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Anthem (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

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So it seems EA (or was it Bioware themselves) did an even more horrible job of showing off this game than we thought. The demos at E3 had loads of character stuff included, not just the action.

This is a really good interview from Eurogamer, that should put a lot of people's minds at ease

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-06-11-the-big-bioware-interview-the-response-to-anthem-and-the-future-of-mass-effect

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I seem to be one of the few on here actually really excited for this :sad: Anyway, new-ish trailer...

And IGN Rewind Theatre with extra footage and some new info

 

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This Friday will be the first chance many get to have a go of this before release, with the VIP demo available to those who've pre-ordered and running through to 2am on the 28th for everyone in the UK. Similarly, in the 1st February, there'll be an open demo for everyone and anyone to jump in on and get a look at things.

It's a game that hasn't exactly wowed in the gameplay trailers they've shown. The locations have all tended to blend in to one and the gunplay hasn't looked the most amazing but there is something about it that has me interested, though I'm not sure what.

A lot of people are obviously going to wait for reviews on this and there'll be plenty who won't touch it because of the EA connection but I really hope Bioware have their heads on straight with this and have created something really good here. The optimist in me hopes they've paid attention to where Bungie has gone wrong with Destiny and what they got right as well as looking at how Ubisoft managed to resolve a lot of the issues surrounding The Division as the months went on (something they seem to be turning in to a speciality with some of their games).

Is anyone looking to jump in on the demos, either the VIP one or the open one next week?

I was looking at the games releasing this year and wanted something that might sustain some longer term play and opted to pre-order this to get an earlier shot at the game to help make my mind up on things as if I'm not enjoying what I play, I'll move that pre-order on to something else (and there's plenty to choose from in the coming weeks). So I'll be jumping in in Friday on PS4 provides everything works as it should. The whole process for sorting out your VIP code was a right pain and now that's it's linked to my EA Account (which I had to set up to even attempt to redeem), apparently all you have to do is download the demo on Friday (no pre-load for PS4 players annoyingly) and log in but I have a feeling it won't be that simple, either for getting the demo downloaded or logging in.

Edit: thought I'd post the most recent trailer too:

 

Edited by Ganepark32

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I gave up updating this thread when it started to feel like I was the only one on this board interested in this game. I imagine the main criticism at release will be a lack of content but they said all future storyline updates would be frequent and totally free (which in itself makes me even more worried for the base game).

Really, really excited though. Vast majority of people who've actually played it said it plays like a dream.

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I think the main criticism will be if the game is laced with microtransactions, if none of the reviewers considered the long-term focus/endgame, and/or if there's a lot of things wrong with bugs, balance etc but developers take a long time to respond to issues.

I'm sure it plays great if you just pick up and run through a bunch of missions, but a game like this needs a lot of focus on variety and replayability.

This is my kind of game, I want to want it, but since just before the last Destiny 2 DLC I've learned to wait and see before I get too excited.

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I pre ordered it a few days ago when it was ~£33 on ShopTo. Bioware are one of my favourite developers so I'll give it a chance, it's by far the least excited I've been for a new Bioware game though. 

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8 hours ago, Shorty said:

I think the main criticism will be if the game is laced with microtransactions

They've said the only microtransactions are cosmetic

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A month before release and they've just revealed this out of the blue. Social hub created due to community feedback. Sufficed to say the news is going down very well

 

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10 hours ago, Ronnie said:

They've said the only microtransactions are cosmetic

Cosmetics are pretty important (to some people) in a game like this after a certain point. You all have the same gear so anything that makes you look different from everyone else is desirable. In MMOs people will grind for months for a certain cape, helmet or even clothes dye.

In Overwatch, loot is literally only cosmetic but still millions clamour for the new skins at every event.

The problem with microtransactions is nothing to do with whether they’re game-boosting (that would be a whole new can of worms) or cosmetic, it’s whether they involve a roll of the dice, or whether they kill the joy of chasing certain loot when you know others will just buy it for £4.99 and invalidate your efforts. Or when quest rewards are loot boxes with crap items and duped in that tempt you to pay for one more chance.

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2 hours ago, Shorty said:

Cosmetics are pretty important (to some people) in a game like this after a certain point. You all have the same gear so anything that makes you look different from everyone else is desirable. In MMOs people will grind for months for a certain cape, helmet or even clothes dye.

In Overwatch, loot is literally only cosmetic but still millions clamour for the new skins at every event.

The problem with microtransactions is nothing to do with whether they’re game-boosting (that would be a whole new can of worms) or cosmetic, it’s whether they involve a roll of the dice, or whether they kill the joy of chasing certain loot when you know others will just buy it for £4.99 and invalidate your efforts. Or when quest rewards are loot boxes with crap items and duped in that tempt you to pay for one more chance.

There's no roll of the dice for the microtransactions, and no loot boxes. There's a video I linked to on the previous page that goes through all the customisation you can do to your Javelin in the base game. The options are genuinely insane, tons, and tons of personalisation available. Overwatch handles cosmetic microtransactions well and I imagine it'll be a similar story here.

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I totally agree about the cosmetics being a big part of games like this towards the end. With Destiny, once you got the armour you wanted it turned to getting the shaders you wanted to finally match it all up and I think Destiny by and large got it right with the shaders as they were in plentiful supply for at least a set of armour (wanting the same shader across another set was a different issue but I never ended up short of shaders).

My hope with the microtransactions for cosmetics is that it ends up being more like Titanfall 2 where it's stuff you can't get in the game through play so buying it doesn't jump you ahead and so it has some value to those willing to shell out some money. That also helped subsidise the free updates for that game. You'll still obviously get different shaders (I'm guessing do going by the trailers and gameplay so far) but the microtransactions will be like how you could deck our your Titan with some wild skins in Titanfall 2 even though you had access to however many different ones unlockable through levelling up or through spending the in-game currency which was won at the end of matches. A mix of that with Destiny's way of doing things and having plentiful options away from microtransactions is probably a good way to do it.

Anthem really is a game where I've kind of kept it at arms length since it was announced. I've watched the trailers and taken in the tidbits of info they've been dropping but it's largely remained on the down low on my radar. With how Destiny left me feeling burnt (though I'll no doubt end up jumping in on 3 again when it's released), the similarities between the games was a major factor in that. But I'm a fan of BioWare and I even enjoyed Andromeda even if it wasn't the best Mass Effect game. So I'm willing to give it a go.

My main concern at the moment is content. They've talked so little about the road ahead for the game yet if I remember back to when Destiny was launching, we had a good idea of when the major content updates were hitting for the first year (and the a leak gave us a hint of what came beyond that, even if it changed) and we had events posted throughout which started that first week with the Queen's Wrath event (bringing that Supremacy sniper with me through to Taken King was great as it was a brilliant weapon and a good example of event exclusive content you got from getting involved). But for this, beyond free content updates we don't know the frequency of them and what they'll entail.

It's good they're receptive to fan feedback even this early but it's just odd to not have an idea of the level of content in game and what will come through the coming weeks and months. There's apparently an embargo on journalists who were at an even the other day with regards to end game content that ends next week so hopefully things will be a bit clearer then.

I'm just looking forward to getting in on Friday and seeing how it all plays. That's going to be my main take away from the demos as I want to know it at least plays well (and impressions suggest it does). I just want BioWare to give us an idea of the road ahead that's all.

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35 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

Anthem really is a game where I've kind of kept it at arms length since it was announced. I've watched the trailers and taken in the tidbits of info they've been dropping but it's largely remained on the down low on my radar. With how Destiny left me feeling burnt (though I'll no doubt end up jumping in on 3 again when it's released), the similarities between the games was a major factor in that. But I'm a fan of BioWare and I even enjoyed Andromeda even if it wasn't the best Mass Effect game. So I'm willing to give it a go.

My main concern at the moment is content. They've talked so little about the road ahead for the game yet if I remember back to when Destiny was launching, we had a good idea of when the major content updates were hitting for the first year (and the a leak gave us a hint of what came beyond that, even if it changed) and we had events posted throughout which started that first week with the Queen's Wrath event (bringing that Supremacy sniper with me through to Taken King was great as it was a brilliant weapon and a good example of event exclusive content you got from getting involved). But for this, beyond free content updates we don't know the frequency of them and what they'll entail.

It's good they're receptive to fan feedback even this early but it's just odd to not have an idea of the level of content in game and what will come through the coming weeks and months. There's apparently an embargo on journalists who were at an even the other day with regards to end game content that ends next week so hopefully things will be a bit clearer then.

I'm just looking forward to getting in on Friday and seeing how it all plays. That's going to be my main take away from the demos as I want to know it at least plays well (and impressions suggest it does). I just want BioWare to give us an idea of the road ahead that's all.

From comments I've been reading people are realising Anthem is looking less like Destiny and more like Diablo or Warframe.

Content wise, they've said all future expansions will be free which I'm a bit worried by, it seems a bit promise to lock yourself into, though I'm a bit ignorant about if this is normal in games as service. I think they said they're going to talk about the road map before release, or at the very least the endgame content, we'll see.

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Apparently there are friend codes available for the demo if you've pre-ordered the game.

Soooooooooooo, if anybody has a code left...I'll take it :p 

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On 24/01/2019 at 12:44 PM, drahkon said:

Apparently there are friend codes available for the demo if you've pre-ordered the game.

Soooooooooooo, if anybody has a code left...I'll take it :p 

If everyone who takes part in the VIP demo gets 3 friend codes then I'll have some to give out.

Just need to decide if I'll play the demo or wait for the game to drop (like I usually do)

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34 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

If everyone who takes part in the VIP demo gets 3 friend codes then I'll have some to give out.

I think so. 

There are already people selling invites...

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That's shocking that people are selling invites. But then it doesn't surprise me at all at the same time.

From the sounds of it, the codes for those in the demo are a link to the Anthem demo page on EA's website that you input into your browser and sign in with your EA Account to get access to the demo. But yeah, if you've pre-ordered you'll have 3 friend referrals to hand these codes/links to. More than happy to hand them out later this even as well to anyone interested. I'll be trying to login just after launch of the demo at 5 to get the codes so hopefully it actually works but I'll update here once I've got them.

 

EDIT: ok I've got the code/link for those interested in jumping in on the VIP demo. First come, first serve so just tag me and I'll message you the link on here. You can use it on PC, Xbox One and PS4 from the looks of it, just simply download the demo and log in with your EA Account once you've redeemed the code that I'll send (you can already download the demo on all platforms as well).

Edited by Ganepark32
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Servers are clearly taking a hammering as I've spent the 10 minutes since the demo went live trying to connect at the menu and keep getting connection issues. Gonna be one of those things where it'll take a couple of hours before things smooth out in terms of getting logged on.

Had the panic earlier of realising i have my PSN linked to the wrong EA Account so went about trying to unlink my old one to attach the one with the VIP code redeemed on but no luck. Had to get on a live chat with EA and they've supposedly attaches the VIP code to my old account do hopefully that's fine. Had to do that as apparently once a gamertag is linked to an EA Account it can't be unlinked, despite their help page suggesting otherwise.

Bit stupid that you can't unlink it so I just hope the advisor has actually activated the VIP code on my old account otherwise there'll be no early hands on for me.

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5 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

Bit stupid that you can't unlink it so I just hope the advisor has actually activated the VIP code on my old account otherwise there'll be no early hands on for me.

If that happens, maybe @Ronnie can hook you up with a link.

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Yeah, they've not gone and transferred over my VIP code to my old EA Account, bloody hell. Can't even log in in their website in either account to check if the one I actually redeemed the code on has access or not anymore and can't even use one of my own links to redeem with the old account as it's not letting me log in. What a bloody faff. Why does EA insist on doing things like this when people have vocally voiced why they hate it?

I'm going to try and get them on live chat later on again, if I can get logged in. Hopefully find out what's happening.

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People already up in arms because the servers are under a lot of stress.

I mean, yes...a stress test should have been done before the game has gone gold but still, why do people always immediately talk shit whenever something goes wrong. 
When the game releases and it hasn't improved, THEN you can grab your pitchforks.

The constant bitching these days annoys me to no end, not only in the gaming community but that's a different story.

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13 minutes ago, drahkon said:

People already up in arms because the servers are under a lot of stress.

I mean, yes...a stress test should have been done before the game has gone gold but still, why do people always immediately talk shit whenever something goes wrong. 
When the game releases and it hasn't improved, THEN you can grab your pitchforks.

The constant bitching these days annoys me to no end, not only in the gaming community but that's a different story.

It's incredibly childish. The majority of the community seem to be at their happiest when they're up in arms about something.

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