things like No Man's Sky going from a laughing stock to what it is now. The core gameplay of Anthem was great fun at times, so definitely a good foundation for an overhaul.

Now, whether they will. That's a different story. I personally don't think they will. EA chase easy money, so I think they'll just cut their losses and move on.

[Ronnie]

Hope they save it, the core gameplay was tons of fun and the game itself was nowhere near the disaster the internet made it out to be, no surprise there.

[Dcubed]

No sense in spending good money after bad.

Kill it dead.  All hands on deck for DA4 and ME Reboot.