Sheikah Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 My concern with that approach is that I can see player dropoff/disappointing sales meaning that the game isn't supported very well or for very long. Especially if they are promising free story content, it feels like it won't be as substantial as what has been seen with Destiny.
drahkon Posted February 22, 2019 Posted February 22, 2019 (edited) Not a good start if you take reviews for granted. Currently at 60 on both metacritic (32 reviews) and opencritic (26 reviews). I'm very interested to see how many people bought/will buy the game. Edit: Just seen that the game is being sold for 40€ on release day in Germany. Wow. Edited February 22, 2019 by drahkon
Happenstance Posted February 23, 2019 Author Posted February 23, 2019 I feel like Bioware's next release should probably be the Mass Effect Trilogy remaster to try and build up some easy positive buzz again.
Ronnie Posted February 23, 2019 Posted February 23, 2019 (edited) Started this up last night and played a couple of hours. Having a great time. The game is just FUN. Voice acting and facial animations some of the best I’ve seen (second only to Red Dead 2). Flying is a rush and the gunplay feels great. World is beautiful. Cutscenes and characters engaging so far. The only thing I dislike (and when I say dislike I mean HATE) is the UI. Ugly and unpolished. The map is better than the ones in ME Andromeda, but not by much. Really wanted to play some more this morning but had to head out for the day. Can’t wait to play later. Oh and zero bugs so far. What I will say is the game definitely looks like it’s coming in hot. Just little touches in terms of polish not quite where they should be etc but it’s pretty minor. Quote Those two load screens in the middle last a grand total of about 3 seconds each. obviously the echo chamber and bandwagon prevents them from stipulating that. Edited February 23, 2019 by Ronnie 1
S.C.G Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 Well, I'm glad that I didn't pick up Anthem, I was pretty certain that the game wouldn't be for me quite early on and this video just seems to further confirm that. It's good that some players are getting enjoyment out of the game and I'm happy for them if that's the case but I just don't see the appeal personally. I tried the original Destiny, I even enjoyed playing online with other forum members... for a short time and after that I deleted the game, never played it again or any game like it. Short-sighted of me? Perhaps... but I feel I have a better understanding of what type of games I enjoy now and this clearly isn't it. I wish the game a reasonable level of success, at least for Bioware's sake but if this is the future of AAA online, co-op multiplayer gaming then I can't see it lasting. We'll see though, maybe the game will improve over time but if the game already has plenty of things that players don't like then the devs have their work cut out for them. 2
Hero-of-Time Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 I watched that yesterday and I was howling at the start when was trying to explain which version he bought and then again when he had the Wii Shop music playing over the loading screen. I don't usually watch Angry Joe but I read that his review of the game was pretty funny so I gave it a look. The first couple of minutes of his review pretty much delivered already. The amount of loading in the game seems insane. @S.C.G do you know who's reviewing it for EZA? I'm interested to hear how they fared with the game. I appreciate that there is a roadmap for the game and improvements will be made but this is exactly what I hate about the GaaS model. Players are expected to buy an unoptimized and sometimes half finished games with the promise that it will eventually get better. It's a pretty scummy practice in fully priced games, IMO. In terms of reviews, the game seems to have bombed everywhere. When just about every outlet, big or small, are saying the game has issues then you know there are problems. I mean, when a weather app for smartphones is able to take a shot at your game out ( this is seriously a thing ), then you know you've cocked up. It will be interesting to see how the game sells and I just hope that Bioware can emerge from this unharmed. 1
drahkon Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 23 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: When just about every outlet, big or small, are saying the game has issues then you know there are problems. I mean, when a weather app for smartphones is able to take a shot at your game out ( this is seriously a thing ), then you know you've cocked up. Here's the thing: 1 6
Glen-i Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 That's my morning made! Got a good laugh from that.
Ronnie Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 Man, the community really thrives on negativitiy and hatred doesn't it. Played a few more hours last night. Had a great time As with pretty much every single other game as service, the launch was rocky. And as with every other game as service, it'll get better, the haters will vanish to their next target, and the community and game will grow from there.
Glen-i Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Man, the community really thrives on negativitiy and hatred doesn't it. Am I not allowed to have a chuckle at a joke a weather app made? Edited February 24, 2019 by Glen-i 2 1
drahkon Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 9 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Am I not allowed to have a chuckle at a joke a weather app made? Didn't you get the memo? You aren't allowed laugh about anything anymore 2
Glen-i Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 9 minutes ago, drahkon said: Didn't you get the memo? You aren't allowed laugh about anything anymore But how will I express my enjoyment of omitted words in other people's posts!? 1
Happenstance Posted February 24, 2019 Author Posted February 24, 2019 2 minutes ago, Glen-i said: But how will I express my enjoyment of omitted words in other people's posts!? Daffy Duck gifs 3
Hero-of-Time Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 2 hours ago, Ronnie said: Man, the community really thrives on negativitiy and hatred doesn't it. Played a few more hours last night. Had a great time As with pretty much every single other game as service, the launch was rocky. And as with every other game as service, it'll get better, the haters will vanish to their next target, and the community and game will grow from there. I don't think there is anything wrong with the discussion at hand or with the reviews being posted. I mean, Sam often posts EZA reviews and Jimpression videos for various games, so it's not him being negative but rather him just posting as usual. There is a lot of negativity surrounding the game but that's only because the general consensus is the game is a bit of a mess. It's not some single YouTuber who is marking the game down just looking for hits on their channel, this is pretty much every outlet saying the same things over and over. Would you be against people posting reviews if the game was recieved in a more positive light? I imagine not. I'm not having a go at you here and I'm truly happy that you are enjoying a game you've been looking forward to for so long but there's no denying that the game seems to have some serious issues, both technical and gameplay wise, and while these may be fixed somewhere down the line reviewers have to review games as they are when they receive them. If they were to ignore such issues in the hopes of future fixes then they wouldn't be doing their job. It's an interesting discussion that has cropped up a few times in recent years. How can reviewers do their job when games like this, Destiny and, going even further back, DriveClub are constantly changing and updating? While i'm not fussed about Anthem itself I am interested in the narrative surrounding it purely because I think Bioware are a great studio when they play to their strengths and I don't want them to end up on the pile of dead developers over at EA. Had this been a different developer then I wouldn't have been following the news/reviews/impressions as closely. 2
Goafer Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 2 hours ago, drahkon said: Didn't you get the memo? You aren't allowed laugh about anything anymore Unless it's something Sony has done, then it's fair game.
Ronnie Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said: It's an interesting discussion that has cropped up a few times in recent years. How can reviewers do their job when games like this, Destiny and, going even further back, DriveClub are constantly changing and updating? Reviews for this game will be out of date in a month. Just as they are for most of these types of games. Hell even Splatoon had to be re-reviewed on IGN because the game had changed so much since release. So yeah, if you want a review of day 1 then the metacritic is great, otherwise it’s useless. There’s an enormous echo chamber in gaming and the community seems to getting more and more toxic with each passing year. When there’s a bandwagon, everyone jumps on it. There’s no grey area. YouTube content creators thrive on negativity and are rewarded for it with extra clicks. It’s a sad state of affairs. You read ResetEra or YouTube comments and it’s as if people want the game to fail. Fallout 76 and Destiny were the same. In a game like Battlefront II with the microtransaction rubbish the uproar is 100% justified. Online ongoing games like Anthem, not really. Most reviews admit the gameplay is great, there’s a lot of bugs and a lot of loading screens. In a few months these complaints will vanish. But not after the community has done its best to torpedo hard working devs at BioWare and ruin their years of hard work. If this was a one and done game that had a beginning and an end then by all means let reviewers be critical but not only is this constantly being updated with new content, from what I’ve played, it doesn’t deserve one shred of the abuse it’s gotten. The world is beautiful, the traversal is great, the world building and characters are compelling and the gameplay is a blast. I’ve had zero bugs, zero crashes and yes a few loading screens. Big deal.
Hero-of-Time Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 The GaaS model does need to be under scrutiny though because I can't think of a AAA console game that has pulled it off right. Things like Sea of a Thieves and Destiny had very little content and Fallout 76 was a complete mess that was riddled with bugs. You can't expect gamers to be happy with putting their hard earned cash on half finished products. If the model is to work properly then the base game has to be functional and have substantial content to keep players busy until the updates do eventually drop. While I agree a lot of YouTubers do feed on negativity for hits, this situation isn't just Youtubers, it's pretty much every respectable gaming outlet who has issues with Anthem. It's great that you are getting something out of it and with that being the case then there's no real reason to be bothered about the negativity surrounding the game. As long as you enjoy it then why does it matter that the general opinion of the game from a lot of users and reviewers is negative? Just off the top of my head a couple of examples for me would be Hey! Pikmin! and Metroid Other M. Both games got slated by critics and fans but I didn't care in the slightest and I loved both games to bits. The fact that people were negative about these games didn't hinder my enjoyment and why should it? 1 1
Julius Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 13 minutes ago, Happenstance said: Is that the DSi Shop music I hear? Also, @Ronnie, just play what you want to play -- I think it's great that you're having a fun time with the game, and I genuinely hope that it just gets better from here on for you and others that are enjoying the game. I don't think that anyone here is going out of their way to slate the game, and from what I've read, no-one here wants BioWare and their devs to fail. That being said, like @Hero-of-Time brought up, the GaaS framework simply hasn't been flawlessly executed to this point, and Anthem seems no different. I can appreciate that it is a "live game", but at the same time, the experience of the game on Day One should be as polished as can be to avoid people slating things such as the game's load times, at the very least. It's small things like that which add up and reverberate around the echo chamber of the internet, and the game finds itself facing an uphill battle upon launch as a result. From the sound of things, better loading times would have at least boosted the critical scores of the game. A game like this doesn't end up with scores like these because of the echo chamber, though -- these reviewers had their hands on the game well before launch: You might say that they haven't played the game with a Day One patch (quite a few reviewers have now chosen to delay posting their reviews because of said patch), but considering how much time EA is asking these reviewers to spend with the game prior to launch, shouldn't the game be as polished as possible for them, so that they don't have to face hindrances such as long loading times, and find themselves offering not-so-great scores to the echo chamber of gamers on the internet? 2 1
Hero-of-Time Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 UK sales chatter is starting to surface. Quote Anthem sold around 10% what Destiny sold in its first week. (UK Packaged sales comp) Apparently Mass Effect Andromeda sold double this.
Ronnie Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 Cue lots of gamers saying "We won!" Did anyone really think a new IP would sell more than a Mass Effect game?
Hero-of-Time Posted February 24, 2019 Posted February 24, 2019 Considering the panning that Andromeda got and how hot GaaS games are these days I would expect many would have thought it would outsell it. I imagine EA would have hoped for that result as well. A good comparison would be Anthem vs Destiny. Both new IPs and both GaaS games and Destiny sold stupidly well. That probably sold more than Andromeda.
Happenstance Posted February 24, 2019 Author Posted February 24, 2019 I expect a lot of people are holding off on buying Anthem until later in it's life. I know I'm waiting until it has it's "Taken King" moment.
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