The Anthem Thread

If I understood it right, it's physical sales numbers only. Which makes it not actually interesting figures today.
 
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Yes, but with a 90% decline that's pretty bad.

Of course, 5 years ago with Destiny - the world was a different place. But they're also saying it sold about a quarter of Destiny 2 and half of Andromeda in physical sales - for the first week.

Physical sales might be much lower these days, but the percentage decline is revealing.

The wildcard is the Origin Access thing - especially because of the early access that I'm sure a lot of people who were going to buy it made use of.

Still, EA projected 6 million sales in the first month or two. There's just no way they'll make that.

I doubt they'll make half of that.

They have hundreds of people working on it for new content - according to Bioware. That's extremely expensive to maintain - and we all know EA cares very, very little about games - and very, very much about money.

So, for the countless people wishing death upon Bioware and Anthem - it looks like there's a real chance of that happening.
 
Indeed, it isn't looking good for Anthem at the moment, and I think you're right about Origin Access having a potentially large part to play in that.

Although I've had my fun with the game, I will be putting it down for a while until they address inscriptions and iron out a few bugs (the Heart of Rage stronghold has been particularly unstable for me as well, but also the most enjoyable).

I must say, it's a tad disheartening to obtain a masterwork with inscriptions that don't benefit your javelin at all. And with a patch being developed to correct this, I'm inclined to take a break from it for now.

I still find the strongholds incredibly fun, and I will be returning in the (hopefully) near future. I'm eager to see what kind of changes to loot they'll be making.
 
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Indeed, it isn't looking good for Anthem at the moment, and I think you're right about Origin Access having a potentially large part to play in that.

Although I've had my fun with the game, I will be putting it down for a while until they address inscriptions and iron out a few bugs (the Heart of Rage stronghold has been particularly unstable for me as well, but also the most enjoyable).

I must say, it's a tad disheartening to obtain a masterwork with inscriptions that don't benefit your javelin at all. And with a patch being developed to correct this, I'm inclined to take a break from it for now.

I still find the strongholds incredibly fun, and I will be returning in the (hopefully) near future. I'm eager to see what kind of changes to loot they'll be making.

Yeah, I'll put it on hold as well.

As much as I love it, I don't want to exhaust what little content is there. I've deliberately avoided two of the three Strongholds for that reason.

Also, I don't want to experience another Hellgate London. The failure of that game nearly broke my heart. I'm still pissed at how unforgiving the audience was back then, and that's nearly 12 years ago now.

Now, I don't "really" think that's going to happen - but there's an actual chance that EA will pull the plug.

So, I'm going to try and forget about it for a while - and focus on Division 2 for my looter shooter fix.

Anthem was always going to be a hold-over until Division 2, anyway.

But I'll be damned if the gameplay isn't so superbly addictive that I'll end up being bored with Division 2 in terms of the moment-to-moment experience.

The overall design and endgame potential is very, very strong in that game - but the gameplay just can't compare to the ultra-satisfying combat of Anthem.

Instead of getting the two best looter shooters of this generation, I might end up with one that's nearly cancelled and another one that's partially ruined by how good the nearly cancelled game plays.

That wasn't what was supposed to happen, dammit!
 
It's kind of a shame; from what I saw of Angry Joe's review, the gameplay does look fun. If it was indeed in development for six years, I can only surmise that it was mismanaged - or the devs thought they still had another year until EA told them otherwise.
 
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Are you calling Darth a pretty young thing? :biggrin:
Sure, why not?! Isn't he adorable?! :biggrin:

Just kidding!

As adorable as he may be, I was using my new Danish word Joxer taught me.
‘pyt’ does not have a direct English translation. Some interpretations include ‘never mind’, ‘don’t worry’ or ‘forget about it’ – but these expressions don’t convey the positive aspect of the word. ‘Pyt’ is used to express that you accept a situation is out of your control, and even though you might be annoyed or frustrated, you decide not to waste unnecessary energy on thinking more about it. You accept it and move on. ‘Pyt’ is also used to comfort other people and diffuse unfortunate situations.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190217-what-to-do-when-hygge-no-longer-works

I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it, though… Google translate thinks it means "puddle" :)

I looked it up and it think it sounds like "poot" xD
 
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It's kind of a shame; from what I saw of Angry Joe's review, the gameplay does look fun. If it was indeed in development for six years, I can only surmise that it was mismanaged - or the devs thought they still had another year until EA told them otherwise.
Or they decided to hold back all the content to slowly release it afterwards. As six years is a long time to have only a couple of strongholds. Maybe next month they will suddenly release 10 more strongholds :)
 
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Pyt is what a lot of forum posters should learn to say instead of getting upset over being wrong online ;)

That said, most non-Scandinavians probably couldn't pronounce it even if they tried.
 


I think the closest translation I can think of would be "To hell with it!" - only without the cursing.
 
I kinda think of it as a message to switch to this attitude:

 
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I also think that Bioware cut the content too much for their own good. A big miscalculation from their part. Wasn't there some picture of planned Anthem releases? I doubt this is all that they have come up with during those development years.

Anyhow fun to read your observations Dart, even though I'm not playing this.
 
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I also think that Bioware cut the content too much for their own good. A big miscalculation from their part. Wasn't there some picture of planned Anthem releases? I doubt this is all that they have come up with during these year.

Nah, they didn't cut content. If they did, a lot more would be on the road map now - especially considering the launch reception.

They bit over more than they could chew, and - in retrospect - they were in over their heads with this one.

I won't drone on about the challenges of developing an entirely new IP and adapting an engine like Frostbite for something as complicated as a cooperative multiplayer game that has the most absurdly responsive and mobile movement I've ever seen in a game. Beyond that, the asset fidelity is at the highest of levels - and creating big chunks of content in a game like this takes much, much longer than you might assume if you compared it to games like, say, Warframe - which is essentially a lego-like structure with an engine that was developed around that particular game.

Also, they might have started development - on some level - 6 years ago, but I think it's pretty clear that they haven't been in full development for that long.

Seems to me that they've iterated a lot and changed a lot, which is just how modern game development works when you're trying to come up with something special and new.

The expectation of a polished multiplayer game with endless content on this level - on a first attempt - might be reasonable from the point of view of an entitled consumer, but it's just not what happens in the real world.

If you look at Destiny and Division - at launch - they were incredibly barebones in several ways, and they had their share of issues.

I will grant that Destiny was more polished but it had next to zero content - and Division felt more complete, but certainly can't compare in terms of the core gameplay.

Some people call Anthem the perfect storm - which is the culmination of consumer expectations combined with consumer dissatisfaction with modern big-time publishers - and I think there's some truth to that.

Again, I'm not kidding around when I'm saying this game is doing certain things that go way beyond what other games ever did within this segment.

In fact, I will go so far as to say the majority of critics out there have been too fast on the trigger, and that the level of quality inherent in things like the combat and the movement only really becomes apparent after you've played a while and you feel just how responsive the game can be.

You'd think such things would be obvious - but they're really not - at least not unless you have a very significant amount of experience and desire to dig deeper.

The nuances of the movement and the arsenal of class distinct diversity go beyond something the average critic would pick up on in the first few hours of play.

I've never seen so many "I'm loving the game, what's the problem?" threads for any other game on Reddit - and I've followed a LOT of them.

We live in a weird culture when it comes to modern critics and YT celebrities.

In any case, I can't get the game and the critical reception to match up - no matter how hard I try.

I'm usually pretty good at accepting that sort of thing, but in this case it's too off. Something just isn't adding up.

Anyhow fun to read your observations Dart, even though I'm not playing this.

I guess that's always something. I don't think Anthem would be getting much attention around here even if it was rated 10/10 by all critics.

The Watch just isn't a place for modern games and evolutions of genres like this.
 
Nah, they didn't cut content. If they did, a lot more would be on the road map now - especially considering the launch reception.

They bit over more than they could chew, and - in retrospect - they were in over their heads with this one.

I won't drone on about the challenges of developing an entirely new IP and adapting an engine like Frostbite for something as complicated as a cooperative multiplayer game that has the most absurdly responsive and mobile movement I've ever seen in a game. Beyond that, the asset fidelity is at the highest of levels - and creating big chunks of content in a game like this takes much, much longer than you might assume if you compared it to games like, say, Warframe - which is essentially a lego-like structure with an engine that was developed around that particular game.

Also, they might have started development - on some level - 6 years ago, but I think it's pretty clear that they haven't been in full development for that long.

Seems to me that they've iterated a lot and changed a lot, which is just how modern game development works when you're trying to come up with something special and new.

The expectation of a polished multiplayer game with endless content on this level - on a first attempt - might be reasonable from the point of view of an entitled consumer, but it's just not what happens in the real world.

If you look at Destiny and Division - at launch - they were incredibly barebones in several ways, and they had their share of issues.

I will grant that Destiny was more polished but it had next to zero content - and Division felt more complete, but certainly can't compare in terms of the core gameplay.

Some people call Anthem the perfect storm - which is the culmination of consumer expectations combined with consumer dissatisfaction with modern big-time publishers - and I think there's some truth to that.

Again, I'm not kidding around when I'm saying this game is doing certain things that go way beyond what other games ever did within this segment.

In fact, I will go so far as to say the majority of critics out there have been too fast on the trigger, and that the level of quality inherent in things like the combat and the movement only really becomes apparent after you've played a while and you feel just how responsive the game can be.

You'd think such things would be obvious - but they're really not - at least not unless you have a very significant amount of experience and desire to dig deeper.

The nuances of the movement and the arsenal of class distinct diversity go beyond something the average critic would pick up on in the first few hours of play.

I've never seen so many "I'm loving the game, what's the problem?" threads for any other game on Reddit - and I've followed a LOT of them.

We live in a weird culture when it comes to modern critics and YT celebrities.
In any case, I can't get the game and the critical reception to match up - no matter how hard I try.

I'm usually pretty good at accepting that sort of thing, but in this case it's too off. Something just isn't adding up.

I guess that's always something. I don't think Anthem would be getting much attention around here even if it was rated 10/10 by all critics.

The Watch just isn't a place for modern games and evolutions of genres like this.

When you mention feats like responsive game mechanics and honed gameplay, I think they got the most important stuff right as those are vital for the long term success of any shooter. If they got that right in the launch, there is hope, but content is needed as well. Hopefully they have good pipeline for delivering it assap.

Besides I'm not much a mmo gamer these days. Last mmo I spent too many hours of time of life was Tribes Ascend. That game had just too many gameplay and balance related issues to be succesfull. A really sad story that was. Dear franchise mishandled like that.

Anyhow in tribes series, I loved jetpacks and all that cool stuff like flying over the hills top speed while scoring a perfect hit with spinfusor which is why I've been keeping an eye on this game since it has bunch of guys flying in battlearmor. And compared to Tribes Ascend release, Anthem seems to be doing pretty okey. :) Maybe I try this someday, who knows.
 
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