Manstructiclops
Banned
Got in on my PS4 Pro, holy shit the pop in is almost UE3 early days kind of bad. HDR implementation seems good though.
-
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.
Anthem Demo Impressions Thread
- Thread starter Typhares
- Start date
figured it out...I went into the settings and changed the 3 swimming mouse sensitivity options to 0...so for normal traversal I raised all the Mouse sensitivity options to 100 but when swimming those 3 need to be at 0
The demo is using the old flying/swimming controls for keyboard and mouse.
When you are flying or swimming the circles in the center of the screen mimic an analog controller. You have to make very small movements.
They have already changed it but not for the demos.
FeldMonster
Member
Only the Storm flies right? I was using the Ranger.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Saw a few vids. Looks okay. Basically looks like Destiny but with flashier graphics.
Gamers I saw kept spamming some kind of big lightning bolt thing at enemies.
The gunplay might have the weakest sounding guns I've ever heard. I don't understand how game makers in shooters can give gamers control of ball busting rifles shooting bullets or lasers and it sounds like someone tapping lightly on a table. A cap gun bought from a dollar store is louder.
Gamers I saw kept spamming some kind of big lightning bolt thing at enemies.
The gunplay might have the weakest sounding guns I've ever heard. I don't understand how game makers in shooters can give gamers control of ball busting rifles shooting bullets or lasers and it sounds like someone tapping lightly on a table. A cap gun bought from a dollar store is louder.
Kagey K
Banned
All of them fly. Jump and click in L stick if you are using a controller. Not sure what kB/m controls are.
Ozymandias013
Banned
People should understand this demo was made before 2019,the final game will be different,in the final version you will be able to actually run in Tarsis,this is just a demo they wanted us to feel how is the gameplay ,and I love it till now,got easily bored of Destiny,Division yet I can't stop playing this demo,I just love flying,I managed to fly from one end to another without touching the ground with my interceptor ,I'm pissed that I want to unlock more things but I can't
Nydus
Member
Dude it's ok to like the game. I pre-ordered too. But we don't have to understand shit. This demo is a snapshot from 8 weeks before release. In the timespan of game development this is NOTHING. We all know that this game had a very very rocky development cycle and it's impressive what they achieved in the time and circumstances. But if they want AAA full price they have to deliver. The launch of the game will be shit and the first weeks absolutely atrocious riddled with bugs and starved for content.
But I think most of us will have fun regardless. And I have enough disposable income that I don't have sleepless nights if I quit the game after 20 hours. And if I take people's word for everything, in accordance to the battlefield 5 subreddit, the game is unplayable and hot garbage but I dropped an ungodly amount of hours into it since I snagged it for 30 bucks around X-mas
The "demo" is from a six week old build. So your "before 2019" is barely before 2019. The lack of polish, such as enemies disappearing, is not acceptable this close to release.
Screamer-RSA
Member
Nope people should judge what is in front of them. This is not and indie dev with no budget, stop making excuses for these billion dollar companies. They can't say here is a demo of Anthem, but when people point out all the broken shit, "ohhh but this is old code, its fixed, we promise"
nowhat
Member
EA's fiscal year ends in March - now, I'm not saying EA would force a release of a game, just to be able to show investors that "we now have our own GaaS loot shooter, which will continue to bring us revenue during the next fiscal year, since this year has hardly met your expectations"...
...oh wait, that's exactly what I'm saying.
Typhares
Member
Same thing today, even tried to launch in free play instead.
So I literally cannot try the demo with this bug. Hope you had more luck with it.
AltogetherAndrews
Member
Well, I love it (post connection issues). Bugs and warts of the demo aside, the gameplay is pretty damned nice. Good sense of weight and mass to gunplay and movement, and the world itself is beautiful.
I don't see myself playing this solo at all, since some of the encounters become punishingly difficult with people dropping out.
I don't see myself playing this solo at all, since some of the encounters become punishingly difficult with people dropping out.
Optimistic Gamer
Member
Played on my original Xbox One. Don't do that to yourself. The one S drops down to 24 fps often in open world combat so I would assume it was even a little worse for me.
Got dizzy after a few minutes of play. The performance in combination with the motion blur is too bad to actually still understand what is happening around you. Most of the time I was just standing there like a turret because this way I could at least keep track of what was happening in front of me and do some damage.
Actually sad. Would have bought this game just because my usual gaming squad is already commited to playing this (yay preorder culture...).
From my assumption Crossplay will happen never/very late so it'll be no option. My PC would have performed just fine.
I'll say good bye to my mates for a few months it seems...
Got dizzy after a few minutes of play. The performance in combination with the motion blur is too bad to actually still understand what is happening around you. Most of the time I was just standing there like a turret because this way I could at least keep track of what was happening in front of me and do some damage.
Actually sad. Would have bought this game just because my usual gaming squad is already commited to playing this (yay preorder culture...).
From my assumption Crossplay will happen never/very late so it'll be no option. My PC would have performed just fine.
I'll say good bye to my mates for a few months it seems...
Nydus
Member
Yap, the heavy motion blur in combination with the low FOV is really bad. Luckily on PC you can disable motion blur with post processing on medium.
Last edited:
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
HDR on Pro looks really nice. Was playing on my 4K monitor but switched to my x900F and the colors pop.
ruvikx
Banned
What's gross is the fact the base Xbox One is powerful enough to get smooth framerates (even 60 fps) if the devs are ready to adapt their resolution & in-game graphics settings to the hardware. Recent AAA games on these base consoles have recently started to make them look like toasters incapable of running anything at all without shit fps (God of War on the base ps4 was another big title with bad performance on the 2013 machine). It's not the fault of the hardware.
There needs to be some sort of oversight from the console manufacturers to force game publishers to release a competent version with solid fps (whether 30 or 60) on their hardware & stop chasing pretty textures & higher resolutions > performance. I get sick & tired of "I need a PC to run this game well" when a console should never be competing with a high-end PC in the first place.
Why force 1080p/1440p/4K if it murders the fps? Why force medium/high textures or particle effects when it murders the fps? etc. Games aren't a slideshow.
Mochilador
Member
Is this a demo or a beta? Are they going to remove this after a certain date?
Shmunter
Member
There was a recent Digital Foundry article essentially stating that devs are no longer optimising games for the esram architecture of the Xbox/s. Without tailoring games to this setup the Xbox is significantly hobbled due to the slow ram access.
Reason points towards the much larger PS4 as the lead platform with its straightforward gddr5 ram setup and basic no effort down ports to Xbox.
Seems a reasonable assumption meaning things will simply get worse. MS is stuck in a bad place with this console like an anchor around their necks. Taking it out back and shooting it would be the obvious solution, but the logistics of the installed user base are not so simple.
SkinnerSw33t
Member
Agree with a lot of your points, so I'll just touch the ones I don't.
Granted, the demo did not explain this at all, but do you understand the priming and detonating aspect?
Makes a big difference. If solo, you have to prime and detonate yourself. There are some YT videos about this.
As long as you're fighting, the trash mobs are dropping ammo. Didn't experience this problem.
Even with Urxis, there were scars constantly popping in a nearby area.
We got matchmade with one guy who was running everywhere. I thought he was trolling us.
Granted, the demo did not explain this at all, but do you understand the priming and detonating aspect?
Makes a big difference. If solo, you have to prime and detonate yourself. There are some YT videos about this.
As long as you're fighting, the trash mobs are dropping ammo. Didn't experience this problem.
Even with Urxis, there were scars constantly popping in a nearby area.
We got matchmade with one guy who was running everywhere. I thought he was trolling us.
SkinnerSw33t
Member
It's called a demo but feels like a beta.
It ends today and then reopens next Friday through Sunday.
Unless they add a day or so to the VIP demo, but I think I read they added an extra VIP vinyl instead.
ruvikx
Banned
It makes sense (in a similar scenario the ps3 set itself up for an auto-fubar in the multiplat comparisons last gen as a result of its own architecture), but, there's still something like 40 million Xbox Ones in the wild. That's a lot of potential customers who're being disregarded by the devs. Considering how shitty some of the Xbox One versions are now (Anthem in this case), some people might have forgotten how the console can actually produce good results when the development teams puts some effort into it, i.e. for example Gears of War 4 is a really, really good looking game on the One S, with good performance as well.
Bioware & publishers like EA should have some more pride in their work & respect potential buyers more. That was also valid criticism last gen when Sony was fed shit ports of big games (for example Skyrim, which Bethesda shamelessly sold on the ps3 when it clearly wasn't right). Also in cases where they should drop the resolution or graphics settings to get a stable fps, they must (this applies to both the base Xbox & PS4 as well). I won't forget Mass Effect Andromeda (another Bioware) had crap performance on the 2013 PS4.
ultrazilla
Gold Member
More impressions from playing the demo on PC:
I'm running it maxed out on my i7-7700 @3.6ghz, 16 gig ram, 1 terabyte drive, Windows 10 64 bit operating system, Nvidia RTX 2080 Founder's Edition,
Dell GSync 2k monitor @165mhz.
-The PC version *IS* the definitive version by a long shot. Everything looks so crystal clear, runs smooth, graphics are colorful-sharp and varied. The play
control is tight with my wired Xbox One X controller doubling as the PC controller. I attempted to play with mouse and keyboard(usually my default for PC) but
this game just feels better to me with controller.
-The combat loop feels so satisfying. As a hardcore Destiny player(where the combat feels amazing) I can safely say that Anthem captures the pure joy in shooting
enemies and engaging in varied combat-whether it be hovering in the air raining down missles and ultimates or dropping to the ground as a foot soldier plowing
head first into combat.
-I can see myself playing Anthem a ton and it taking over as my primary "time sink" compared to Destiny on my PS4 Pro.
Now some things I think the game could use and hope gets implemented:
-Getting loot drops needs to be more satisfying. The current system frankly sucks. You don't know what loot you get until after your done doing the current mission. Loot drops need to be immediate, highly satisfying, visual based(purple or orange glowing drops or beams of light going high into the air).
-Enemies need to be talking amongst themselves or addressing you. Right now they are silent bullet sponges. No growling, no feedback from getting shot or killed, no visual flare when you head shot an enemy or rip them apart with a machine gun. I'm used to the very satisfying Destiny gunplay where you can hit a Cabal in the head and get a very satisfying steam venting hissing off in the air when you kill one.
-World events need audio or visual cues to announce their arrival.
-Bastion needs more dynamic weather. Rain, Thunderstorms, wind, etc.
-The game needs more or louder ambient sound effects.
-Way pointing IMO still needs work. It's still too easy to get lost in a squad with your teammates going in different directions to what they think is the next way point.
-You should be able to run in Fort Tarsis. Walking just feels soooo slooooooooow.
-In free roam, you should be able to see other live players in the world with you like Destiny does with their planets.
-The game will suffer from LOWER REVIEW SCORES BECAUSE THE CONSOLE VERSIONS ARE SO FAR BEHIND THE PC VERSION IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE. I can't stress this enough. The PC is the DEFINITIVE version of ANTHEM. The PS4 and Xbox versions of the game are way behind in terms of frame rate and overall look/resolution. This will IMHO unfairly impact the review scores of Anthem. For a fix, Bioware needs to be working on a "performance or graphics" mode for Anthem for the consoles.
Cheers!
I'm running it maxed out on my i7-7700 @3.6ghz, 16 gig ram, 1 terabyte drive, Windows 10 64 bit operating system, Nvidia RTX 2080 Founder's Edition,
Dell GSync 2k monitor @165mhz.
-The PC version *IS* the definitive version by a long shot. Everything looks so crystal clear, runs smooth, graphics are colorful-sharp and varied. The play
control is tight with my wired Xbox One X controller doubling as the PC controller. I attempted to play with mouse and keyboard(usually my default for PC) but
this game just feels better to me with controller.
-The combat loop feels so satisfying. As a hardcore Destiny player(where the combat feels amazing) I can safely say that Anthem captures the pure joy in shooting
enemies and engaging in varied combat-whether it be hovering in the air raining down missles and ultimates or dropping to the ground as a foot soldier plowing
head first into combat.
-I can see myself playing Anthem a ton and it taking over as my primary "time sink" compared to Destiny on my PS4 Pro.
Now some things I think the game could use and hope gets implemented:
-Getting loot drops needs to be more satisfying. The current system frankly sucks. You don't know what loot you get until after your done doing the current mission. Loot drops need to be immediate, highly satisfying, visual based(purple or orange glowing drops or beams of light going high into the air).
-Enemies need to be talking amongst themselves or addressing you. Right now they are silent bullet sponges. No growling, no feedback from getting shot or killed, no visual flare when you head shot an enemy or rip them apart with a machine gun. I'm used to the very satisfying Destiny gunplay where you can hit a Cabal in the head and get a very satisfying steam venting hissing off in the air when you kill one.
-World events need audio or visual cues to announce their arrival.
-Bastion needs more dynamic weather. Rain, Thunderstorms, wind, etc.
-The game needs more or louder ambient sound effects.
-Way pointing IMO still needs work. It's still too easy to get lost in a squad with your teammates going in different directions to what they think is the next way point.
-You should be able to run in Fort Tarsis. Walking just feels soooo slooooooooow.
-In free roam, you should be able to see other live players in the world with you like Destiny does with their planets.
-The game will suffer from LOWER REVIEW SCORES BECAUSE THE CONSOLE VERSIONS ARE SO FAR BEHIND THE PC VERSION IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE. I can't stress this enough. The PC is the DEFINITIVE version of ANTHEM. The PS4 and Xbox versions of the game are way behind in terms of frame rate and overall look/resolution. This will IMHO unfairly impact the review scores of Anthem. For a fix, Bioware needs to be working on a "performance or graphics" mode for Anthem for the consoles.
Cheers!
Last edited:
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
There is a motion blur toggle on console as well.
Nydus
Member
Wow that's nice to hear. But is it true that it's not completely off since you need access to the post processing option?
Ascend
Member
Here are my impressions of the demo... I played on PC.
Gameplay
The game feels good to play. Even though I heard bad things about the mouse and keyboard controls, it works well enough. I needed to get used to the flying, but after a while it works fine. I do dislike the discrepancy between the mouse sensitivity in different modes. But other than that, the javelins control well. It's not hard to learn.
The enemies are varied and do require different tactics, at least on the hard setting. Normal was a bit too easy.
One thing that I disliked was the difficulty scaling. It doesn't seem properly implemented at all times. During free play, I was playing solo at first, and someone joined my game. Even though we were on completely different places on the map, and I started a 'mini mission' somewhere underground and the other player didn't join, the game obviously scaled the difficulty for multiple players rather than only one. It was literally impossible to kill the boss, because as soon as he was out of sight, his health would regenerate at an extremely fast rate. So you can't take cover for long, but he shoots like a tank... So... Yeah.
Walking around Fort Tarsis was bit too slow for my liking, in terms of walking speed. I was constantly wishing I could run instead.
I used the Storm as the second Javelin, and it plays completely differently compared to the Ranger. This is a good thing. Too bad the demo only allows you to try two of them. I'm not someone that will likely use the Colossus, but I definitely wanted to try the Interceptor as well.
Story & Characters
There isn't much here, really. You get one main story mission in the demo it seems, and it was ok. Nothing great or major here. Things are well integrated though. So the Fort Tarsis gameplay and the Javelin gameplay work quite well together in telling small stories. It seems to be a lot more lore heavy than plot heavy. If that's your thing, go for it. For me, it doesn't seem that the story would be a main selling point for this game.
The characters are ok I guess? Nothing special really. There was no one I said "I really like this person" or "wow I can't stand this person". The voice over of the player's character was a bit 'meh' for me. The interactions with NPCs are very well implemented though. Conversations flow well enough, and the characters react to you when you walk around.
Performance
Despite all the performance complaints, I'm actually surprised how well it runs on my system. I have an FX-8320 OC'd to 4.5 GHz, and an R9 Fury. I could play the game at max settings (Ultra is not max, although the only higher setting available above ultra was full HBAO) at 2560x1080. And yes, Ultrawide works seamlessly, which is great.
The one thing that was extremely annoying was the loading screen... Almost every time I start a mission, the loading screen gets stuck at somewhere 90%-95%, where I have to manually kill the process in task manager and restart the game. You then get a prompt asking to rejoin the mission you were on, and then it works. For 80% of the times I went on a mission, I had to go through this tedious process. They REALLY need to fix this. I'm not buying a game that has this issue.
Graphics
Not much to say here. They are good. Sometimes there's voice & lip sync issues, but very minor. I didn't experience any major pop-ins and the like, despite my graphics card having only 4GB RAM.
If anything else comes to mind, I'll share it with you. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.
Gameplay
The game feels good to play. Even though I heard bad things about the mouse and keyboard controls, it works well enough. I needed to get used to the flying, but after a while it works fine. I do dislike the discrepancy between the mouse sensitivity in different modes. But other than that, the javelins control well. It's not hard to learn.
The enemies are varied and do require different tactics, at least on the hard setting. Normal was a bit too easy.
One thing that I disliked was the difficulty scaling. It doesn't seem properly implemented at all times. During free play, I was playing solo at first, and someone joined my game. Even though we were on completely different places on the map, and I started a 'mini mission' somewhere underground and the other player didn't join, the game obviously scaled the difficulty for multiple players rather than only one. It was literally impossible to kill the boss, because as soon as he was out of sight, his health would regenerate at an extremely fast rate. So you can't take cover for long, but he shoots like a tank... So... Yeah.
Walking around Fort Tarsis was bit too slow for my liking, in terms of walking speed. I was constantly wishing I could run instead.
I used the Storm as the second Javelin, and it plays completely differently compared to the Ranger. This is a good thing. Too bad the demo only allows you to try two of them. I'm not someone that will likely use the Colossus, but I definitely wanted to try the Interceptor as well.
Story & Characters
There isn't much here, really. You get one main story mission in the demo it seems, and it was ok. Nothing great or major here. Things are well integrated though. So the Fort Tarsis gameplay and the Javelin gameplay work quite well together in telling small stories. It seems to be a lot more lore heavy than plot heavy. If that's your thing, go for it. For me, it doesn't seem that the story would be a main selling point for this game.
The characters are ok I guess? Nothing special really. There was no one I said "I really like this person" or "wow I can't stand this person". The voice over of the player's character was a bit 'meh' for me. The interactions with NPCs are very well implemented though. Conversations flow well enough, and the characters react to you when you walk around.
Performance
Despite all the performance complaints, I'm actually surprised how well it runs on my system. I have an FX-8320 OC'd to 4.5 GHz, and an R9 Fury. I could play the game at max settings (Ultra is not max, although the only higher setting available above ultra was full HBAO) at 2560x1080. And yes, Ultrawide works seamlessly, which is great.
The one thing that was extremely annoying was the loading screen... Almost every time I start a mission, the loading screen gets stuck at somewhere 90%-95%, where I have to manually kill the process in task manager and restart the game. You then get a prompt asking to rejoin the mission you were on, and then it works. For 80% of the times I went on a mission, I had to go through this tedious process. They REALLY need to fix this. I'm not buying a game that has this issue.
Graphics
Not much to say here. They are good. Sometimes there's voice & lip sync issues, but very minor. I didn't experience any major pop-ins and the like, despite my graphics card having only 4GB RAM.
If anything else comes to mind, I'll share it with you. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
I'm not sure, I haven't tried it. There is a toggle there, but I can't say what it does.
Meccs
Member
Pretty sure its DX11.
since the Frostbite engine supports DX12 I thought all games using that engine would be DX12 (maybe with a DX11 option as well like Battlefield 5)
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
I think it gives an option for 11 or 12. I will go back and check
Pantz
Member
I ended up pre-ordering it because the progression seems fun from a casual (me) perspective and because I really enjoyed the lore of the world. I read all the cortex entries that I could find in the demo. The game feels more like Borderlands to me than Destiny but with matchmaking. Hopefully the full game will be much more ironed out than the demo but it'll still be fun to play while they fix problems. Worst problem I encountered while playing is enemies disappearing and then later reappearing. Once i was running towards a group of enemies that disappeared so I continued on and then they reappeared behind me for a pincer attack, I'm sure these basic enemy types did not have some sort of cloaking device. Then some bigger enemies would disappear right in the middle of me shooting them. I don't know why exactly but this game just feels right for me, even if it is filled with sjw nonsense.
Meccs
Member
I couldn't find one. I don't think they would default to DX12 since this is stuttery on a lot of cards.
Krappadizzle
Member
Will we have to redownload the "demo" next week? I'm on a coin flip of whether I like the game or not. Spent about 5 hours with it. Really like the world, but I really hope they plan on addressing the loading issues, it really takes you out of it how often things need to load. And fix the damn mouse controls. Is next week gonna have to be a redownload and/or will they patch this "demo" with updates for next week? If they manage to update the mouse controls by next week I might be down for a purchase.
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
My money is on the demo being the same. But I could be wrong!
I was wrong. I mixed this up with the RE2
Remake. Played both same day. My bad
Last edited:
SkinnerSw33t
Member
Krappadizzle
JareBear: Remastered
I think they did say the demo was the same and that even the progression was carrying over.
xray49er
Member
When I was able to play the game is fun even with randoms. It sucks solo. Also they need to do something with the loot. Only giving you the loot after a mission sucks. Especially with the infinite loading I finished the missions and get stuck loading and never received my loot. That made me not want to play
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
Playing with Interceptor on an alt-account and it’s pretty awesome too. The ult shreds through mobs. Target Beacon helps melt bosses
Damn! This game has potential. Hope they don’t fuck it up
Damn! This game has potential. Hope they don’t fuck it up
Last edited:
Nydus
Member
The loot might still be in your backpack.
Btw they gave all classes to all VIP demo players. No need anymore for alt accounts.
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
HeisenbergFX4
Member
ALL Javelins are unlocked to try and all VIPs will have access to all 4 Javelins next weekend too.
JareBear: Remastered
Banned
Curious to hear thoughts from y’all
I love Storm but Interceptor is fun man. You can do some serious single target damage
Last edited:
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
How does Anthem compare to Warframe based on this demo?
