Octopus Overlords

I tried the VIP demo very briefly over the weekend. It looked fantastic but I couldn't really figure out what was going on, I could have really used a quick tutorial. It did feel very Mass Effect-y to me from what little I played. The class I wanted to try wasn't available so I figured I'd just wait til release and experience it "right."

From what I read there were a lot of technical issues and other complaints, but personally I didn't experience any problems.

rittchard wrote: ↑Tue Jan 29, 2019 2:05 pm I tried the VIP demo very briefly over the weekend. It looked fantastic but I couldn't really figure out what was going on, I could have really used a quick tutorial. It did feel very Mass Effect-y to me from what little I played. The class I wanted to try wasn't available so I figured I'd just wait til release and experience it "right."

From what I read there were a lot of technical issues and other complaints, but personally I didn't experience any problems.

FYI, they unlocked all 4 classes for everyone sometime on the last day of the VIP demo. They should be waiting for you right away for the Feb 1-3 demo.

Login debacle aside, I really liked what I saw of the game when I got to play. It really did shine even more playing in a group, but even solo play was a lot of fun.

Want to just have a game come out on a certain day and that day is when you can play it? Well too bad, because you need a chart to understand when you can play Anthem.



After you total column F in side worksheet B, bring forward that number, minus any exemptions listed in Appendix F3301, over to the 3rd page of your Game Access Qualification Form. If the amounts in boxes M-Q are greater than this amount, you do not qualify for Early Access but you may qualify for First Trial Access. Switch over to Form ORIG112 and continue following the instructions there.

So EA Access XB1 and PC Origins basic don't get ever get the full game?

Alefroth wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:55 pm So EA Access XB1 and PC Origins basic don't get ever get the full game?

No release date yet I've been assuming.

I assume EA will want a down payment of blood to be eligible to play a demo of Anthem's sequel.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:55 pm So EA Access XB1 and PC Origins basic don't get ever get the full game?

I don't know about XB1, but Origin Access Basic only gives you the Play First Trial for up to 10 hours of play time. If you want to play beyond that point, you either need to purchase the game or upgrade to Access Premium. The game might be added to The Vault eventually, at which point it would be playable with Access Basic.

The Anthem demo is now available on Origins, downloading now, because hey, it's a demo!

The javelins play very differently. After attaining 'barely competent' with the ranger I unlocked the colossus and am back to 'completely inept.'

I'm in Origin as Gryndyl if you feel like you want to revive a colossus a few times.

I must have mistaken a pre order demo for an open demo for all because I started the dload last night and nothing has happened since. I just shut it all down.

And now its downloading. I have no idea if I can make myself play it. Ive done nothing for a month now . Since Donna died. She wouldn't want this for me but I cant do anything about it. Ive tried. Some.

Tried it today but it really didn't grab me. Just felt like a Destiny clone. Whether that's a fair assessment or not, I don't think it was my cup of tea.

On the other hand, I've been having quite a bit of fun with The Division from the Humble monthly, so I may just skip this and go for The Division 2 instead for my multiplayer fix.

Funny as I always said Destiny clone..but I played the first mission and it felt more Mass Effect than Destiny.

Im posting this here and in the thread of losing my wife so if someone reads only one or the other. Just a update on me really.

I played the first mission of the Anthem demo.

Im not good to depend on right now for opinions of a game....between being in bad pain from my back and side im also kinda emotionless with everything but sadness....but did finish the first mission with 2 or 3 others....was no way to chat and I heard no voice com.

The end had a 3 piece puzzle to activate and we just had to guess..saw no symbols on walls.

ok....
Its actually less Destiny than I figured. Its more something else but I cant put my finger on it yet...has some Mass Effect feel due to 3rd person and the jump jets....I ran out of ammo and had to guess how to get more....took about 45 min for the first mission. If everything in my life was normal Id like it I think. As is Im just coasting. No emotion really. Im nothing without my wife.

Ran a few more missions. Its a little nice to play with others. Shame you cant chat at all. Im starting to get a little Rage vibe too. So Mass Effect and Rage. Not bad.

I think the worst thing I can say about it right now is the atrocious walking speed in town. Wow its slow.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:57 pm Shame you cant chat at all.

I'm not playing it (and so can't verify this), but I read that there is in-game VoIP however you need to switch it on. For some reason, it is off by default for the demo.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:28 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:57 pm Shame you cant chat at all.

I'm not playing it (and so can't verify this), but I read that there is in-game VoIP however you need to switch it on. For some reason, it is off by default for the demo.

It didn't do anything for me (and also found the walking like slogging thru mud) so uninstalled. There was message that popped up during loading for like half a second that said you could press SHIFT + F1 to enable chat? Didn't try that, just passing it along.

MonkeyFinger wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:09 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:28 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:57 pm Shame you cant chat at all.

I'm not playing it (and so can't verify this), but I read that there is in-game VoIP however you need to switch it on. For some reason, it is off by default for the demo.

It didn't do anything for me (and also found the walking like slogging thru mud) so uninstalled. There was message that popped up during loading for like half a second that said you could press SHIFT + F1 to enable chat? Didn't try that, just passing it along.

That pulls up the Origin overlay which lets you chat to friends but not anyone else. Lack of text chat was probably my biggest gripe with the game.

I spent some time with the demo this weekend - because free - and figured I'd share my thoughts:

- Technical state of the game was mixed. The servers were always up when I wanted to play (unlike the VIP demo weekend, reportedly) and for the most part it behaved properly but I did encounter a couple of CTDs, a bizarre bug that prevented the game from loading if my PC's date and time zone weren't being automatically set by Windows, one cutscene that locked up, some Alt-Tab unfriendliness, and, worst, in my one attempt to play the Stronghold (Strike, in Destiny-speak) mission, we were unable to complete it due to a progression-halting bug related to a couple members of my party bailing. So... not that impressive for a game that's trying to show itself off before release in just two weeks. I know EA has said that the demo was based on an earlier-than-now build but, frankly, I don't care. The above was what they thought was good enough to show off to the general public, so that's what I'm going to judge them on.

- Gameplay was pretty fun. I thought the default PC controls were horrid but, after remapping them to be more to my liking and just generally getting used to the flying mechanics, I quite enjoyed it. Mostly playing solo, I found the combat was a lot more manageable after unlocking a second Javelin that had an anti-armor ability. I'm uncertain, but it seems like the combat may be very Mass Effect inspired, in the sense that enemies can have health, armor, and/or shields, and you really want to use the right abilities against the right type of target. Whether or not I can reasonably cover all of those bases with one character is still TBD, however. The missions were certainly reminiscent of Destiny: go here because a voice in your helmet says to, shoot lots of stuff, go to next place, repeat. Flight and dodging has replaced cover to avoid damage. I think Destiny's core shooting system was better but, tentatively (admitting that I didn't have enough time to get completely comfortable with the game), this was OK.

- Fort Tarsis was interesting enough, maybe? The NPC conversations were certainly better than the last Mass Effects: there were none of the "we couldn't be bothered to animate this exchange" dialogues and the animations themselves seemed higher quality than Andromeda, particularly. There were hints of possibly interesting characters (the bartender had a little mini storyline that was moderately entertaining), but it's a bit hard to judge based on a very narrow slice of the game. Quite a few characters could not be interacted with because of "this content is only available in the full game" blocks. The Cortex (their lore database, which someone clearly spent a lot of time figuring out how to rename from Mass Effect's Codex) seemed like it had quite a lot of entries, although I didn't spend my limited demo-time reading through all of them (and the demo locked-out picking up most of the items around the Fort that would have added to it). Still, it seems like they have put a fair amount of effort into their world-building. Hopefully delving into that in the full game will be as rewarding as in Dragon Age: Origins, but time will tell.

- The story was... vague. The demo doesn't start at the beginning and only includes three plot-related missions, which seemed to focus on overcoming one particular side obstacle. There were hints of a larger story, most including some big-bad-thingy called the Heart of Rage, but what that was or why I was supposed to be motivated to deal with it, were not spelled out. Following the plot was challenging, in the typical way of multiplayer games: nobody wants to stand around listening to NPCs during missions, and telling my friend on Origin's voice chat to shut up for 5-15 minutes so I could run around Fort Tarsis and listen to solo conversations just seemed rude. I had a much better idea of what was going on when playing solo, but "Anthem is best experienced with a group", as the game was very fond of reminding me every time I tried to leave Fort Tarsis on my own.

My takeaway: a bit of a mixed bag. I'm not convinced it's really ready for release (as with most of their previous games, I'm about 100% sure that the release date was defined by EA's corporate earnings calendar and a desire to book sales before the end of the fiscal year rather than by the state of the game) and I'm still not entirely sold on the story or companion character depth, but they showed just enough, and the core gameplay and flying mechanics were just entertaining enough, to hold my interest. I wouldn't bite for the CDN$80 that they want for the full game at this point but I think I'll pay $20 for a month of their (otherwise ridiculous) Origin Access Premier subscription service, which will let me play the whole game for 30 days for a quarter of the retail price. That should be plenty of time to either finish it, decide it's an unplayable mess, or get partway through and then get distracted by the next shiny thing (The Division 2 comes out in March).

- Ash

I enjoyed my time in the demo (xBox One X) and found myself jonesing for more. Finally found a discount - NewEgg has the pre-order codes for 10% off, and allegedly has physical copies for $10 off (but I didn't look).

Coming soon, to a Youtube channel near you:

From Neill Blomkamp, Oats Studios and BioWare comes a live-action story of survival set in the world of Anthem, decades before the events of the game.

Actually, just from Origin, apparently.

Nice trailer. I would watch that film, if it existed. I wonder if this is supposed to set up the in-game narrative?

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:54 am Nice trailer. I would watch that film, if it existed. I wonder if this is supposed to set up the in-game narrative?

I imagine they'd need at least 6 CD-ROMs in the box to include live action cutscenes like that.

wonderpug wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:24 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:54 am Nice trailer. I would watch that film, if it existed. I wonder if this is supposed to set up the in-game narrative?

I imagine they'd need at least 6 CD-ROMs in the box to include live action cutscenes like that.

What's a CD-ROM and box thing?

morlac wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:34 pm

wonderpug wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:24 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:54 am Nice trailer. I would watch that film, if it existed. I wonder if this is supposed to set up the in-game narrative?

I imagine they'd need at least 6 CD-ROMs in the box to include live action cutscenes like that.

What's a CD-ROM and box thing?

I'm gonna have to buy a few more CD Caddies to make it easier to swap back and forth.

The video card that my son's grandmother bought me last week came with a free code for Anthem, so it looks like I'll be in.

wonderpug wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:48 pm

morlac wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:34 pm

wonderpug wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:24 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:54 am Nice trailer. I would watch that film, if it existed. I wonder if this is supposed to set up the in-game narrative?

I imagine they'd need at least 6 CD-ROMs in the box to include live action cutscenes like that.

What's a CD-ROM and box thing?

I'm gonna have to buy a few more CD Caddies to make it easier to swap back and forth.

Your just talking gibberish now....

per google:

Urban Dictionary: CD

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CD


LOL it's been relegated to Urban Dictionary like some legend from the past only mentioned in hushed circles.

I preloaded last night, that was pretty exciting lol.

I've examined the chart like 10 times and I'm still not sure when I get to play. I preordered it but I think I'm also still a Basic Origin Access member. It doesn't help that I also apparently have 2 different EA/Origin accounts, sigh. So... I think I can play 10 hours of the game starting the 15th and then the whole game unlocks on the 21st? Too confusing, and honestly I don't really care that much, except in the sense that it's new and shiny.

rittchard wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:56 pm I preloaded last night, that was pretty exciting lol.

I've examined the chart like 10 times and I'm still not sure when I get to play. I preordered it but I think I'm also still a Basic Origin Access member. It doesn't help that I also apparently have 2 different EA/Origin accounts, sigh. So... I think I can play 10 hours of the game starting the 15th and then the whole game unlocks on the 21st? Too confusing, and honestly I don't really care that much, except in the sense that it's new and shiny.

Right click the icon in Origin and see if it gives you the option to upgrade. If you qualify for the early access this will convert your preorder to early access.

rittchard wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:56 pm I preloaded last night, that was pretty exciting lol.

I've examined the chart like 10 times and I'm still not sure when I get to play. I preordered it but I think I'm also still a Basic Origin Access member. It doesn't help that I also apparently have 2 different EA/Origin accounts, sigh. So... I think I can play 10 hours of the game starting the 15th and then the whole game unlocks on the 21st? Too confusing, and honestly I don't really care that much, except in the sense that it's new and shiny.

I took a 3 week training course so I'm finally qualified to answer questions on how buying Anthem works.

Basic Origin Access lets you try the game for free a week early, starting on Feb 15, for 10 hours of gameplay, whether or not you've ordered the game.
Your preorder lets you play the full game on regular release day, Feb 22, but does not grant you any early playtime (other than the 'VIP demo' earlier).

Combining the two above, you can play for no more than 10 hours from Feb 15-21, and then on Feb 22 you can play all you want. Your progress from Feb 15-21 will carry over.

Hey, anyone in the early access tomorrow feel free to add me. Same name on Origin as here. Always prefer OO scrubs to random scrubs

I'm not in the early access, but I'm Blackhawk3339 on Origin for later.

Gryndyl wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 4:35 pm

rittchard wrote: ↑Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:56 pm I preloaded last night, that was pretty exciting lol.

I've examined the chart like 10 times and I'm still not sure when I get to play. I preordered it but I think I'm also still a Basic Origin Access member. It doesn't help that I also apparently have 2 different EA/Origin accounts, sigh. So... I think I can play 10 hours of the game starting the 15th and then the whole game unlocks on the 21st? Too confusing, and honestly I don't really care that much, except in the sense that it's new and shiny.

Right click the icon in Origin and see if it gives you the option to upgrade. If you qualify for the early access this will convert your preorder to early access.

Hmmm, I don't see that option, but I thought I should qualify. I pre-ordered and I'm an Origin's Basic Member. Guess Basic isn't good enough?

Edit: No according to this chart https://twitter.com/anthemea/status/1091366676526972929 you need to be the Origin Access Premier in order to play on the 15th.

Edit: Wait, Basic gets access to First Trial. Maybe that's a separate game I need to download or does it not unlock until some time later today?

Basic doesn't get to pre-load. My understanding is that whenever the official launch time is today, you should see a 'Try it First!' button appear somewhere.

wonderpug wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 9:41 am Basic doesn't get to pre-load. My understanding is that whenever the official launch time is today, you should see a 'Try it First!' button appear somewhere.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it started at midnight or not. Since I preordered it is already preloaded. I thought someone was saying a right click brought up a option for the pre trial

IceBear wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:21 am

wonderpug wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 9:41 am Basic doesn't get to pre-load. My understanding is that whenever the official launch time is today, you should see a 'Try it First!' button appear somewhere.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if it started at midnight or not. Since I preordered it is already preloaded. I thought someone was saying a right click brought up a option for the pre trial

It only has that option if you qualify for the early access but installed the non-early access version.

Ill give it whirl this weekend...pretty sure I qualify as premium. I'm morlac00.

Yeah...I had to use the Free Trial option in Origins. Anthem showed up there after lunch so I installed it (went very quick as I had the full game preloaded so I guess it just linked to it) and played the first couple of missions solo

I only played the tutorial and then messed around in the hub for a bit last night. So far I like what I am seeing. I like the "movement" system a lot. The controls are tight and the action is fluid. It just feels right, hard to explain. Mastering that will be paramount to your enjoyment imo. I can see there seems to be a to going on with upgrades, abilities, equipment, etc. I expect I'll spend a good hour today combing through the ingame "journal" thing learning the lore.I only played a hour or so last night but I woke jonesing to play it, which hasn't happened with a game in a long time.


KB/M?
(i used this last night but might switch it up)
or

Controller?

I aim better with kb+m so that's what I went with though I found the controller flew better at first but now I have the flying with kb+m down so not an issue

So, does this game require a "squad" to play, or is there stuff you can do by yourself? Being generally awful at shooters like this, mandatory grouping with pretty much kills a game for me, since I'll immediately hamstring anyone who gets stuck with me.

However, I did manage to have some fun with Destiny because there was a story and objectives that I could mostly run around and do solo. There were usually other people also running around and we would sometimes be shooting at the same thing, but it didn't necessarily require me to group with people in order to progress.

Also, if I understand it correctly, I can pay the $15 for an Origin Premium sub and play it for a month without paying $60 for the full game, correct?