Anthem

Live stream today that really goes over gear and builds. Starting to get excited for this now. Makes me glad that they don't have to worry about multiplayer balancing as it allows builds to be crazy



For those of you who don't want to watch the whole thing, here's a summary and breakdown.

 
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The problem with PVP in games like this is it turns out into a competition over who can have the least amount of real life. The kid who still lives at home and only works part time is going to put 12 hours into the game per day and he's going to press one button and make you die. :txbmad:

The big worry is I'm not sure if the combat is going to be fun enough to carry the game. Destiny has the great FPS mechanics. Diablo has endless hordes which are satisfying to lay waste to.
 
This is a insta-buy for me. There were so many times while playing Destiny that I wished I could keep the camera locked in third person. Now we have a game that's doing just that. And it looks like this will allow me to play out my Iron Man fantasy, yay.

The Division 2 looks nice but I played the hell out of the first game. I know there are changes and tweaks but I know what to expect from the sequel so I'd rather go with the new kid on the "Live Service" block. I've had a lot of fun with these types of games and thankfully knew when it was time to move on before getting angry at the franchise for not keeping me engaged for longer.
 
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The problem with PVP in games like this is it turns out into a competition over who can have the least amount of real life. The kid who still lives at home and only works part time is going to put 12 hours into the game per day and he's going to press one button and make you die. :txbmad:

You are aware that the vast majority of multiplayer games over the past ten years implement something called Skill Based Matchmaking that fixes this very problem?

If you only have time to play two hours a week, they're not going to put you in the same lobby as someone who plays 12 hours a day. You're going to play against people at your skill level.

 
You are aware that the vast majority of multiplayer games over the past ten years implement something called Skill Based Matchmaking that fixes this very problem?

If you only have time to play two hours a week, they're not going to put you in the same lobby as someone who plays 12 hours a day. You're going to play against people at your skill level.

Skill =/= level.

There's people in COD who are prestige whatever and are trash. There's people who are level 20 and wreck. In COD that doesn't matter because level doesn't matter, but in other games, level determines how much damage you do.

Skill based matchmaking also has all sorts of flaws. GT Sport has this for racing. It works great, except for the fact that it finds a player of my exact level in Brazil. GTS shows the country of origin right on the screen, so it clearly shows how bad it works. The lag from 5000 miles away is horrendous. That person warps all over my screen (and probably vice versa).

Destiny tried the same thing and the same thing happened. People matching across continents and horrible lag. People in the northeast US would play people from Australia. The lag would make the game unplayable. People screamed until Bungie dumped it.

The other issue is that in an RPG type game, even 1-2 levels is huge. Maybe I'm level 21 but someone level 22 has better stuff and it isn't a fair fight. The difference in play might only be a couple of hours.

Matchmaking is ultimately at the mercy of who plays at that exact moment.
 
You are aware that the vast majority of multiplayer games over the past ten years implement something called Skill Based Matchmaking that fixes this very problem?

If you only have time to play two hours a week, they're not going to put you in the same lobby as someone who plays 12 hours a day. You're going to play against people at your skill level.


These kind of match making systems rarely work as intended. If there's not enough people who are playing that match your skill, then it will have to throw you into a other match. That, or they Match you with people in Siberia because their the same skill level. Then you have the agragate problem. Let's say I have a skill level of 10 and I join a team game playlist. It groups me with 3 level 100 skill people because that's what it can find. It then pairs our group against 4 people who are each in the eighties. Our agragate scores are similar so you'd think everything is great, but I'm getting stomped on by people who are much better than me because of how the match making works.

I know not all skill based match making works this way, but a lot of them do and I've only come across one or two that work as intended.
 
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Just because you play a lot doesn't mean you're highly skilled.
 
I was not excited for the game until today when I watched video of the leveling, & gearing. Seems it could be diablo in Ironman suit.

Have to see.
 
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I don't think there's enough here to warrant me buying this Day one. Maybe sometime down the road or so.
 
I think they meant to say EA Access. We should get a 10 hour trial to it like any other EA game.

I would definitely wait a week or two and see how people feel about this game. I would not preorder.
 
I see some of you guys have concerns regarding this game. I can understand that with the likes of other games similar to this and its publisher.

My only real worry is a lack of content or meaningful/fun things to do. I just think a lot of the development time was probably spent weaving in all the different systems for loot and online functionality. And because of that there might not be all that much to do at release. I sure hope I'm wrong because this is my most anticipated game right now. I'll probably track The Division 2 and see how that one goes but right now that isn't looking like a purchase especially if I'm knee deep in Anthem.
 
I'm not an EA basher. While they've made mistakes in the past, they are doing better as of late. They don't get enough credit for giving 10 hours trials to all their games to EA Access subscribers. That means that real gamers have 10 hours to bang on it.

When it comes to these kind of looter/rpg games though, jumping on early means early headaches. Now, for many of us that's ok. I bought D2 on day 1 knowing full well there would be growing pains. As long as you are ok with growing pains, go for it. However a ton of people fall for the hype machine and expect greatness on day 1. Don't expect greatness on day 1.

Getting in on the ground floor of these games can be tons of fun. Just be open minded to the fact that these games improve over time and probably aren't going to be fully baked on day 1.
 
Yeah, I see a ton of Warframe in there too.

I just don't like running down hallways and killing countless uninteresting enemies, which seems to be what this game is. Looks too much like a treadmill to me.

I'll pick it up if it gets a 94 or better on Metacritic, but I don't anticipate that happening.
 
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I seen the full stronghold video. Looks boring. On paper it sound nice, but gameplay looks really dull even in a 3 persons group.

And l like things like mechs, and loot type games.
 
Yeah, I see a ton of Warframe in there too.

I just don't like running down hallways and killing countless uninteresting enemies, which seems to be what this game is. Looks too much like a treadmill to me.

I'll pick it up if it gets a 94 or better on Metacritic, but I don't anticipate that happening.
I have to agree with you on this. It’s pretty and the mechs or Javalins as they called it looks cool, but the gameplay looks really dull, and enemies seems to just stand there for you to kill.
 
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