The premise of the game--you and a couple of friends grind through flora and fauna for better gear and loot--seems Destiny-like, which is to say pretty generic. Class-based, but instead of focusing on solid gunplay like Destiny, focusing on movement. Is anyone excited for this game? Why or why not?

I'm honestly curious how it stacks up to the gameplay of Destiny. As you said it's very similar in style with more focus on movement and ability use/chaining abilities instead of gunplay. Definitely going to try it out. The thing that will make or break it for me is if it requires teammates to beat some content. With the focus on abilities and chaining them makes it sound like you will always need a buddy. I'm all for playing with people, but sometimes I Just want to run solo and shoot things.

After what happened to/within BioWare RE:Andromeda, I think this one bears waiting for reviews/reactions. Gameplay footage so far doesn't make me hopeful for snappy controls or tight combat like Destiny, which are going to be vital, even if the gunplay-in-a-canyon feel is mitigated by novel traversal mechanics.

I'd wager they'll make an attempt at solo-able content, but given how much Anthem seems to be cribbing from Destiny and Warframe (without much on the surface to differentiate it); I wouldn't expect to get through much of it without teammates in some form.

I'd rather EA get on with Titanfall 3 already.

The premise of the game--you and a couple of friends grind through flora and fauna for better gear and loot--seems Destiny-like, which is to say pretty generic. Class-based, but instead of focusing on solid gunplay like Destiny, focusing on movement. Is anyone excited for this game? Why or why not?

I'm honestly curious how it stacks up to the gameplay of Destiny. As you said it's very similar in style with more focus on movement and ability use/chaining abilities instead of gunplay. Definitely going to try it out. The thing that will make or break it for me is if it requires teammates to beat some content. With the focus on abilities and chaining them makes it sound like you will always need a buddy. I'm all for playing with people, but sometimes I Just want to run solo and shoot things.

I could have sworn I wrote you a reply earlier today. Must not have submitted it. You're right. From what I've heard the gunplay isn't as good (as expected--Bungie sets a high bar), but "supers" refresh very quickly and are kind of the focus. They've said matchmaking for everything so maybe playing alone is never an issue?

I will probably try it, although I doubt it will dethrone Destiny as my "lifestyle" game (which so many games are trying to be). Plus, I don't see it jumping ahead of RDR2 or God of War or fill-in-the-blank in my queue--might happen, but I doubt it.

From the footage I've seen so far, the gameplay looks boring. The battles seem to have more of an RPG tone, as in, you don't actually do the battle. You just tell your character what attacks to do and watch it happen...but with the occasional needing to refocus your aim. I might be off on that, but it's the impression I've gotten so far.

From what I know, I don't think you're on the mark with that one. There's direct control of your character as you would typically expect.

seems to be a similar style of play.

wut

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I apparently promised a firent I would play Anthem with her a year ago when I had a ton of free time for video games. Now I'm reluctant to spend the money on it because I don't have the time, probably whether it's good or bad and she lost interest in Destiny very quickly — which was fine because I was always going to play D2 — if she similarly moves on from Anthem I might not be happy I bought it.

I tried to play the demo yesterday, but I needed to pre-order which was the opposite of what I was going for.

I was just saying I wish PS had the xbox game pass and that Anthem would be part of it. I forgot EA has one just for their stuff.

I don't mean to be the downer.

I thought if I gave it some more time, maybe I'd get used to it. Nope. This game just straight up feels bad to play and isn't fun.

I miss old BioWare. ):

Nothing about it feels good, to be honest.

I'm glad I spent the $5 to get EA Access and try out the demo--now I know I can pass.

Maybe The Division 2 will be good.

I tried it for a couple of hours, and boy is it not a good time. The Novelty of taking off at any time wears off quickly once you start to Overheat constantly, and what's worse? In a game ostensibly about mobility and flight, you are grounded and locked into small enclosed areas thanks to a persistent "Return to battlefield" prompt, and a blinding smoke effect if you fly just slightly too high.

So now you're stuck in close proximity to enemies, but your melee has a cooldown(!). So you pull back to a map corner, and peek from cover to kill the enemies standing uselessly while their AI reboots, only to be knocked off the edge by an enemy AoE attack. Return to battlefield! So you make it back, only to be killed by enemy splash damage... And there you sit, watching the "Respawning" meter for minutes on end while your teammates peek from cover at the bullet sponge that downed you. And there's more waves spawning.

Fun.

Also, the thing that kills the game for me is that it is a 60+fps game trapped in a <30fps body. How do they fix the speed and lack of optimization? The motionest motion blur to ever mote. It's unacceptable. And here's the thing, in games like Red Dead 2, or Spider-Man, you eventually adapt to the blur, and it becomes imperceptible. Here, firing your gun? Motion blur. Turning around? Motion blur. That Heavy Javelin across the room from you fire his 100 round Nuke launcher? Motion blur and screen shake!
Are you casually walking in the town? You guessed it!

And the bugs and crashes and god-awful writing and dialogue...

Anyway, this moment was just the cherry on top of my time with the game:

The Division is a really good comparison.

That and Anthem are much more RPGs than Destiny is, in that there seems to be a higher focus on the way skills and gear score affect how things feel. Enemies felt very spongy, and you are encouraged to use powers a lot more. Guns feels weak and sort of unresponsive, whereas with Destiny, even the worst, weakest guns fundamentally feel good.

They’re obviously very different, but I would actually say I like the way the Division feels more than Anthem. I’ve been playing that a decent amount recently, so some of that is probably down to the learning curve and feeling comfortable with controls. But still, I just don’t think Anthem feels all that great, and if this demo is any indication of its performance, I would definitely wait for a patch that addresses that. It was not running well on my One X.

I hope it’s good, I really do. I had decently high hopes for this game, especially after getting back into Mass Effect 3 multiplayer recently. As it stands, I’ll just keep playing that instead of getting Anthem.

It is interesting that Bungie seems to be trendsetting yet again, although this time for the worse.

Can you expand on that statement? I'm not seeing it. I'm going to need direct examples because you can't just generalize such a broad game type.

I tried the demo, but it just didn’t hook me. I only have room in my life for 1 lifestyle game so I’ll pass on this one.

Completely agree. The UI sux. (D2's current UI is worse than D1, but Candland set such a high bar they've got a long way to fall). I couldn't distinguish friend from foe. Facial animation was pretty great. I felt like I didn't know anything about what the story was supposed to be about. I think Bungie made a great choice grounding their game in our solar system. i found the voice over irritating. Just didn't like it.