-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Former BioWare developer Ian Saterdalen reflects on Anthem’s poor reception : “We knew it wasn't ready, as this game was literally created in 15 month
Lucifers Beard
Member
Morrie’s wig shop
Member
I guess for you youngins. But Mass Effect 2 is the start of it for me. It started the end of the Bio-Ware RPG gameplay.
I get it, why Mass Effect 2 is so popular and revered cause the gameplay became so assessable for the casual audience.
Drizzlehell
Banned
In other words, it was more fun to play. Wow, how dare they make a game that doesn't have terrible janky combat and vehicle controls that made you want to eat your own shoes?
Also, it couldn't possibly because the game had like 10x better characters and writing and expanded on an already awesome lore in interesting new ways. No, I guess the only thing that contributed to its success was that it attracted filthy casuals.
What insane level of mismanagement is needed for a game that was in supposed dev for about 7 years, with an internal name of 'bob Dylan' and described as their 'magnum opus', which also pulled all the talent and oxygen from one of their other studios and in doing so destroyed mass effect...yet what they eventually shipped was only 15 months work??
Drizzlehell
Banned
This new trend of devs feeling sorry for themselves for releasing awful games is getting out of control.
anthraticus
Banned
The interesting thing about Baldur's Gate, but especially BG2, is how critical reaction and fan reaction completely went apeshit for the storyline, writing, and other 'emotional engagements' while ignoring a lot of the more 'gamey' aspects, which is where the game really shined.
It's like people played the games, enjoyed the fun interpretation of D&D and excellent itemization, crawled around in some cool dungeons, fought some well-crafted encounters... and then when going to express their opinions they gushed praise for plot and characters that were decent at times but cringe-worthy a little too often too. And the Bioware head honchos took this to heart, catering to those people.
Which led down the road to Bioware fully embracing their westernized dating sim and started headlong down the road to slutty witches, ass pirates and gay guido buttbanging. The "public" got exactly what they clamored for, and everyone else got shafted.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
We could tell.
Drizzlehell
Banned
Wildebeest
Member
Yeah, they believed their own hype. Abandoned their roots. But who cares, this is the game industry, right?
Losing is the new winning.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Tarnpanzer
Member
One of the few games that really played like shit in 30fps on console. Recently bought a PC, fired this up on gamepass out of boredom: Damn, the flying is super nice with a high framerate.
Last edited:
Werewolf Jones
Gold Member
More and more people realize Mass Effect 2 was mid.
Anthem deserved the second chance btw.
Anthem deserved the second chance btw.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
So the employee is making it sound like EA gave them only 15 months to make the game (the game came out in Jan 2019, which means EA execs told them to make from scratch a flying sci-fi game in Oct 2017), when in reality the Anthem project started dev in 2012?
Good recap of the travails of Anthem starting from 2012 in the game's wiki. Blame could probably go round to everyone.
Yet, I dont think in the history of gaming I have ever seen one non-management employee ever say on social media their game sucks because they fucked up and didn't have the talent to make a good game. It's always upper management's fault. Let's face it, it's not like every game studio in the world has elite coders to make AAA games no matter what budget and time you give them.
Considering ME Andromeda ruined the franchise (the 360 era games were solid) even though it had a 5 year dev cycle, it goes to show the studios has issues lately not isolated to Anthem. And they also had a cancelled game called Shadow Realms Their best rated game the past 10 years is the ME Legendary collection pack game.
Anthem (video game) - Wikipedia
phant0m
Member
Yup. I know this is fun thread to drop in and drag some devs, but Anthem's core mechanics are still better than half the shit we've gotten since.
The game's structure and forced co-op for everything was awful but man flying around and blowing stuff up felt GOOD
DeVeAn
Member
My thoughts exactly. Clown world.
Fake
Member
I find more pathetic people defending devs that are asking $70 for a broken game and still blaming 'gamers'.
Poor of them.
Puscifer
Gold Member
Kotor was the downfall of Bioware and I say this as someone who loved Kotor. But if you pay attention that skeleton was something they used for every game since then. The Normandy crew in the original was a direct mirror of the party members of KoToR down to Cart Onasis voice actor playing the same role as Kaiden, you can't say I'm wrong because you likely just realized it after reading my post.
Jade Empire and Dragon Age didn't escape it either
diffusionx
Gold Member
I remember downloading the Anthem demo before it came out, I was thinking about buying it. This was on Xbox One X, and being shocked at how bad it was, in every single way. The game looked awful, ran awful, played like shit, the world looked like trash, combat was horrible, flying was so stupid and pointless, it was just such an unbelievable piece of shit I couldn't believe EA was trying to pass this over on customers (well, maybe it's not too unbelievable).
Drizzlehell
Banned
Actually, it was a bad game because it was a looter shooter that was terrible at being looter shooter. It was a technical mess at launch, it had absurd design choices that didn't make sense in the context of a looter shooter game, and it didn't have any meaningful content to stay relevant for more than a week after launch, not to mention that it was eventually abandoned like a turd in a public swimming pool.
Visuals, controls, combat, jetpacking, and world building/lore were the only things that didn't suck about it.
diffusionx
Gold Member
All that stuff was horrible too, maybe it ran better on PC or something but I was playing it on the most powerful console at the time. It looked horrible, and the flying was stupid. Combat was not fun. The game was just a total disaster in every way.
Last edited:
crackajack
Member
The big companies hopefully learn that good games need their time in the oven. They don't need average crap tarnish their own brand, so no idea why they ever do it. Short term wins, sure, but eg Nintendo can keep their game prices out of bargain bin area because every gamer knows what quality they get.
I have some sympathy for games from Nacon or Focus or whatever. Where 15 months was probably more than usual and the team is probably much smaller. Those games are often in a rough state but still not really that different in thei rcore, sometimes trying more new things than AAA games, but missing some months of polish meaning swapping some not so good mechanics with different ones and removing levels that just don't come together.
A sketch, the playable alpha, is probably done very fast, but after building the working prototype the important bit begins. Cutting that seems super stupid mostly for companies that should be able to finance some of those necessary months.
I have some sympathy for games from Nacon or Focus or whatever. Where 15 months was probably more than usual and the team is probably much smaller. Those games are often in a rough state but still not really that different in thei rcore, sometimes trying more new things than AAA games, but missing some months of polish meaning swapping some not so good mechanics with different ones and removing levels that just don't come together.
A sketch, the playable alpha, is probably done very fast, but after building the working prototype the important bit begins. Cutting that seems super stupid mostly for companies that should be able to finance some of those necessary months.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
Anthum and ME:A at the same time... Dumb EA ..ruined both
yet_another_alt
Member
I bought Anthem twice, once on PS4 and again on PC
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ristifer
Member
digdug2
Member
Yeah, a lot of it is based on your age. For some, Atari 2600 was golden age. For others, NES/Genesis/SNES. My favorite console so far (and it is based on rose-tinted glasses) is probably Dreamcast. I'm still kind of salty that Capcom never explored the Power Stone series any further.
Kadve
Member
IIRC. The game only sold as well as it did because it was constantly on sell pretty much everywhere.
Last edited:
gothmog
Gold Member
Many games go almost immediately on sale and those aren't broken. I don't think I've ever paid full price for an Assassin's Creed game for example.
Well, who decides who gets hired, who tracks the progress of the project, who sets the objectives? In some sense you need central direction, whether from a project lead or upper management. If the team members are taking on a project that's beyond their capabilities, then that's a failure to set achievable objectives or failure to hire the right people. And I feel like the "we couldn't get to grips with the technology" explanation is super common among post mortems. But even mod teams with limited experience can make great games, and first-time indie developers have produced some amazing titles, so I don't buy that you need elite talent to make something satisfying to play. You just need the right constraints.So the employee is making it sound like EA gave them only 15 months to make the game (the game came out in Jan 2019, which means EA execs told them to make from scratch a flying sci-fi game in Oct 2017), when in reality the Anthem project started dev in 2012?
Good recap of the travails of Anthem starting from 2012 in the game's wiki. Blame could probably go round to everyone.
Yet, I dont think in the history of gaming I have ever seen one non-management employee ever say on social media their game sucks because they fucked up and didn't have the talent to make a good game. It's always upper management's fault. Let's face it, it's not like every game studio in the world has elite coders to make AAA games no matter what budget and time you give them.
Considering ME Andromeda ruined the franchise (the 360 era games were solid) even though it had a 5 year dev cycle, it goes to show the studios has issues lately not isolated to Anthem. And they also had a cancelled game called Shadow Realms Their best rated game the past 10 years is the ME Legendary collection pack game.
Anthem (video game) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
When it comes to these video game sob stories, there's probably blame to go on all ends from the grunts to management. Ok, the janitor and cafeteria workers are safe.
But in gaming it sure seems when there's a shit game, management is always to blame. You never hear the other way around because management almost never publicly calls out morons at the office unless it's Elon Musk outing people on Twitter. They act more mature on social media.
Just to show how one sided it is, everyone has had mistakes at work or churned out a bad product, MS office doc or some sessions of bad customer service. It doesn't matter what job it is.
Look at all the mistakes you made. How many of them are truly the bosses fault and how many were oops I kinda fucked it up myself?
Last edited:
Sentenza
Member
NWN and every subsequent one of their games failing to live up to Baldur's Gate 2 showed the downfall of Bioware.
Most people were just too dirty casul to realize.
"Bu-but! Muh action combah and muh cinematic angles!"
Last edited:
Sentenza
Member
And telling people self-indulgent bullshit like "Sure, we spent six years on this shit and we delayed it three times or so, but we did the best we could because we actually worked only for 15 months on the real thing, somehow!".
Last edited:
ZoukGalaxy
Member
Welcome to the Fallout 76 delusional club "it would have been great if !"
Maybe Bioware and all others studios releasing alpha game could make a finished game if you all work together ?
Maybe Bioware and all others studios releasing alpha game could make a finished game if you all work together ?
Last edited:
Schmendrick
Member
I'm still salty about that game. The suit and combat mechanics were absolutely amazing...
But unfortunately that was the whole game, everything else could just as well have been missing completely as undercooked/bad as it was.
But unfortunately that was the whole game, everything else could just as well have been missing completely as undercooked/bad as it was.
TheThreadsThatBindUs
Member
Lol, Deep your quipp game is GOAT-tier!
So you're coming here on Gaf and proudly declaring how you waste your money on arse games?
Why would you display such self-hatred?
The Pleasure
Member
Hawking Radiation
Member
Bethesda with StarField will bring balance to the force. They embrace the chaos.
Barakov
Gold Member
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
To me, it's there way of getting attention saying "Some company, any company, please hire me" (without actually saying to everyone I'm looking for a new job)