Yeah I'm sure Mike would be delighted if we all tuned into sponsored streamers to decide on buying a game.
Well that explains why he's pissed. They probably had high hopes their crackdown/anthem combo would make some noise.Xbox is comarketing Anthem
no man, no no no no. no one is ignoring anything. you are ignoring the context of the tweet. Mike ybarra and other xbox executives constantly act like petulant manbabies on twitter, encourage GG-like mentalities, promote console war personalities, and discredit reviews. Someone in his position doing this once is just a bad look. but it isn't just once, it's a trend. it's been going on for years and years and it's fucking embarrassing. this is not about one game or one review. as has been shown multiple times, these executives praise reviews that highly rate their games or games that are part of marketing deals, or discredit reviews (and sometimes directly address reviewers they don't agree with) when their games or partner games are not well liked. that is not how reviews work. I was involved in projects that did well and did not do well. i accept people's opinions no matter what they are, I may agree or disagree silently on my own but the thing about reviews is that it's just someone's opinion someone's experience. and yes of course there is more than one way to form an opinion on a game, and they all have their merits. but this guy and his ilk are obvious, GLARING hypocrites that seek only to serve themselves. you either refuse to see that because you have personal investment in Microsoft's success or you simply do not understand just how shitty all of this is
This is a really good write up thank you. I still don't understand what those two sentences about combos are even saying.With the complaint floating around that reviewers haven't taken the time to dig into the combo system and fully understand it, it's worth taking a look at what tutorial info on combos Anthem does present to the player.
Here is the grand total of information I could find in the game about the combo system, located on a page two layers deep in the codex. Note that only the last paragraph of this page pertains directly to the combo system.
That's it. Two sentences. The game doesn't point you to this page; you'd only know to go looking for it in the first place if you paid attention to the COMBO text occasionally flying off of enemies or the few item descriptions that reference combo properties. If there's more explanatory info available somewhere else in the game, it must be in an even more obscure place than this because I haven't found it.
Look, the concept of "some abilities set up combos and other abilities trigger them" is self-evident just from playing the game -- the Storm's starting abilities do exactly that, so at least with that javelin it's hard to miss. But what if you want to explore the system in more depth? What distinguishes an impact combo from an aura combo or a chain combo? Do certain elements complement others? Do fire and ice cancel each other out? I have screenshots of three different pieces of gear that all have differently formatted flavor text about combo properties, so the messaging isn't even unified across all the loot.
You might suggest mixing and matching abilities to test out combos in free play, but for me that's a nonstarter when you have to go through five minutes of load screens into town and back every time you want to change anything about your loadout. From what I hear, if I want deeper info on this stuff I need to go... watch a developer stream from two months ago? I've seen terminology like "primer" and "detonator" thrown around, so obviously there's a more fully developed framework under the hood than what the game itself exposes, but you can't fault players (reviewer or not) for being unaware of it when even the game seems to treat combos as an afterthought.
Not to bellyache about this ad nauseam, but it's tiresome watching (an admittedly small number of) people complain that reviewers aren't doing their job in making an effort to dig into the combo mechanic because there's nothing to dig into.
The game is not released on xbone. Just a 10h trial
With the complaint floating around that reviewers haven't taken the time to dig into the combo system and fully understand it, it's worth taking a look at what tutorial info on combos Anthem does present to the player.
Here is the grand total of information I could find in the game about the combo system, located on a page two layers deep in the codex. Note that only the last paragraph of this page pertains directly to the combo system.
That's it. Two sentences. The game doesn't point you to this page; you'd only know to go looking for it in the first place if you paid attention to the COMBO text occasionally flying off of enemies or the few item descriptions that reference combo properties. If there's more explanatory info available somewhere else in the game, it must be in an even more obscure place than this because I haven't found it.
Look, the concept of "some abilities set up combos and other abilities trigger them" is self-evident just from playing the game -- the Storm's starting abilities do exactly that, so at least with that javelin it's hard to miss. But what if you want to explore the system in more depth? What distinguishes an impact combo from an aura combo or a chain combo? Do certain elements complement others? Do fire and ice cancel each other out? I have screenshots of three different pieces of gear that all have differently formatted flavor text about combo properties, so the messaging isn't even unified across all the loot.
You might suggest mixing and matching abilities to test out combos in free play, but for me that's a nonstarter when you have to go through five minutes of load screens into town and back every time you want to change anything about your loadout. From what I hear, if I want deeper info on this stuff I need to go... watch a developer stream from two months ago? I've seen terminology like "primer" and "detonator" thrown around, so obviously there's a more fully developed framework under the hood than what the game itself exposes, but you can't fault players (reviewer or not) for being unaware of it when even the game seems to treat combos as an afterthought.
Not to bellyache about this ad nauseam, but it's tiresome watching (an admittedly small number of) people complain that reviewers aren't doing their job in making an effort to dig into the combo mechanic because there's nothing to dig into.
You mean EA are charging for access to the game?
The Ars Technica review pretty much points this out as well. It's not even that he couldn't figure out combos were a thing, it's that it is incredibly bad documented and explained how to even make the most out of them.With the complaint floating around that reviewers haven't taken the time to dig into the combo system and fully understand it, it's worth taking a look at what tutorial info on combos Anthem does present to the player.
Here is the grand total of information I could find in the game about the combo system, located on a page two layers deep in the codex. Note that only the last paragraph of this page pertains directly to the combo system.
That's it. Two sentences. The game doesn't point you to this page; you'd only know to go looking for it in the first place if you paid attention to the COMBO text occasionally flying off of enemies or the few item descriptions that reference combo properties. If there's more explanatory info available somewhere else in the game, it must be in an even more obscure place than this because I haven't found it.
Look, the concept of "some abilities set up combos and other abilities trigger them" is self-evident just from playing the game -- the Storm's starting abilities do exactly that, so at least with that javelin it's hard to miss. But what if you want to explore the system in more depth? What distinguishes an impact combo from an aura combo or a chain combo? Do certain elements complement others? Do fire and ice cancel each other out? I have screenshots of three different pieces of gear that all have differently formatted flavor text about combo properties, so the messaging isn't even unified across all the loot.
You might suggest mixing and matching abilities to test out combos in free play, but for me that's a nonstarter when you have to go through five minutes of load screens into town and back every time you want to change anything about your loadout. From what I hear, if I want deeper info on this stuff I need to go... watch a developer stream from two months ago? I've seen terminology like "primer" and "detonator" thrown around, so obviously there's a more fully developed framework under the hood than what the game itself exposes, but you can't fault players (reviewer or not) for being unaware of it when even the game seems to treat combos as an afterthought.
Not to bellyache about this ad nauseam, but it's tiresome watching (an admittedly small number of) people complain that reviewers aren't doing their job in making an effort to dig into the combo mechanic because there's nothing to dig into.
The worst part in my opinion too is the singling out of one reviewer. Like come on in 2019 if you're a person in a position of power with a huge number of rabid fans and you call a single person a whiner and embarrassing, you have to know you're essentially setting that person up for a huge amount of harassment from said rabid fans.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds this kind of thing infuriating. It's like hearing the Brexit quote about people being tired of hearing from experts over and over in every medium, every hobby, every corner of everything where people in power feel like they have something to protect and it is mind numbing and infuriating.
He didn't specify the reviewer though, at least not as far as I can tell in that tweet?
Come on man. He's saying things specific enough where people can easily find out who the author is, especially when there aren't even many reviews out yet.
The 'whole other part' of his tweet was wrong too.
Thank you for the detailed insight. Certainly refutes the posters on here who want to spread misinformation about 'games journalists being bad at the game'. Especially those who responded to Patrick so arrogantly. Some users on here just can't behave.With the complaint floating around that reviewers haven't taken the time to dig into the combo system and fully understand it, it's worth taking a look at what tutorial info on combos Anthem does present to the player.
Here is the grand total of information I could find in the game about the combo system, located on a page two layers deep in the codex. Note that only the last paragraph of this page pertains directly to the combo system.
That's it. Two sentences. The game doesn't point you to this page; you'd only know to go looking for it in the first place if you paid attention to the COMBO text occasionally flying off of enemies or the few item descriptions that reference combo properties. If there's more explanatory info available somewhere else in the game, it must be in an even more obscure place than this because I haven't found it.
Look, the concept of "some abilities set up combos and other abilities trigger them" is self-evident just from playing the game -- the Storm's starting abilities do exactly that, so at least with that javelin it's hard to miss. But what if you want to explore the system in more depth? What distinguishes an impact combo from an aura combo or a chain combo? Do certain elements complement others? Do fire and ice cancel each other out? I have screenshots of three different pieces of gear that all have differently formatted flavor text about combo properties, so the messaging isn't even unified across all the loot.
You might suggest mixing and matching abilities to test out combos in free play, but for me that's a nonstarter when you have to go through five minutes of load screens into town and back every time you want to change anything about your loadout. From what I hear, if I want deeper info on this stuff I need to go... watch a developer stream from two months ago? I've seen terminology like "primer" and "detonator" thrown around, so obviously there's a more fully developed framework under the hood than what the game itself exposes, but you can't fault players (reviewer or not) for being unaware of it when even the game seems to treat combos as an afterthought.
Not to bellyache about this ad nauseam, but it's tiresome watching (an admittedly small number of) people complain that reviewers aren't doing their job in making an effort to dig into the combo mechanic because there's nothing to dig into.
it only seems like nonsense if you ignore the subtext that a guy who has a stake in the success of a product would try to send people somewhere they're much more likely to find sources that have been compensated for positive coverage of that product. it doesn't in any way imply that streams are an invalid way to gather information or form an opinion, and no one is saying that. they're just held to a lower standard of integrity, which in the context of this tweet, who is saying it, and why they're saying it, is a completely fair and reasonable point to make. so it seems weird that you put so much effort into defending him.
I literally do not care about any of this. I was correcting people who thought xbone had full access or that the expensive version let you play early.
The game reviewer is criticizing an inanimate object and doesn't have the kind of power and following that the VP of Xbox has. VP of Xbox is criticizing a human being by calling him a whiner and embarrassing.
That's not what that user is referring to. They're talking about the "It comes out on Friday" tweet and all of the responses in this thread that it's been out since last Friday. When it has not for Xbox.
i haven't played anthem so i don't know if not knowing how to combo or whatever is a valid complaint. but I do know is that the thread title mentions him calling all critics of anthem whiners, where in fact its just one unnamed review, so i am guessing people are not reading the actual tweet? seems innocent enough, I too would like people that get paid to review games to be as informed as possible. anyway nothing to get worked up about. the man is entitled to his opinion. And as for his take on the modern review or whatever, I agree with him. i myself base my purchasing decisions on watching gameplay and recommendations from friends who know my tastes in games. i haven't read a written review in years and a suspect a lot of people are the same way. i see some people twisting these tweets into something else entirely, that is what I find amusing.
Hmmm you seem to be implying that attacking someone if it backfires on you makes it ok.
Reviewers: "The campaign is cut due to a gate that requires you to complete a laundry list of challenges to progress further. It breaks the flow of the game and the reward is disappointing".
there are a number of people on this forum that are verified as developers yet to varying degrees push lies, conspiracy theories, and arguments against their own best interests. That is to say, your career doesn't make you immune to being wrong, and supporting harmful things isn't exactly new to humanity.
