Bioware's Anthem is worse made than initially thought
99 replies, posted
I have a friend who want to get a job as an animator. She's more interested in working in film or TV, but if that is not possible, is also interested in potentially working on video games. Needless to say, I told her to stay the fuck away from the big game corps if she goes down the latter path.
it honestly seems like the biggest problem with all of bioware's recent titles was the switch to Frostbite mandated by EA
It hobbled the development process, making it impossible to iterate, or in some cases even implement certain mechanics entirely. Because they never knew if they'd run into a wall they couldn't get past at some point, anything too radical would be strongly discouraged, leading to a game that barely managed to hold itself together while being as conventional as possible.
Like, there are lots of other issues you can point out, but everything seems to kinda go back to development on Frostbite being like wading through hip deep mud full of broken bottles and caltrops.
I was only there for a year, which might sound like I'd learn quite a bit on paper but I was still an amateur dipping my toe in the water when I left. I do plan on picking 3D back up as a hobby when I get myself a stable job of some kind and hopefully branch out from there. There's simulation work like Jaguar said, but there's also lots of 3D work available for people looking into architect related things too. That may fall under simulation, actually. There's also room for freelance work if I get enough practise in.
The moment EA stops forcing FrostShite on their dev teams is the moment EA game quality rises back up again, let developers use the tools they're comfortable with.
I really feel bad for the artists that worked on the game because they really knocked it out of the park.Same with Battlefront. It's a shame that in today's game industry the artists seem to be the only ones held to a higher standard when it comes to making AAA games.
A publisher making every game dev use a purpose built FPS engine is like a zookeeper putting all their animals in polar bear habitats.
As a software developer (not games), I can say the kinds of problems they talk about like shit technology and poor direction and dismissing new ideas and technology makes for a stressful and frustrating environment.
It really is kind of odd. Inquisition, the first game on the engine, never struck me as being hobbled by Frostbite itself. Huge, gorgeous environments and lightning fast load times on SSD, with none of the content-streaming issues I see from Anthem. And they managed to have a ridiculous amount of lore & world building, overall solid writing, and perfectly functional gameplay. I have to imagine that Inquisition had a stronger design vision from the word go AND that they had more competent management than the other two teams in order to pull that off.
Remember when they blamed Andromeda’s shit character creator on Frostbite when years earlier Inquisition launched with one ten times better that also allowed you to customize multiple different races? On the same engine?
fucks sake in Andromeda you have to select the “black guy” presets to even choose a darker skin tone
It's really clear that Anthem was supposed to be something really unconventional. All Inquisition had to be was a sequel. It was a mess figuring out how to make it work, but what it was going to be was never really a difficult question. Anthem was exploring things like procedural content generation, multiplayer integration, different methods and modes of transportation and interactivity. The initial ideas, on a technical level, were pretty ambitious.
So when you get a letter from EA that says "yeah you have to use this engine that can't do any of that, gl hf", what do you do? Do you stand up and go "hey team, lets try this idea that I also don't know if we can even do"?
Of course not. You play hot potato with everyone else, trying desperately to not end up being the person responsible for what will inevitably be failure. Because you need to be able to find a job when this shitshow is over.
A friend of mine works for a CGI studio that does work for blockbusters describes a pretty similar thing in his industry. Crappy pay, long and awful crunch periods, people burning out, and the big studios constantly changing their minds at the last moment requiring tonnes of rework.
They wanted to Anthem to be the Bob Dylan of video games.
Instead, Bioware became the John Lennon of developers.
Good to know that when the first videos of Anthem came out, I wasn't the only one that had no idea what the fuck kind of game Anthem was supposed to be, apparently not even the devs knew, what a joke.
I suspect Inquisition also fared better because, at the time, it was the first major project to follow ME:3. The company was still riding high and had a lot of experienced staff on board. Those factors, plus a consistent and cohesive vision from Mike Laidlaw and strong writing from Gaider and Weekes meant that they had all the pieces in place and could set aside the time needed to make the engine work pretty well given the circumstances.
Despite some of the struggles the Dragon Age series has had, it's probably had the most consistent vision across the Bioware franchises. It's one of the reasons I'm actually not that worried about DA:4.
And then there was the dream of a new Knights of the Old Republic game, which some BioWare Austin staffers say was always dangled as a possibility but never really came close to getting off the ground.
aw COME ONNNNNNN
Leaked AI
Yo what the actual fuck is this and how did I miss this last year?
This was a link in the article about using AI to spy on people to figure out when to sell them lootboxes, going as far as to map your room using acoustics
https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/comments/b6phoj/the_real_reason_for_loot_balance_and_store_issues/
Funnily enough, they already have. There is a Project Reality-like mod, as well as a map editor, currently in development for BF3.
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/38/37747/Captura_de_pantalla_37.png
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/38/37747/Captura_de_pantalla_41.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyLRF6ljsII
Because it's probably bullshit.
Yeah, no. This is pretty much stupid bullshit made up by someone for whatever reason. The only reason it's attached to Anthem is because the fans are the gaming equivalent of Stockholm syndrome victims and are looking for excuses as to why the game is utter shit.
Bullshit or not, this has opened a fucking pandora's box for anyone who hasn't already started applying AI shit to social engineering. Also the most ludicrous thing of it all is that the fucking wifi room-scanning thing might be real if this paper is anything to go by
https://www.ceid.upatras.gr/webpages/courses/sensornets/papers/paper1.pdf
I don't even give a shit about Anthem, but the stuff in those slides are going to become reality if they aren't already. It's fucking inevitable.
oh man this is pretty hype. I totally want to play this. gives me flashbacks to bf2
Boy fucking howdy.
I got into 3D animation looking to get into games. Fortunately got hired at a large Children's TV studio that is a real gem in the industry because crunch time doesnt happen, thanks to effective management. But their art is honestly pretty simple from an artistic standpoint.
I always think about how I could be working on more interesting stuff or higher-quality art at a different studio, but it seems like that comes at the cost of depression and no free time. And EA sets that standard in my town, their HQ is less than a half hour drive from me.
Am I lazy for sticking with my 40 hour/week job? Some would probably say yes, but I look at shit like this, and think Im really fucking lucky to be doing 3D art without wanting to kill myself.
I mean, we straight up have first hand accounts from some one who worked in the industry on our forums, a former animator from Ovk
Just apply for 3-6 months internship to scout company culture. Many smaller companies are trying to cultivate better working conditions, of course you never hear about them because who the heck from the outside wants to read news about people being content with their job? Like, actually talk with people who's in the industry.
To further this, you can also find a paid internship if you're in school, many non-profits are looking for programmers and artists that are willing to pay.
When you have no real deadlines as volunteers, amazing things can happen.
EA has a mandate saying ALL of their games will use Frostbite. Doesn’t surprise me given how cheap they are but Frostbite and Bioware’s issues with it are well documented, even before the Anthem BS.
Because that's a 4chan fake
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/7qhcxo/ai_is_literally_everywhere_watching_and_listening/dsq93mm/
Even PCMR folks decided that it's not true, and that says something
I'm more concerned that others might be working on the things that were put in as jokes. If the last few years have proved anything, it's that jokes are real now.
When looking through the slides, I kept flipping between thinking how ludicrous they'd be now, and being terrified of how they might come to fruition sometime soon. Considering the tendencies of game companies to utilize gambling techniques to exploit people with addictive personalities, it's not a large jump from that to social engineering. The people that made the slides probably thought the same thing, and the joke is perfect because of how real it can be. I wouldn't be surprised if its association with Anthem inadvertently causes the development of something similar in future updates to the game itself.
Back on the topic of Anthem, Frostbite, etc - I'd been looking through lighting tutorials and whatnot for UE4 recently and a lot of the finer detail documentation is made by ex-DICE lighting engineers. Seeing what devs had to say about the engine, it's no wonder they jumped ship to something much more usable. Hell, a lot of their comparisons to Frostbite's lighting is what fueled the recent updates to Unreal's, since they provided criticism and Epic listened. It sounds like DICE really needs to focus in on tool development and usability for the sake of every other EA studio.
Just out the spaces, so I can read better.
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