Support NeoGAF

[Not]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

New IP is better IMO. Don't know how I feel about the always-online Destiny setup

 

[awilliams213]

Very cool I liked his work in the Mass Effect series. One of the only video game “novels” I ever read.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

Well that's encouraging. I know it was only a brief preview and a first look at that, but I was a bit disappointed they didn't go into any of the story or lore you'd expect from a Bioware game. Karpyshyn working on the story's good news.

 

[gogosox82]

Well this is a good sign. Hopefully that means the story won't be trash.

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

I am convinced that Bioware was done with ME but EA wanted another one so they gave it a smaller studio and the rest is history.

 

[K.Jack]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

They were actively pulling resources OFF of Andromeda, to work on Anthem, so the easy answer is that Edmonton didn't give a fuck about Andromeda.

 

[Sanctuary]

Well this is a good sign. Hopefully that means the story won't be trash.



I am convinced that Bioware was done with ME but EA wanted another one so they gave it a smaller studio and the rest is history.

So why does it seem like Anthem is the result of the reaction to Bioware announcing that they were wanting to make a more shooter focused game based on the Mass Effect universe? For some reason, people just didn't like that, yet are now going gaga over Anthem? LOL.

http://kotaku.com/5692552/rumor-biowares-new-mass-effect-is-a-multiplayer-spin-off

 

[Professor Renegade]

 

[monome]

You mean it poisoned the well in that it made a lot of money, and only magically retroactively soured the experience of those few outspoken few after the game was already over? In terms of Andromeda, I couldn't even make it past the first ten hours. It's simply boring.

Yup.
Pb is how do you build a fun 3rd person exploration/shooter game when your design has to be built around openness and replayability?

How does Anthem treat random encounters and make them fun when you can fly your way out?
If flying is just a gimmick when leaving the Citadel so how do they treat retreating back?
Destiny' s hub world through retreating to space kills the momentum when it comes to exploring its world.
And it's maps are too small to build camps.

Does Anthem utilize outposts to alleviate skips and favor exploration? Then what makes its Citadel worth the trip? Etc...

Anyway, as long as the game allows for solo play or allows matchmaking for allé its activities, then I'm in.
Can't resist sci-fi...

 

[VincentMatts]

As cool as Anthem looks, there's a part of me that worries it will go the same way as Destiny and be all about mindlessly grinding the same content over and over again after finishing a short, disappointing main story.

We don't know how much focus will be on "just shoot shit with your mates", but I really hope Bioware are aiming higher than to simply clear that low bar.

I still remember how excited I was when booting up Destiny for the first time, how much hope I had for an enjoyable future in that huge universe of adventure that Bungie had supposedly been crafting.

I feel that hope again, watching the Anthem gameplay trailer. I crave something as special as it promises to be, as Destiny promised before it. I'll take the news that Drew K is one of the writers as a good omen, and keep my fingers crossed as I wait for more news.

exactly how i feel

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

Although Mass Effect is beloved, it aint the money generator that EA wants it to be.



But this is good news because mass effect 1 and 2 were damn good when it came to story.

I can't wait to be a complete asshole and hang up on the anthems version of the council.

 

[flkraven]

As cool as Anthem looks, there's a part of me that worries it will go the same way as Destiny and be all about mindlessly grinding the same content over and over again after finishing a short, disappointing main story.

We don't know how much focus will be on "just shoot shit with your mates", but I really hope Bioware are aiming higher than to simply clear that low bar.

I still remember how excited I was when booting up Destiny for the first time, how much hope I had for an enjoyable future in that huge universe of adventure that Bungie had supposedly been crafting.

I feel that hope again, watching the Anthem gameplay trailer. I crave something as special as it promises to be, as Destiny promised before it. I'll take the news that Drew K is one of the writers as a good omen, and keep my fingers crossed as I wait for more news.

This exactly.

I keep forcing myself to not get excited. I'm just assuming the worst until proven otherwise.

 

[ignata]

Wow, immensely pumped about this. That news just shot this game to the top of what I'm looking forward to.

 

[Alpha Phoenix]

This is indeed pretty big news. I like Drew K's work. They're really putting the A team on this one.

 

[Raven117]

Im definitely curious how this is going to play out. We have all been here before...Remember the Division?

Lets assume Bioware can get a good story in there....Awesome! That is their strength...but you know what isn't? Shooters. Mass Effect 2 and 3's combat was serviceable and fun enough...but the question is whether its good enough to grind the endgame for hours on end (I just can't see any other way around this for a game of this type).

IMO, the reason Destiny survived the fallout of its initial release was that it just felt awesome to play. It felt as good as to shoot the juice box out of a vex at hour 100 as it did in hour 1. Mix in some Skinner Box loot, solid co-op, and actually challenging end game content (Raids and Nightfalls with orbit wipe to keep the more "hardcore" engaged) and folks just came flocking back.

Bungie had the shooter expertise to make this work.

Don't get me wrong, I am very curious and will for sure be there day 1 with Anthem, but man...I sure hope Bioware can make shooting things "fun."

 

[SmackAttack]

As cool as Anthem looks, there's a part of me that worries it will go the same way as Destiny and be all about mindlessly grinding the same content over and over again after finishing a short, disappointing main story.

We don't know how much focus will be on "just shoot shit with your mates", but I really hope Bioware are aiming higher than to simply clear that low bar.

I still remember how excited I was when booting up Destiny for the first time, how much hope I had for an enjoyable future in that huge universe of adventure that Bungie had supposedly been crafting.

I feel that hope again, watching the Anthem gameplay trailer. I crave something as special as it promises to be, as Destiny promised before it. I'll take the news that Drew K is one of the writers as a good omen, and keep my fingers crossed as I wait for more news.

How I feel as well. I know comparing this to Destiny so early could be a bit much as I'm not even sure if I like doing it but hey. I'm liking what I'm hearing about Anthem right now so I'm going to stay hopeful.

 

[Chumley]

http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-lead-writer-drew-karpyshyn-is-working-on-anthem/

In addition to the first 2 Mass Effect games, Drew also worked on the original Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate 2, Jade Empire, and The Old Republic MMO.

I was totally apathetic about the gameplay trailer but this has me kind of excited.

 

[SmoothRunningGun]

This game is going to be epic.

 

[The Flash]

This pleases me

 

[10k]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

Cause he's on the Edmonton team and Casey Hudson abandoned the Montreal team during development. Meaning the game was directed and written by a new person 18 months before it released.

 

[Sterling's_Gold]

Cause he's on the Edmonton team and Casey Hudson abandoned the Montreal team during development. Meaning the game was directed and written by a new person 18 months before it released.

What?

Drew Karpyshyn hasn't been on the Edmonton "team" for quite a while, as his primary contributions post ME2 have been SWtOR at Austin. Casey Hudson left Bioware completely some time ago and before that he was heading up Anthem, so how did he "abandon" Montreal?

Anyway I think Drew K is a solid writer that is pretty good at narrative/plotting so this is good news for Anthem. Since he's been at Austin since returning to Bioware and EA has that Star Wars license, I really thought he (along with the Austin studio) would be working on new KotOR esque game. Especially with Drew's love for Star Wars.

 

[Machina]

Okay now I'm really interested

 

[jmood88]

Other than it being another scifi game, I don't actually see how the fact that it's the Mass Effect team matters. Anthem itself doesn't appear so far that it will be much more than their attempt at Destiny money. It certainly looks nice, but that should be the last qualifier on whether a game is actually good or not.

Because the other games that this group made are my favorite games, so I'm excited to play whatever the team that made my favorite games does next.

 

[Ralemont]

Just to add to the excitement, Alexander Freed was a writer for Anthem as well. He wrote the Imperial Agent storyline for SWTOR, which was excellent so this is awesome.

 

[V-Faction]

Do it Drew. Fight for us. Fight for the Lost.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

If Mass Effect comes back, hopefully he does too, great news for Anthem

 

[Iksenpets]

As cool as Anthem looks, there's a part of me that worries it will go the same way as Destiny and be all about mindlessly grinding the same content over and over again after finishing a short, disappointing main story.

We don't know how much focus will be on "just shoot shit with your mates", but I really hope Bioware are aiming higher than to simply clear that low bar.

I still remember how excited I was when booting up Destiny for the first time, how much hope I had for an enjoyable future in that huge universe of adventure that Bungie had supposedly been crafting.

I feel that hope again, watching the Anthem gameplay trailer. I crave something as special as it promises to be, as Destiny promised before it. I'll take the news that Drew K is one of the writers as a good omen, and keep my fingers crossed as I wait for more news.

Pretty much this. On the one hand, BioWare pretty successfully crammed more story than I thought possible into an MMO framework with The Old Republic, so it's not inconceivable that they could do that again with a Destiny-like, but they didn't focus on that at all in their presentation. It was all about multiplayer and loot and what have you. Bringing back Karpyshyn gives some hope that they're still doing real BioWare stuff, and that the focus on making better Destiny was just EA marketing.

I think one of the bigger risks to BioWare as a studio right now is if Anthem comes out and is a great, polished multiplayer loot game, but with none of the BioWare story stuff for their core fans. Their fanbase is passionate, and we've seen with the Mass Effect 3 ending how successfully they can commandeer the conversation around a game if they feel slighted. Their reaction if they feel like an Anthem that doesn't hold their interest was given so much focus and so many resources to the apparent detriment of things like Andromeda.

 

[K.Jack]

There's a lot of pressure with this one, on Bioware's shoulders.

If they screw up with EA's direct chance to grab that Destiny money, I fear that'll be RIP for the company.

That really explains why they pulled so much talent and resources off of Andromeda.

 

[Kas]

Fuck yeah.

I loved his Darth Bane books, and I loved Mass Effect 2 so much.

 

[Lime]

People should keep in mind that Drew worked on The Old Republic, so the writing approach that might be more expected and more likely with Anthem will be TOR's MMO-like narrative, and not a singleplayer campaign narrative like KOTOR or Mass Effect.

 

[mcfrank]

People should keep in mind that Drew worked on The Old Republic, so the writing approach that might be more expected and more likely with Anthem will be TOR's MMO-like narrative, and not a singleplayer campaign narrative like KOTOR or Mass Effect.

Some of the storylines in TOR were fantastic.

 

[SargerusBR]

People should keep in mind that Drew worked on The Old Republic, so the writing approach that might be more expected and more likely with Anthem will be TOR's MMO-like narrative, and not a singleplayer campaign narrative like KOTOR or Mass Effect.

Some of the storylines in TOR were fantastic.

AFAIK he only worked on the KOTFE and KOTET expansions.

 

[DangerMouse]

As cool as Anthem looks, there's a part of me that worries it will go the same way as Destiny and be all about mindlessly grinding the same content over and over again after finishing a short, disappointing main story.

We don't know how much focus will be on "just shoot shit with your mates", but I really hope Bioware are aiming higher than to simply clear that low bar.

I still remember how excited I was when booting up Destiny for the first time, how much hope I had for an enjoyable future in that huge universe of adventure that Bungie had supposedly been crafting.

I feel that hope again, watching the Anthem gameplay trailer. I crave something as special as it promises to be, as Destiny promised before it. I'll take the news that Drew K is one of the writers as a good omen, and keep my fingers crossed as I wait for more news.

Yeah. Hoping this turns out great.

 

[The Greek Freak]

Well this is a good sign. Hopefully that means the story won't be trash.



I am convinced that Bioware was done with ME but EA wanted another one so they gave it a smaller studio and the rest is history.

If it's good people like Hudson and Walters will spew liquid shit on it eventually. Its EA.

 

[Phamit]

AFAIK he only worked on the KOTFE and KOTET expansions.

He also worked on the original release after he was finished with ME2 and before he left BW

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Honestly, though, I'm still cautious. I just don't know what to think about this game right now. Catch me on any other conversation and you'll see I am a diehard BioWare fan. I love most of their output. I hopped on the train with Mass Effect 1 in 2009, and while I've been disappointed with both Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect Andromeda, the developer has still given me four of my top 15 games.

But that's the thing. I love them because they give me stories and characterization, and they try to do so on the AAA gaming scale. The results are mixed, and I usually find at least something I wish were more catered to my tastes, but the lore and worldbuilding in Dragon Age and the character development and coolness in Mass Effect both blow me away.

The shared world aim of Anthem has me questioning whether or not we'll see squadmates/companions that aren't real people telling me they got a new gun. And first looks seem to suggest a lack of dialogue options. (We'll see.)

This is where I'm at. I love BioWare and I love Destiny, but... The things I love about BioWare games are squadmates and conversations. If it turns out that those are going to be significant elements of Anthem, then yeah I'm excited. If not, then I don't know what BioWare being the dev is actually bringing to the table here.

 

[SargerusBR]

He also worked on the original Game after he was finished with ME2 and before he left BW

Hmm didn't knew that. I guess it explains why there was a massive drop in quality in the Hutt Cartel and Revan storylines.

 

[darkinstinct]

I thought he left Bioware years ago? Great if true, love his work.

 

[Ushay]

exactly how i feel

Well the biggest difference between this and Destiny is that Bioware can write a far better story and stick with the lore (darkness lol).

I have a really good feeling about this game.

 

[Sou Da]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

Because Karpyshyn likes building worlds and then retreating to that sweet allure of Star Wars apparently.

 

[Adam M]

I thought that this will be just a Division-Destiny- titanfall style game with just missions.

But if it will have a good single player story then maybe I care about this.

The reveal was nothing special, I need more then just great visuals but for most people the visuals itself was enough to shout the Game of the year comments

 

[Ralemont]

Because Karpyshyn likes building worlds and then retreating to that sweet allure of Star Wars apparently.

Additionally, Mass Effect doesn't exactly light sales charts on fire. A new IP that potentially retains a significant portion of the BW fanbase while capturing a portion of the Destiny playerbase has a sales upside that Andromeda couldn't touch.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

So excited right now lol

This book is the reason I even bought the first mass effect, because I wasn't so sure about it, seeing that it appeared so heavily focused on shooting mechanics. I was worried that it wouldn't be the style of game that I had come to enjoy from Bioware. This book made me a believer, and sold me on the entire concept.

 

[Goldenroad]

So excited right now lol

This book is the reason I even bought the first mass effect, because I wasn't so sure about it, seeing that it appeared so heavily focused on shooting mechanics. I was worried that it wouldn't be the style of game that I had come to enjoy from Bioware. This book made me a believer, and sold me on the entire concept.

I really didn't like that book at all, but I do love the Mass Effect trilogy and have nothing but love and respect for Bioware Edmonton. I'm very excited about this news.

 

[Aztechnology]

Why didn't Bioware throw these resources at Andromeda instead of a new IP?

Either way though, I am excited. I am a fan of Karpyshyn's work.

It was going to be a looter-shooter, either way, that's the current trend of the industry. While I wouldn't have necessarily minded one set in the Mass Effect Universe, it probably felt at odds with the legacy of the franchise. Plus some fatigue.

 

[molnizzle]

Darth Bane in the house.

 

[spekkeh]

I hope Karpyshyn wasn't responsible for that robotlike banter between the actors in the gameplay demo.

 

[Jarmel]

yo fuck

if he's lead writer....

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I really didn't like that book at all, but I do love the Mass Effect trilogy and have nothing but love and respect for Bioware Edmonton. I'm very excited about this news.

I did. It made me care about the universe and appreciated far more the man that captain anderson was.

It's pretty much the same way that I was made to care about the halo universe. Without reading fall of reach, I wouldn't be such a big fan of the Halo titles now.

 

[RuhRo]

Holding tight on this until after release, when full reviews confirm whether it has a single player story emphasis commensurate with previous Bioware games. Squad co-op is fine but I want branching plotlines and romance.

If it's predominantly online multiplayer shootbang then I'm out.

 

[hydruxo]

Holding tight on this until after release, when full reviews confirm whether it has a single player story emphasis commensurate with previous Bioware games. Squad co-op is fine but I want branching plotlines and romance.

If it's predominantly online multiplayer shootbang then I'm out.

This isn't Mass Effect or Dragon Age. If that's what you want, you might be disappointed. Best to wait until we get more details and gameplay before expecting anything like that.