Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
Watched it all. Ouch. Bioware is probably done after this. Can't see them being able to fix things enough to turn this around. Maybe if they'd go full on Hello Games with consistent and completely game changing free upgrades, but it seems like it's rotten at it's core. Makes me sad.
 

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,498
My Angry Joe review is that they're very well produced and he often makes some great points. But fuck me I wish he'd just get to the point sometimes.

He constantly interjects with these "jokes" and beats them to death for far longer than they're worth. A 5-10 minute video of him simply explaining what he does and doesn't like about the game would be far more entertaining for me.

He's just nowhere as funny as he thinks he is, just review the fucking game man.
I'd definitely be in the market for abridged Angry Joe videos. I don't always have the time to sit down for an hour to watch a guy talk about one video game (unless it's Noah Gervais). Joe's style of humor doesn't work for me, but I appreciate his consistency and use of a full review scale for his games. He's also really good and emphasizing just how much he enjoys the good parts of bad games; his Alpha Protocol review is what convinced me to buy the game back in 2010.
 

Deleted member 2109

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,927
I'd say this is his best review ever imo. I think the score shoulda been lower but the bioware love in his heart clouded his judgement. I am a dumb fucking whale and bought this up and it straight up sucks.
 

TheDutchSlayer

Did you find it? Cuez I didn't!
Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,117
The Hauge, The Netherlands
Watched it all. Ouch. Bioware is probably done after this. Can't see them being able to fix things enough to turn this around. Maybe if they'd go full on Hello Games with consistent and completely game changing free upgrades, but it seems like it's rotten at it's core. Makes me sad.
If only hello games is like 12 people Bioware is like 200+ they can't afford to go dark for 2 years also their will be no player base left by the time they have a big update.
Everyone will have moved on.
 

Angie

Best Avatar Thread Ever!
Member
Nov 20, 2017
41,084
Kingdom of Corona
Best past of the video.
vlgp30.gif
 

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
This would require a No Man's Sky level rejuvenation to be worthy of its original promise. I don't see it happening but I'd GENUINELY love to be wrong. I thought NMS had doomed itself to go down in history as an embarrassment but I was completely wrong in that expectation.

I really want a good mech shoot loot game, and somehow they managed to get nearly everything wrong. The game needs such major transformative changes. It doesn't only need minor and QOL things like waypoints and stat screens, but it needs more foundational changes like the FPP section removed and the loot system to be changed to include armor pieces, which aren't only cosmetic but have stats. You can't take armor off of the table in a game based on loot grinding. It makes no sense.
 

Jinroh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,206
Lausanne, Switzerland
So after 6 years of development the game barely has any post endgame content, it doesn't have a stat page, it's been severely downgraded, its loot is awful, weapons all look the same, the currency/craft system is totally broken and its missions are ultra repetitive.

I don't think EA is to blame here, it's Bioware becoming increasingly incompetent at everything they do. If EA ends up shutting down the studio I'm not going to shed a single tear, they're just the shadow of their former self.
 

Deleted member 50374

alt account
Banned
Dec 4, 2018
2,482
The content in this game is so barebone I don't think they can pull off something amazing soon enough - they would've fit it already in the game probably
 

Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
If only hello games is like 12 people Bioware is like 200+ they can't afford to go dark for 2 years also their will be no player base left by the time they have a big update.
Everyone will have moved on.
Yeah it's not looking good.. I think Hello Games went dark for 1 year though, and the player base certainly shrinked there as well, but it's like HG didn't care they were just 100% focused to make things right. Contentwise NMS has to be one of the best come back stories gaming has ever seen, but the damage was already done for lots of gamers and the player base is still small. It's not easy to fix things post-launch when all the reviews and harsh player impressions like we see here is already out, lots of gamers won't bother finding out if things has improved.
 

big_z

Member
Nov 2, 2017
7,875
So after 6 years of development the game barely has any post endgame content, it doesn't have a stat page, it's been severely downgraded, its loot is awful, weapons all look the same, the currency/craft system is totally broken and its missions are ultra repetitive.

I don't think EA is to blame here, it's Bioware becoming increasingly incompetent at everything they do. If EA ends up shutting down the studio I'm not going to shed a single tear, they're just the shadow of their former self.

It's quite possible the game wasn't originally designed to be a gaas title and was retrofitted part way through development. Changing directions on a project reeks havoc on production. With how sloppy the loot and reward system is it's possible the game hit a second major snag when the whole loot box apocalypse occurred. Anthem comes off as a game that lost a bunch of its original vision and identity over the years and EA wanted it out so they cobbled together what they could.
 

tyfon

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,680
Norway
I'm actually quite surprised that the big walkers are not actually in the game, especially in context with the E3 video.
It's strange that they would show that and then cut it... Maybe the "ingame real-time" footage was just a rendered scene after all. But didn't it say it was captured from a one x?
 
Dec 4, 2017
3,103
It's quite possible the game wasn't originally designed to be a gaas title and was retrofitted part way through development. Changing directions on a project reeks havoc on production. With how sloppy the loot and reward system is it's possible the game hit a second major snag when the whole loot box apocalypse occurred. Anthem comes off as a game that lost a bunch of its original vision and identity over the years and EA wanted it out so they cobbled together what they could.
From various interviews, random unverified rumors on different forums/discusion boards etc., and general gut feeling, it seems to me EA, as publishers, tend to be simultaneously excessively lax and hyper-strict. They'll allow projects to run up the clock with extra years, but, at the same time, they unflinchingly demand that [feature_name] be mandatorily present in the final product; worse still, they change their mind on what feature should be prominent during said game's development.
 

Majukun

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,542
basically the gameplay is good,everything else concerned with player satisfaction is bad because they have to sell microtransactions and make it come back for more thus they can't properly satisfy the player
 

Saya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,972
LMAO, that NPC exchange killed me.

NPC 1: I have a family.
NPC 2: I hope they're better at cards than you are.
*both turn to camera at the same time*

Joe remains one the best reviewers out there.
 

-PXG-

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,186
NJ
And so many people seriously told me they thought THIS would be the "Destiny killer". Okay...

I never had faith in EA. Sure, I figured the game would have issues at launch. A new IP, especially one promising so much, in this particular genre, surely would have some growing pains. But this... This is absolutely unacceptable. Embarrassing.

What the hell has Bioware been doing the last 6 years? Did they scrap the entire game and start over within the last year? Seriously? What on Earth happened? You'd think after Destiny, Division and then Destiny fucking 2, they'd have enough to go by and understand what mistakes not to repeat. Guess not.
 

Jonnykong

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,044
Never actually sat and watched a whole Angry Joe review before cos I often think they're too long, but those 50 minutes flew by. Very entertaining.
 

Avitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,975
My Angry Joe review is that they're very well produced and he often makes some great points. But fuck me I wish he'd just get to the point sometimes.

He constantly interjects with these "jokes" and beats them to death for far longer than they're worth. A 5-10 minute video of him simply explaining what he does and doesn't like about the game would be far more entertaining for me.

He's just nowhere as funny as he thinks he is, just review the fucking game man.

A good, measured review has to show rather than simply telling (including the good). If you want a simple score or a capsule review, you can fire up metacritic or opencritic. There wasn't any wasted time in this one.
 

Cripterion

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,104
Can't believe Bioware was proud of including the "Launch Bay" at the last minute... Shows how much out of touch they are with this game.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
Yeah, I'd say this is definitely a high point for Joe in terms of his work as a reviewer and content creator. It's well reasoned, well paced, well edited, and fun to watch. He's doing good work.
 

Linus815

Member
Oct 29, 2017
20,241
Awesome review.

The point Joe makes about how utterly clunky the coop is is something I haven't heard criticized much but hit our group hard yesterday. Our story progression gone out of sync despite being in the same game the whole time, because some people missed out on crucial conversations that give quests in the hub, so despite them playing the mission (because the host can launch it anyway) they actually miss out on a lot of story and even cutscene that sometimes occurs after finishing and returning to the hub.

It's staggering how 10 years after Borderlands, which had absolutely no issues with this, Anthem fucks such a core element of a coop shooter up.
 

Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
And so many people seriously told me they thought THIS would be the "Destiny killer". Okay...

I never had faith in EA. Sure, I figured the game would have issues at launch. A new IP, especially one promising so much, in this particular genre, surely would have some growing pains. But this... This is absolutely unacceptable. Embarrassing.

What the hell has Bioware been doing the last 6 years? Did they scrap the entire game and start over within the last year? Seriously? What on Earth happened? You'd think after Destiny, Division and then Destiny fucking 2, they'd have enough to go by and understand what mistakes not to repeat. Guess not.
Lots of important things are missing from the reveal trailer as well, like those big mechs and the looting animations, so I guess they either started over and forgot to add that or it was simply the classic target render smoke and mirror approach even though it was said to be captured from real gameplay.
 

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,718
Joe takes the hyperbole too far sometimes into outright lies. When browsing the guns you can tell the difference beteeen the AR types easily.

I don't understand why he does this sometimes, especially when he has so much ammunition here.
 

Avitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,975
Joe takes the hyperbole too far sometimes into outright lies. When browsing the guns you can tell the difference beteeen the AR types easily.

I don't understand why he does this sometimes, especially when he has so much ammunition here.

The models are largely the same with very minor tweaks. Nothing like other games.
 

SageShinigami

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,822
Watched it all. Ouch. Bioware is probably done after this. Can't see them being able to fix things enough to turn this around. Maybe if they'd go full on Hello Games with consistent and completely game changing free upgrades, but it seems like it's rotten at it's core. Makes me sad.

Actually, the first ten minutes made it pretty plain the core of the game is solid. The game's got a solid gameplay loop and the flight and level design are all nice. Much of what Joe disliked is definitely fixable. The story likely won't get better, but certainly all the stupid loading and shit can be. As for it being content anemic...that should absolutely be fixable, unless they plan on giving up on the title.

Joe takes the hyperbole too far sometimes into outright lies. When browsing the guns you can tell the difference beteeen the AR types easily.

I don't understand why he does this sometimes, especially when he has so much ammunition here.

I definitely didn't see the difference.
 

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,718
The models are largely the same with very minor tweaks. Nothing like other games.

They are easy to see the difference though at a glance, he says you can't do that.

I'm not excusing the crap weapon designs, but why lie to create issues when there are so fucking many to choose from any way?
 

Loudninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,540
Joe takes the hyperbole too far sometimes into outright lies. When browsing the guns you can tell the difference beteeen the AR types easily.

I don't understand why he does this sometimes, especially when he has so much ammunition here.
Umm no you really cant.

He isnt the only one saying this as well.
 

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,262
They are easy to see the difference though at a glance, he says you can't do that.

I'm not excusing the crap weapon designs, but why lie to create issues when there are so fucking many to choose from any way?

He literally scrolled through all three options and aside from a paint job all of them are the same gun model.
 

Twinduct

Member
Oct 27, 2017
541
They are easy to see the difference though at a glance, he says you can't do that.

I'm not excusing the crap weapon designs, but why lie to create issues when there are so fucking many to choose from any way?

There is 3/4 per type, would hardly call that a large choice to pick from. per type.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
Joe takes the hyperbole too far sometimes into outright lies. When browsing the guns you can tell the difference beteeen the AR types easily.

I don't understand why he does this sometimes, especially when he has so much ammunition here.

I don't agree with you at all, but it's a stretch to call this a lie even if you think it's easy to tell the difference. Joe's just giving his feelings on it which I happen to agree with
 

FF Seraphim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
14,030
Tokyo
Okay who left Bioware that held the developer together? Obviously some core members must of left since ME2/3 because I do not think the Bioware of old would let this happen.
 

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,825
Belgium
Hopefully the 'roadmap' Bioware has planned out actually works out for them, because like Joe says right now you're making the game better (hopefully) for fewer and fewer people. That's what's so unfortunate about this 'release now, fix later' model seen in more games. The base game shouldn't be a starter pack that needs tons of expansions or patches for you to have fun, there should be a great core to the game from the first hour on. It just seems that this was just pushed out the door and the roadmap is a pretty name for getting the game in a finished state. It's the dev time that makes it harder the figure out what went wrong, because they had plenty of time to get it right.
 
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astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,718
I definitely didn't see the difference.
Umm no you really cant.

He isnt the only one saying this as well.
He literally scrolled through all three options and aside from a paint job all of them are the same gun model.
There is 3/4 per type, would hardly call that a large choice to pick from. per type.
I don't agree with you at all, but it's a stretch to call this a lie even if you think it's easy to tell the difference. Joe's just giving his feelings on it which I happen to agree with

I'm not saying they're not bad, and far too similar, but y#all can't easily tell the difference between these?

JOr72Rf.jpg


"Can you tell the difference at a glance? No you can't!"

Yes I can.

They terrible designs imo, and look too similar, but you can tell.

Again, he doesn't need to do this when he has so much legit ammo.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
Okay who left Bioware that held the developer together? Obviously some core members must of left since ME2/3 because I do not think the Bioware of old would let this happen.

I still think Bioware is a good developer, they just found themselves in a situation where they had to push something out there door far sooner than it should have been pushed out. I know they've said in interviews that the game has been in development for 6 years, but I strongly suspect that so much of what we see in the final product was made in a much shorter time, perhaps like a year. What happened before that was likely more minimal and perhaps was thrown out at some point to retructure. Perhaps it was originally going to be a traditional single player Mass Effect type game and they had to adapt it into a multiplayer GAAS at (relatively speaking) the last moment. We may never know.
 

SageShinigami

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,822
I'm not saying they're not bad, and far too similar, but y#all can't easily tell the difference between these?

JOr72Rf.jpg


"Can you tell the difference at a glance? No you can't!"

Yes I can.

They terrible designs imo, and look too similar, but you can tell.

Again, he doesn't need to do this when he has so much legit ammo.

.....This ain't the hill I would've died on, but sure. The Hammerhead and the Warden are the same fucking gun, with a slightly different paint job. Whoever designed those should be promoted, 'cause they know how to finesse their bosses out of a check.
 

Dirtyshubb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,555
UK
LMAO, that NPC exchange killed me.

NPC 1: I have a family.
NPC 2: I hope they're better at cards than you are.
*both turn to camera at the same time*

Joe remains one the best reviewers out there.
The fact both characters are holding the exact same pose too is both hilarious and terrible.
 

Techno

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The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,518
Destiny 2s story, while not Oscar-worthy, felt a lot more epic and put the player right in the thick of some amazing moments. The whole attack on the city and then limping through it half dead was terrific imo. I'm pretty sure D2 launched with more content and activities as well...

Agreed, putting aside Forsaken - which was amazing, the vanilla game still was quite decent.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
I'm not saying they're not bad, and far too similar, but y#all can't easily tell the difference between these?

Of course, but what did Joe say? That he thinks they're mostly too similar looking? How is that a lie? You called him a liar. He's just characterizing how he feels about the designs. You may or may not agree with how he feels about them but he's not lying.

And that the guns look too similar is, broadly speaking, a very minor point. If the game didn't have larger problems it wouldn't be a big deal at all. It's a 50 minute video.
 

Kerotan

Banned
Oct 31, 2018
3,951
Great review. I won't be touching Anthem with a barge pole. EA can't catch a break. Better luck next gen with their ips.

I wonder will their next big game be xbox exclusive for the new round of consoles. They did it with titanfall and imo that severly damaged the ip not being on ps4. Hopefully they see sense.
 

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,718
Of course, but what did Joe say? That he thinks they're mostly too similar looking? How is that a lie? You called him a liar. He's just characterizing how he feels about the designs. You may or may not agree with how he feels about them but he's not lying.

And that the guns look too similar is, broadly speaking, a very minor point. If the game didn't have larger problems it wouldn't be a big deal at all. It's a 50 minute video.

He says you can't tell the difference between them at a glance, when you can.

Joe very often uses this kind of OTT hyperbole which can verge or sometimes becomes a lie, and it weakens his points. He doesn't need to do it, and it's bad journalism. But I guess we come for the hyperbole and OTT stuff with Joe, so maybe it's not a huge deal.

It just bothered me.
 

burnsy

Banned
May 31, 2018
438
That was a massacre by joe.

I need to offload this RTX code asap! This game is a disaster
 

Avitus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,975
He says you can't tell the difference between them at a glance, when you can.

Joe very often uses this kind of OTT hyperbole which can verge or sometimes becomes a lie, and it weakens his points. He doesn't need to do it, and it's bad journalism. But I guess we come for the hyperbole and OTT stuff with Joe, so maybe it's not a huge deal.

It just bothered me.

Saying these 3 rifles aren't meaningfully different:
JOr72Rf.jpg


Is not hyperbole or 'over the top'. There is a distinct lack of unique models in Anthem which contributes to the loot feeling terrible.