Anthem (the Game! Not the book!)

[Skack25]

1 hour ago, d-dave said:

I'm not sure how I feel about more Division.  I loved the first division, but after 10 hours, I got bored.  I never made it past level 18.  The concept was cool, the story and world building was fantastic.  The combat, 90% of how you play the game, was just so boring.  Get the best marksman rifle and some other gun you love, and hide behind a wall.  Maybe I missed things because I was so wrapped up in Destiny...

How does Division 2 improve on the base game?  I guess I should go back to playing the first Division because I haven't touched in since 1.8...

 

Honestly, I can't comment on it.  I stopped playing the first one pretty early as well.  Aside from NBA2k, Destiny got most of my attention for a long time as well.

[carpanfan96]

played a little but didn't want to play too much, just wanted to get a feel. picking it up day 1 on PC. also playing division 2 private beta right now. imo feels a lot like the first but gunplay is smoother and crisper

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[d-dave]

On 2/8/2019 at 4:26 PM, carpanfan96 said:

played a little but didn't want to play too much, just wanted to get a feel. picking it up day 1 on PC. also playing division 2 private beta right now. imo feels a lot like the first but gunplay is smoother and crisper

.

I picked the first division back up.  I stopped when I was level 16 because of Destiny... LOL.  I always enjoyed the Division, but I just got to a point where I couldn't really find people to play with, and kept getting killed by mobs 2 levels below me quickly.  I'm not sure what my issue is, lol.

Lots of folks online are saying that Division 2 is really good, with millions more claiming the game sucks.  You going to be playing it?

[carpanfan96]

34 minutes ago, d-dave said:

I picked the first division back up.  I stopped when I was level 16 because of Destiny... LOL.  I always enjoyed the Division, but I just got to a point where I couldn't really find people to play with, and kept getting killed by mobs 2 levels below me quickly.  I'm not sure what my issue is, lol.

Lots of folks online are saying that Division 2 is really good, with millions more claiming the game sucks.  You going to be playing it?

probably will be, depends on how anthem goes on how much I play it. I've enjoyed the private beta so far and I'm looking forward to the release. 

[d-dave]

That's where I'm tossed up.  I really loved anthem for the potential of it.  I've been itching for a good BioWare story for a few years.  

I think the other thing with The Division was that you never seemed to make progress on fixing things.  Sure, you got upgrades at the base and stuff, and a few more JTF guys patrolling the streets, but NYC never seemed to show any life.  I like the settlements in the new Division though.  That seems like it would give me that growth and recovery I'd like to see.

[carpanfan96]

6 hours ago, d-dave said:

That's where I'm tossed up.  I really loved anthem for the potential of it.  I've been itching for a good BioWare story for a few years.  

I think the other thing with The Division was that you never seemed to make progress on fixing things.  Sure, you got upgrades at the base and stuff, and a few more JTF guys patrolling the streets, but NYC never seemed to show any life.  I like the settlements in the new Division though.  That seems like it would give me that growth and recovery I'd like to see.

the streets in division 2 have a little more life, I've seen some friendly npc going on quests for water and food or so forth along with patrols and animals. still doesn't feel completely alive but I didnt play but about 1-2 hours of the private so far. 

[carpanfan96]

Do not buy! especially on PC. Wait till this mess is fixed. The net code freaking blows. I've played 13 hours since it went live for Origin Access members and 10 of that has been getting disconnected repeatedly over and over every 5 minutes. I've followed troubleshooting steps and everything else. EA blamed it on my PC and I play Apex legends among a host of other games with no problems. I've managed to get the game to run smoothly once for 3 hours and was able to do a few missions and the game itself is fun as hell but way too many issues to suggest or recommend till its fixed. 

[d-dave]

I thought real hard about paying the $5 to play on my Xbox this weekend.  I'm sorry you're having the disconnect trouble.  My clan mates haven't had much in that regard on Xbox.

I wanted to play, but I have just been too busy with adulting this weekend.  Hopefully I can run on my Xbox this weekend.

I've been watching a few videos of others and it looks like a good game, not great, but good.  If it's a good 100 hour game, I'll be satisfied.

[carpanfan96]

update on this.

 

not nearly as bad today, played for a few hours with no issues. did get disconnected at the very end of the first cataclysm though which sucks but they are making vast improvements so far. 

[d-dave]

Have you seen the vast number of fixes at are going into the 22nd "launch" day patch?  Holy cow!  The folks at Bioware are in major crunch time to get this game out and running.

The more I see, the more excited I get for Friday.  I didn't do any xbox early stuff, because of life (alas!).  It looks like a fun game with built in breaks to go back and get more story, examine your loot, and see what new missions have popped up.  It's different from Destiny, which I like.

In Destiny, I go to the tower, pick up my day's bounties, and then I don't come back until I finish several milestones.  There's nothing else in the tower, why go?  Nothing changes.  Fort Tarsis does change, the characters change.  Sure, it's not major Mass Effect style changing, but it's something for a shared world shooter.  I am looking forward to getting to the masterwork grind.  Some of those items are INSANE in how they are perked.

My worry is the Grand Master difficulties.  There's not much purpose in going over GM1.  It's just too punishing.

Randomly:  Last night, I watched Dustin from IGN play through the 3rd stronghold where you have to kill a giant boss.  His group was all well over 340 gear score (recommended for GM3) and playing on hard.  They were struggling.  Also, the boss encounter took 30ish minutes in total for 2 pieces of loot.  There's a major problem with that.  Why do the final boss encounter, which is hard, when you can get better loot else where doing easier content.

I think the end game still needs a lot of work, and they are going to see that.  They are going to have to introduce mechanical changes to bosses instead of simply more HP and Damage.  Otherwise, why play the hardest content in the highest difficulty settings?

Compare that to Mtash:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNTMpFGKtNY

With a couple of masterwork pistols, he was able to solo GM1 content pretty easily and safely.  Certainly, he was using some very specifically rolled gear which works well with a storm.  But what's the point of the GM levels past GM1?

 

 

[Inimicus]

Been playing on and off all weekend (prob 20ish hours since Friday) and have had none of the problems that I seen other suffer from.  The only thing I can knock it for ATM is the crazy load screens and for some mysterious reason one of the guys I play with takes literally 3x as long to zone into areas on a PC with comparable specs to mine.

Its been worth the cash for me.

 

Great game that I hope Bioware can continue to provide content for and fix the stuff that plaguing folks like carpanfan96

[carpanfan96]

33 minutes ago, Inimicus said:

Been playing on and off all weekend (prob 20ish hours since Friday) and have had none of the problems that I seen other suffer from.  The only thing I can knock it for ATM is the crazy load screens and for some mysterious reason one of the guys I play with takes literally 3x as long to zone into areas on a PC with comparable specs to mine.

Its been worth the cash for me.

 

Great game that I hope Bioware can continue to provide content for and fix the stuff that plaguing folks like carpanfan96

First two days I couldn't play at all, started getting better Sunday night and I've only had a few disconnections the last two days. playing the hell out of it when I can and it's really good so far. 

[Harbingers]

all I gotta say(I’ve not played Mass Effect: Andromeda yet) is they better have some damn good story. 

Not sure if anyone follows Oats Studios(District 13 guy) this one was badass. Most certainly not the best work from Oats by far. But perhaps a movie is in the works? 

 

[d-dave]

13 hours ago, Harbingers said:

all I gotta say(I’ve not played Mass Effect: Andromeda yet) is they better have some damn good story. 

Not sure if anyone follows Oats Studios(District 13 guy) this one was badass. Most certainly not the best work from Oats by far. But perhaps a movie is in the works? 

I've heard OK from most story reviews.  It's WAY better than Destiny and the first Division, if that's a frame of reference.  We'll see how it plays out ourselves.

As far as Oats, they have a bunch of cool as scifi shorts.  Neil Blomkamp, directed District 9, Chapie, and Elysium, should try to get this movie made.  Even if the game is a flop, the visuals in a fairly low budget short are pretty amazing.  There is a cool story with the lady, the betrayal and the kid all with the Anthem.  Holy poo, this could be an amazing film based on the source material and what Blomkamp could do with it.  

Just make it like a sci fi movie, and not a game movie.  Don't get caught up in the mechanics, just make the film in the setting.  I loved the short, I just want MORE of it...