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In hindsight, the Anthem reveal trailer is Watch Dogs / Killzone 2 levels of bullshit

Lucifonz

Lucifonz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,151
United Kingdom
The actual game does still look pretty gorgeous in motion but damn if that isn't a notable downgrade. Forgot just how great that trailer looked.
 
Hey Please

Hey Please

Avenger
Oct 31, 2017
22,824
Not America
Personally what irks me the most is that during its reveal, the representative explicitly stated that the trailer was running real time on X hardware. Subsequent to that DF speculated that it very well could have been right up until two days ago when John openly cast doubt on the reveal gameplay actually running on said HW.

You would think they would learn from Mass Effect Andromeda. Ubisoft did.
 

Firefly

Member
Jul 10, 2018
8,704
2019-01-2602_14_42-andwkdp.png


anthemdemo_2019_01_256xj3z.png
 

Deleted member 44371

Banned
Jun 1, 2018
4,523
TheSubsequentStrajack said:



To those of us that have been around for a while, this was clear from the start. Anthem's reveal trailer was FAR too polished and perfect looking to be representative of a real playable game. To me this is almost on the level of the Killzone 2 reveal in terms of level of bullshit.

After looking at videos of the VIP demo, it's clear the world isn't this lush, detailed or full of life. I mean look at that trailer and tell me it doesn't look at least five years ahead of any other game...the real Anthem looks nothing like that.
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This is nothing like the demo I played this weekend
 

Deleted member 4976

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,246
I wouldn't mind the downgrade so much if the hub atleast ran at a better framerate, but given how it runs, it's hard to argue against the hub never existing/being faked.
 
antitrop

antitrop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,686
That the real game never had a chance of looking like that really soured my first impression.
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,467
The Killzone 2 comparison is exaggerated: that was 100% CGI and absolutely nowhere anywhere near what the game could look like. Anthem and Watch_Dogs are simply "downgraded" versions of the same thing. But yeah, this should really stop. They get away with it because it's work in progress and all, but it sucks that they're showing games one day and then a couple years later the product comes out and it's like turning it down from max settings to medium. It's the same game and Anthem still looks gorgeous, but still these things shouldn't happen.
 
Tbm24

Tbm24

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,564
Noodle said:
Not the exact same locations but the difference in lighting and physics objects density is particularly egregious. Don't know why people are defending this as "lol, it's your fault for not knowing demos are total lies".




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAm8eNl1iD8
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Kind of hard to compare the lighting here when they are at two completely different time of day. The first set as the sun beaming at the player.
 
NightShift

NightShift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,078
Australia
I guess it's because people are too busy complaining about other parts of this game but this definitely needs more attention. That gameplay reveal was already Watch Dogs levels of bullshit before we even saw actual gameplay.
 
Reedirect

Reedirect

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,064
Just because everyone knew it was too good to be true doesn't mean it's ok to show something that's too good to be true.
 
boi

boi

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,772
Watch Dogs I'll give you. The Killzone 2 trailer was a movie, made by a CGI company. It cant even be compared to the final product because its got nothing to do with the final thing.
 

Zappy

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
3,738
I'm not normally one for getting worked up on these things. But the downgrade is huge. Like the most egregious downgrade I can remember. Those pictures sum it up perfectly above. Given the type of game it is - loot shooter, AAA - I just don't think the graphics are acceptable.

You get games like RDR2 where IMO the final product may even exceed slightly some of the stuff shown early, or at least is equivalent to it.

But this - the downgrade is massive and the game IMHO does not look "good". Went from Anthem to BFV (very different games) and was just hit by how good looking BFV is in comparison.
 
Vex

Vex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,213
I hope we dont see something similar with Cyberpunk. Although they say that many things can change when the final game releases....
 
2CL4Mars

2CL4Mars

Member
Nov 9, 2018
1,731
Unlike Watch dogs both Anthem and Killzone 2 look and looked a lot better.

If a released game still has impressive graphics, a downgrade for me personally is not a big deal.

However it's pretty obvious now that the demo shown at the Xbox e3 2017 press conference was not running on X hardware.
 
Oddhouse

Oddhouse

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,042
Comparison to Watch Dog yes; they were both likely builds they had running.

Killzone is an unfair comparison as that was 100% CGI.
 
Gunny T Highway

Gunny T Highway

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,121
Canada
Of course. Demo's shown at trade shows are specifically tailored to look amazing. If they stray even a bit off course those demo's more than likely would crash or you would see weird bugs.
 
Unclebenny

Unclebenny

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,770
CloseTalker said:
You're right, but generally a heavily polished vertical slice should mean "deliver something shippable", not "bait them with a dream".

This happens all the time, and we should be conditioned to expect any game that's years out showing polished gameplay to be faked (because any game that's years out does not have polished gameplay to show). But it's also on devs to manage expectations. Anyone looking at that video knows full well it ain't gonna happen on a base Xbox One or PS4.
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The problem for developers is, what do you do for preview?

Do you intentionally scale back on your aims, to then reveal a better looking game and ensure you don't overpromise? There is no way in hell you sell a product by pointing out possible deficiencies.

The problem with early previews are that they create a single presentable"vision" based on the developers plans at the time. Then spend the next few years finding out why it won't work and doing the actual development work.

So they either don't show early, which males people angry (see Diablo 4) or show early but you probably accept the vertical slice won't represent the final product in it's entirety. That also makes people angry.

The thing is, the details aren't there but the substance of what Anthem offers is the same. You can free fly round an alien world, you do spend time in first person talking to characters. It's all there just not as dense or detailed but it probably never will be for games this size.

Eventually we have to accept that the gaming community is both incredibly demanding and incredibly hostile. It is very difficult to be straight forward to an audience of people this large, who are this invested in their hobby.
 

BAD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,569
USA
Very disingenuous to compare to the Killzone 2 render. OP doesn't understand vertical slices vs total CGI.
 
tarantullama

tarantullama

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,443
before rewatching that E3 "demo," I thought it didn't look too different from the VIP demo this weekend but wow... no. This is definitely worse than the Watch_Dogs disparity for me.
 
PS9

PS9

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,066
EA also publicly stated that trailer was running in real-time on an Xbox One X. Total bullshit, there is no way Tarsis with that level of detail at that frame rate on Xbox One X ever existed. Pure smoke and mirrors.
 
Kaako

Kaako

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,736
I said damn at some of these side by side gifs/pics comparisons. Makes it even much more apparent.
 
Arthoneceron

Arthoneceron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,024
Minas Gerais, Brazil
I need to watch again the Killzone 2 reveal, but what impressed me on Watch Dogs was the lighting, reflections, the interactions with the scenario and... gunplay, I think? Funny that the dirigibility of the cars looks like the same.

About Anthem, I swore that I would never play any game from EA again since the Unprecedented Partnership fiasco, but the game itself was a joy to look. Maybe not on pair on what made me buy a game with some reminiscence of it, that was Xenoblade X, but that didn't felt a current generation game anyway. Worse: the vertical scope doesn't felt credible at all, especially looking at the draw-distance of it. Also from what I saw, there wasn't any underwater gameplay...

Maybe I'm too skeptical, but this will be another under-delivered game coming from a big company.
 
PS9

PS9

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,066
www.gamepur.com/news/26960-anthem-running-2160p-xbox-one-x.html%3Famp

The debut gameplay that was showcased at the event looked stunning. Anthem is powered by Frostbite Engine and hence fans were of the opinion that the Anthem demo was running on PC and not on Xbox One X. Thankfully, a clarification from Patrick Soderlund has arrived.

In a press note issued to Digital Foundry, EA's Patrick Soderlund confirmed that Anthemgameplay demo was running in real-time on Xbox One X.
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CloseTalker

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,163
Unclebenny said:
The problem for developers is, what do you do for preview?

Do you intentionally scale back on your aims, to then reveal a better looking game and ensure you don't overpromise? There is no way in hell you sell a product by pointing out possible deficiencies.

The problem with early previews are that they create a single presentable"vision" based on the developers plans at the time. Then spend the next few years finding out why it won't work and doing the actual development work.

So they either don't show early, which males people angry (see Diablo 4) or show early but you probably accept the vertical slice won't represent the final product in it's entirety. That also makes people angry.

The thing is, the details aren't there but the substance of what Anthem offers is the same. You can free fly round an alien world, you do spend time in first person talking to characters. It's all there just not as dense or detailed but it probably never will be for games this size.

Eventually we have to accept that the gaming community is both incredibly demanding and incredibly hostile. It is very difficult to be straight forward to an audience of people this large, who are this invested in their hobby.
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I agree that it puts the devs in a tight spot, and the real solution is a publisher that doesn't insist on gameplay being shown years out. But given that's not always the reality of the situation, of the options you laid out, my choice would absolutely be " intentionally scale back on your aims, to then reveal a better looking game and ensure you don't overpromise". From business, to relationships, to almost any other situation in life, most people would agree that "under promise, and over deliver" is a good quality to have. Even if the initial reveal doesn't blow people's minds, and leaves them thinking "yeah, that might be alright", you have lots of time, and lots of public appearances left to improve and then have people leave thinking "man, this is looking better and better!"

Decisions like this are made solely to make a big splash, and get people hyped up, with no regard for how the next two years are gonna go. It's blowing your load early, and leaving it up to the devs to clean up the mess and pray they can live up to those expectations.
 

BAD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,569
USA
Not sure why people think the slice couldn't actually run on an Xbox One X like they claim it did. Just because it was scaled down to run on the base consoles for final release?
 
Dphex

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
the game misses the whole ambiance and immersion that the reveal trailer has. there is a very thick atmosphere in the trailer that is not in the game.

and yes, this is even more misleading than Watch Dogs, Division or Killzone.

BAD said:
Not sure why people think the slice couldn't actually run on an Xbox One X like they claim it did. Just because it was scaled down to run on the base consoles for final release?
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because it doesn´t even look this way on high end PC´s? the game looks like 20% of what the reveal trailer showed...

Crossing Eden said:
When a game looks as good as Anthem does it's hard to be very fussed over it not matching a vertical slice. Like a the end of the day we're STILL talking about one of the prettiest games ever made.
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sorry, but it is far from one of the prettiest games ever made...
 
Auctopus

Auctopus

Self-requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,073
Really think people should stop assigning their life's expectations to a video game's reveal. Marketers/Developers are gonna show you the best looking product they can.

When a production car ends up looking severely more realistic than its concept design, you don't see car fans get uptight. Or maybe you do, maybe there's a ResetEra for cars out there somewhere where people are still needlessly tight about the Honda Civic '11 concept drawing.
 
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