mattysemo247

If it makes anyone feel any better, it's now down to 62% on Metacritic PC. And the user reviews for all versions are between 3.1 (XB1) and 3.7 (both PC & PS4).

Also found this interesting:

YouTuber paid by EA to review Anthem claims he was told to take down the video and remove watermarks after negative impressions

https://www.vg247.com/2019/02/22/pai...-youtuber/amp/

gryffinmaster

Jeez. BioWare just needs to find a way to go back to the main storyline of Mass Effect, and soon. Everything I'm hearing about Anthem suggests that it has a solid sci-fi story, characters, and world-building, but it clashes with the style of gameplay. They know how momentum and fluidity works in Mass Effect, and this would be the core BioWare team working on it instead of the Montreal division that worked on Andromeda (which was, in my opinion, flawed but underappreciated). Pick an ending to Mass Effect 3 (or come up with a new one), and move on.

Adam Tyner

Hopefully I haven’t made a huge mistake.

Gooter

I didn't cancel my preorder so I'm right there with ya! (on PS4 tho).

Decker

You mean besides buying two copies of the same game?

Adam Tyner

Deftones

First impressions. It looks waaaaaaay better than the demos did. Much more detailed. Seems far more stable. Only had one time it booted me while it was matchmaking. Customization is nice. Tons of stuff to change around. Fort Tarsis sucks still. It is ridiculous to have to be in a basically different game to get missions and such. Walking around there is slow and clunky. I don't like that on Freeplay, you still are teamed with people. Maybe that is a setting you can change or will be available later, who knows. I think the biggest issue is at how disjointed it feels. Like it is 2 completely different games smashed together to make one .

The installation time off disc seemed quicker than most games, too. Maybe that is not true, but it felt that way for me .

Deftones

Been booted 3 times now. Fucking frustrating

Deftones

Ok, another huge stupid issue with the game. You are rolling with a crew. Sometimes you have to go into a specific area. If someone goes in, you get a message saying you are outside of the game area and then it goes to a loading screen, then to where the next part of the mission is. It's really jarring to have that happen repeatedly.

lopper

Another issue with this is the message saying you are outside the area also covers up the bar that shows your heat level. So it's not uncommon to overheat and stall when I'm hauling ass trying to catch up. It's happened right outside of mission areas too.

It's a very aggressive system.

ultimaton

OldBoy

so i guess i got the Legion of Dawn edition for free. Amazon cancelled my order, got the credit back, but it fully downloaded, plus the update, and I was able to start playing. won't get into now, but whatever. free is free.

OldBoy

so another 4 GB update today? wtf? is going on over at BioWare???
anyway, what a royal screwup on Amazon's part, but i won't complain...

OldBoy

well holy shit! i am actually having a lot of fun with this game. mind you, i only played prologue and got to Fort Tarsis, but it was fun. the flying, seamless. load times, while many, never went over 1 minute. but there are a lot of load screens thus far, i will say that. but it is a beautiful world, good mechanics and not bad at all characters. even some having fun/using humor, which you don't see in many of these end of the world type games. color me surprised, this is not bad at all, not bad at all...so far
best money i never spent

Deftones

I just got booted from a Stronghold mission. Ok, that's frustrating. Then, I go to try to log back in and EA is telling me my account is restricted and I can't get online. I think I'm done buying these online games when they first come out. Nobody can get these fucking things right from the start. Such a waste of my time to continually try to log or try to figure out what the fuck is going on.

Looks like it's a common issue. 35 page thread about in in like the last hour: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-...558505/page/35

OldBoy

do you have to have an account to play? bc it didn't even ask me to log into EA account...

Deftones

yes. i've been playing for 2 days. you are already logged into an EA account somewhere. you don't have to sign into it if it's linked to your system.

OldBoy

and does it autosave? i didn't see that icon where it tells you this game autosaves and no in-game option to save and stuff. how do you know when it's safe to quit game and not lose all progress? i guess you can't quit an expedition in middle, huh?

OldBoy

ok. what are your feelings on game and mechanic so fars, aside from the boot outs?

OldBoy

did everyone really stay away from this?

K&AJones

I stayed away from this thread until I was able to sit down and play the game...which I pretty much did the whole weekend starting out Friday night all the way to 10PM last night. It's safe to say about 20hrs in to it....at the moment I'm at Level 21 playing Ranger, Storm and Interceptor.

I'm one of those I would call...The Explorer...types who like to venture out, explore as much as possible, shoot for the challenges, talk to the NPC's, do the side quests pretty much taking in all what the game offers...not one of those Level & Loot Junkies who bypass about 80% of the game and shoot for High Level End-Game Content as fast as you can...

That said....
World Design - Top notch and second to none. I even admit the folks at Bungie have done a outstanding job with the maps and world in Destiny. And so has Bioware with basically "The Other-side of Pandora" (Avatar). And the world fits the movement of the Javelins....a score of 10 of 10
Javelins - four different characters to play with each a unique styles that should fit anyone's playstyle. Each with pros and very little cons that can work solo but shine with various combos either themselves or working with others which really is a great feeling. The Loadouts are not complicated or clutters with too much to take in but about right in terms of having (2) Offensive, (1) Support, (2) Weapons and up to (6) slots for Gear...which is more the Bread & Butter of fine tuning your Javelin to your tastes and style.
Missions, Challenges, Factions and Contracts - there is a lot to do despite some basically bypassing and going for the "Meat" of the game in Strongholds. I spent most of my time dealing with all and found it fine. Some hate and despise NPC's...heck a lot in Fallout 76 were glad the ones from Fallout 4 didn't come over but look at that game...dull and boring. But with Three Factions and all giving you contracts and some of it seems to all tie in not to mention the rewards in Blueprints...it's been fine with me.
Guns and Weapons - Not going to win any WOW Look-at-that-awesome-gun awards. No frills and your basic physical damage output guns that cover what you normally see everywhere else But they do fit each Javelin accordingly to using their strong points.
Freeplay - on paper this should be great but there's areas it needs worked on. I like the ability of popping out on the platform and looking over the vast landscape and basically go anywhere you want and it is a large huge area. Problem is you don't run into many other Javelins and even worse go by an area seeing a Yellow/Orange Icon with a World Event and you're by-yourself...even worse when you have to fight a Titan or some Boss alone. They really need a "flashing Icon/Beacon along with using those Antenna Towers you see everywhere as a "Fellow Freelancer Requires Assistance". If they can get it where others see on the map and can come running to help...it would be so much better.
Quickplay Missions - want to level up and get some bonus XP and standing, this is where you go...when it works. Sadly this part had bugs and issues all day Sunday and part Saturday. About 50% of the time I popped into one, there was no waypoint, marker, enemies or even a audio voice telling us what to do. Just four Javelins flying around trying to trip the darn thing into working. Two of the worst and most annoying..The Hidden Rune and Tassyrn's Agent - Find The Recording were horrible. Of close to (12) times at Tassyrn's Agent...that's the one with the large circular area with the camp in the middle all torn up...only about (3) actually worked. And with The Hidden Run...about (10) times with it and not once did any of them work. Quickplay is like the lynch pin between Missions and Freeplay and if it fails and doesn't work, it's bad.
Blue Screens & Servers - I probably saw the PS4 Blue-screen about three times and got Server Errors of various types about 8-9 times. Annoying yes...but still no-where like it was during the Demo. Sort of expected this with the game just releasing.
Load-Times...ouch - yes, still an issue be it at Loading Expedition but the more annoying one is being transported to the group ahead since some are still hell bent on being first...and also first to go down. But I remember when Destiny 1 came out and seemed like forever stuck in orbit or getting kicked. They've came out with two huge patches which tells me they are working on it while at the same time why was some of this not taken care or or seen earlier?

Al-in-all I had a good time and when you get four Javelins on Hard in a area with lots of enemies, it can be a rush and a great feeling when the floor is wiped clean and everyone saluting each other. And no-doubt when you can feel Like Iron Man in Avatar, it's a great feeling either flying and diving with others or solo. Especially when Bioware created the almost perfect world for the Javelins to venture out in. The Core of Gameplay and Setting is all right there...but no-doubt they need to do some repairing, tweaking, tuning and even adding in some areas. If they can get the load times and technically issues minimized, tweak and tune Freeplay, Quickplay and Missions, maybe enhance some of the weapons though I don't care what they look like...the game can be as fun and solid as anything else out there....especially having matching for any and all aspects of the game.. Be interesting to see what the game looks and plays like in a month from now.

OldBoy

I will say, as much as I’m a fan of the game play, I’m definitely not a fan of all the exposition and in depth stories behind a simple task like finding 3 embers to start the Forge, whatever that is. Or just all the stories prior to a mission. It’s like those are longer than actually expeditions, at least this first one. And this game doesn’t explain what stuff means. Like a sage medal or executioner medal. What does that mean? What’s the best, what’s the worst? Do I have to read all those tabs of info to understand? It’s like pages and pages.
And can you fly to Fort Tarsis from a free play expedition after complete? I try to fly, what I believe is FT, up it, but invisible barriers stop me. Do I just have to exit freeplay to get back to Fort or whatever this Forge is every time?
And it keeps telling me to open cortex for something. I don’t know how to do that. Getting a little frustrating...

K&AJones

Yes there are a lot of questions...areas...that would help explain a bit more like the Medals. In fact I'd like to see some reward after getting X-amount or something.
And flying back to the Fort...I just hit the End Freeplay or whatever, puts me on the platform and tells me what I got, see the loot and pick where I go...

As much as I've been a defender and proponent of the game...I might take a break and see what they'll do with some areas that need addressed. I love the gameplay and action...when it works which in it's current state doesn't have the best track record and constant positive flow. Right now the areas that are the "Bread & Butter" of the game that need fixed are...

Freeplay.....World Events & Bosses are hardly spawning. In the Demo I had no trouble finding and getting into these not to mention almost always seeing others. It's like it's 50% less and fewer not to mention seeing others Freelancers. And when one pops up, it's almost a good chance you're alone since there's no way to put out a "I Need Assistance" help call or some flashing beacon on the map. I've seen a map showing where World Events pop up but good grief; what in every 30-45 minutes?

Quickplay Missions.....Still bugged and glitched where there is no way point, marker, audio telling you what to do, doors won't open and even that Green Radar showing where to go...not even a single enemy. Just the nice landscape with some wind blowing and Javelins flying around trying to figure out whats wrong. The Hidden Rune Mission has never worked for me in Quickplay and safe to say I've been it a good 15 times. The other is Tassyrn's Agent....that's bugged in the circular area where you need to find the recording (marker never shows) and in the Dungeon Area where you need to go thru a Door that never has the button to hit to open it. Las t night a new one popped up...Track Down The Beast....nothing, no icon, waypoint, direction,,,, same nice landscape, some wind and light rain.

Grandmaster Loot Drops....I have not got to this point yet...just a Power Level 248....but have seen it on the forums where they apparently reduced it a lot in terms of chances. And these might not be as long as the RAIDs in Destiny ...told runs about 1.5-2 hours....but apparently you can get the same gear and chance in GR1 as GR2 & 3 so why bother.

I played with a friend last night in a Private Match and nothing came up and gave us any trouble or problems...game ran fine with no server, lag or missing stuff. But we did contracts mainly and that was it...no Quickplay or Freeplay. The game is fun when it works with four Javelins out there but the success rate of getting into something that does works is and hasn't been good. With The Division 2 Open Beta this weekend and trying to convince 1-2 others to grab it, I'll probably park Anthem and see what happens....and go back to some Warframe which never fails me.

OldBoy

and what does Tier 0 mean? is that the worst?

K&AJones

I only know about the Six....Level 1 thru 30...it's the basic Easy, Normal and Hard. After reaching Level 30, it's Grandmaster 1, 2 and 3.

And I read somewhere with the Grandmaster Levels, there's a recommended Power Level at 400 for GR1, 475 for GR2 and 500 for GR3