Today BioWare’s demo for their upcoming online coop shooter Anthem went live, sort of. An apparent problem on the back end and some weird infinite load screen bug have made it difficult to actually explore the game for any sustained period of time. At the time of writing, the game still isn’t accessible for a lot of the EA Access and Origin Premier subscribers who can play this weekend. Fortunately, I was able to spend close to two hours with the game before getting booted. I came away excited but skeptical. Advertisement I first got a chance to play Anthem at E3 last year. I hadn’t expected the game to look or feel as good as it did. Intuitive movement and controls aren’t something I normally associate with BioWare, though I’ve enjoyed the studio’s past action role-playing games despite their clunkiness. After seeing how different it felt to move in fight in Anthem, it quickly became my most anticipated game of 2019. Returning to Anthem’s world today has cooled my enthusiasm slightly. The demo, which BioWare has gone to great lengths to note is a separate slice of the game and balanced somewhat differently when it comes to the in-game economy and leveling, starts in Fort Tarsis, Anthem’s main narrative hub. From there players have the option to embark on a few different types of missions, solo or with up to three other people, to achieve specific story objectives or just to explore and grind for loot and XP. Playing on an Xbox One X, the game doesn’t look as visually striking as when I played it on a high end PC at E3. The natural lighting effects on my first outing through the mountainous jungles outside the base, for instance, aren’t as impressive as what I’ve become accustomed to in games like Destiny 2 and even Fallout 76. The interior of a temple was brown and ugly. (The diegetic music in Fort Tarsis’ open air market whips, though.) I also encountered multiple, lengthy load screens when entering different parts of the map, as well as between missions and respawning from death, though it’s hard to know how much of that is a result of the game’s current server-side maladies. Combat is more visually interesting, bordering on effervescent. Anthem’s particle effects help give each fight a little zing. Ice attacks, fiery explosions, and shield effects collapsing fill the immediate vicinity with a ton of satisfying visual details. Despite the visual flair, aiming is a bit stiff. Numbers indicating damage pour over enemies rather than having the enemies physically react, but the sound effects of each bullet leaving the chamber make me want to keep shooting everything I can find. Being able to fly is wonderful, and moving around Anthem in general feels phenomenal, but I find myself falling into a strict rhythm of fighting enemies from behind bits of cover, moving to a new place, and then taking cover to fight more enemies. So far I haven’t come across many encounters that really require or reward using the verticality my suit affords me to try to outmaneuver my opponents. There are a ton of options to customize the look of the Javelins, the mech suits you wear when adventuring out in the world. There are options for switching up the colors and textures of several layers of the suits’ metallic and cloth components, as well as your gun. I’m excited for possibilities when it comes to bedazzling them in the coming months. At the same time, I didn’t stumble upon that many interesting items in my initial outings outside of a few components to augment some of my Javelin’s defense and melee damage. Anthem doesn’t seem like the type of shooter where new equipment is constantly dropping from dead enemies. Advertisement Though I was dubious about another online multiplayer game with NPCs, so far Anthem’s characters seem like real people with fully-formed personalities. Matthias, who I recovered an artifact for, is both incredibly knowledgeable but also unsure himself, a dichotomy he oscillates between during conversations in subtle ways rather than remaining one note. I’ve only chatted up a handful of characters, but none of them seem like stilted, one dimensional personas who only exist to add lines to your to-do list. The residents of Fort Tarsis look like Final Fantasy X’s Al-Bhed in their skin-tight cutoffs and high-tech surgeon masks. (The jury’s still out on whether that’s a good thing or not.) Advertisement Anthem’s current demo period runs through the weekend. I plan to play a bunch more of it during that time, leveling up to unlock other Javelins and exploring some of the missions on tougher difficulties with a full party—assuming the servers are working at least. The game’s next demo period, which runs the weekend of February 1, will be open to all players, and the complete game launches on February 22.<doc-sep>Mark Darrah, executive producer of BioWare’s upcoming Anthem , has given some details on how Anthem’s beta that kicks off later this week will differ from the final game. Have you played Anthem? YES NO So how’s the Anthem demo different from the game? - we start you in the middle - no tutorials - no pilot picker - balance is super different - economy is completely different - 6 weeks less bug fixes ... — Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) January 19, 2019 Loading In a series of responses on Twitter (via Kotaku ), Darrah explained many of these differences. The demo will not place players at the beginning of the game, but at some point in the middle instead. There won’t be tutorials (or at least not like there will be in the main game) or the “pilot picker” - the game’s character creator. The game’s economy and overall balance will reportedly be much different in the final game as well.Because the team branched off development on this demo and the main game back in December, the demo will be somewhat of a “snapshot” of what the game was at the end of last year. Because of this, there will be six weeks worth of less bug fixes, only one story arc, the mission/stronghold/freeplay balance will be off, the PC controls (specifically flight controls) will be less nuanced, and things will have been renamed for clarity in the main game.When responding to various questions on Twitter, Darrah claimed the microtransactions that will be present in the game will be for vanity items that can also be earned using in-game currency, that the demo would be easier than the final game in general, and that loot will be instanced, so what players earn at the end of a mission will all be of the same rarity, but won’t all be the exact same loot.According to BioWare , those who have either preordered Anthem or are members of EA or Origin Access will be able to play the VIP demo from Friday, January 25, 9am PT - Sunday, January 27, 6pm PT. An identical open demo, which will naturally be available to all players the following week, will be open from Friday, February 1, 9am PT - Sunday February 3, 6pm PT. For console players, the demo will require a PlayStation Plus subscription on PS4 and an Xbox Live subscription on Xbox One.For more on Anthem, which is the IGN First game for January , check out over 45 minutes of gameplay footage and new info on the game , and read about how every activity in Anthem will have matchmaking. Anthem is coming to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on February 22, 2019. Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter<doc-sep>It's no secret the Anthem game demo was having trouble over the weekend. Beset by infinite loading screens, latency hiccups, and server downtime, BioWare and EA were working round the clock to get players into the second demo for its open world multiplayer shooter, which has now gone offline before opening up to everyone again later this week. Naturally, many of those who pre-ordered the game or subscribed to EA Access to enter the demo weren't happy with what they ended up with, but BioWare has already come out bearing gifts as an apology for those affected by the technical problems. In an update from Chad Robertson, BioWare's Head of Live Service, the studio announced that VIP demo players would be receiving a second, free Vinyl skin for their Javelin to wear in the full game, in addition to the sexy blue Vinyl that early adopters already knew they'd be receiving as a thank you. Read more The best new games of 2019 (and beyond) On top of this, BioWare unlocked all four Javelin classes to VIP players in the demo yesterday, where previously each one besides the Ranger had to be earned in-game through personal progression. If you weren't able to try out the other Javelins before the demo closed, don't worry, they'll all still be available to you in the open demo, which runs from February 1 - 3. It seems as though most of the critical issues prevent players from getting into the Anthem demo have now been sorted, though we'll see if EA's servers can manage under the weight of an even larger influx of players on Friday. You can keep up to date with the latest fixes and bug discussions on the EA Anwser's Anthem page. Tide over the wait to Anthem by checking out the best open world games that you can pick up and play right now.<doc-sep>What’s going on with Anthem? Why can’t I get into this “VIP Demo”? BioWare’s head of live service sought to answer those questions and reassure players that the studio knows exactly what the problems are as it works to resolve them. There are three main problems, Chad Robertson wrote yesterday evening: The spike of players entering Anthem’s demo on Friday; problems with some accounts being blocked from the demo because of how they had been flagged internally, and “infinite loads” caused by some interactions between internet service providers and players’ home networks. In all three cases, Robertson said, BioWare is working toward solutions, with the “infinite loading” problem being the toughest to address. It’s “something we may not resolve during this weekend,” he said. “Many players are not seeing this issue and the last thing we want to do is destabilize the experience for everyone.” The problem with account flags is tied to their entitlements — that is, things such as access to the demo and pre-order bonus content. “During the demo weekend, we identified a bug where VIP players with a specific combination of entitlements were being blocked from accessing the demo,” Robertson wrote. “We believe we’ve resolved most of these, but have additional cases we are addressing.” The problem caused by players surging into the demo on Friday is not because of server capacity, Robertson said. The issues that spike caused “did not present themselves during our internal testing,” he said. Fixes for these issues will be applied throughout the weekend. “I want to dispel one comment we’ve seen: that we under-planned for server capacity,” Robertson said. “To ensure stability, we intended to manage our servers to match the player population as it grew. Overall, we had excess capacity prepared for population increases, and continue to do so.” But Robertson acknowledged that the game did not work as designed to meet players’ expectations, whatever the specific problem may be. Anthem, BioWare’s open-world MMO shooter, is due to launch Feb. 22, 2019 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Friday it kicked off an early access demo for players who had pre-ordered the game or subscribed to Electronic Arts’ two premium Access services. Almost immediately, many had problems either getting into the game or launching a mission from the hub world. The surge also seemed to affect getting into all other Electronic Arts games and services. The game’s official Twitter feed said late yesterday that players on all three platforms “should not have issues accessing the VIP demo” though engineers were still “working hard to resolve some known issues.” From what I was able to observe, this is technically correct. I had no problem accessing Anthem and walking around the Fort Tarsis hub world. But trying to launch my first expedition resulted in the infinite load problem described, and I gave up on that after three tries. The “VIP Demo” was offered as an incentive for pre-ordering the $59.99 game or subscribing to EA’s Origin Access or EA Access programs, which are $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. That offers one week of play ahead of the demo’s free launch to the rest of the public on Feb. 1. Robertson did not say anything about extending either the demo or the VIP period in light of the problems playing Anthem. But players who were entitled to the VIP Demo will get an additional armor skin when the game launches. Robertson said that Anthem has still had “many players enjoying the game,” and said it was “incredibly humbling” to see more than 300,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, and more than 100 million minutes watched. “Those are Fortnite-type numbers!” he added. “We believe we’ve created an amazing game and we’re doing everything we can to ensure our entire community can enjoy it,” he said.<doc-sep>
UPDATE: The Anthem demo is now live! Get ready to fly around in your Javelin exosuits. Anthem is getting ready to release it's second demo to the public at large. Fans of high-flying robots and Destiny -style combat have been waiting for their chance to try BioWare's latest. Only a few fans had access to the VIP demo from last week, and even fewer got to play due to server issues and bugs that plagued the game. When Does Anthem Demo Start? The demo for Anthem will start on February 1 at noon EST and end on February 3 at 11 p.m. EST. In order to play, you'll need an Xbox, PS4 or PC that is strong enough to run the flight simulator. How to Download Anthem Demo On PC, you'll also need to register an account on EA's Origin site. Xbox and PS4 users can go on the Xbox store or PSN Store and download the game from there (to play on console, you will also need an Xbox Live or PSN subscription). The demo size is 23.6 GBs on PS4 and Xbox and 44 GBs on PC (if it's the same as the VIP demo). Like the VIP demo, players will get to experience the Javelins unique powers. You'll wield the elemental Storm, tank Colossus, swift Interceptor or the balanced Ranger. You'll also start with a fairly strong Javelin that's equipped with powerful weapons and abilities. The BioWare team didn't want to start players at the beginning and have them grind since they only have three days to play. There will also be something unique happening at the end of the final hours on Sunday, according to a blog post by BioWare's Chad Robertson. One of Anthem's lead producers, Ben Irving, told Newsweek that there won't be a open beta, so this demo will be the last chance we get to play before the game goes live. "We have all these programs where we invite people in, so we've been getting people to come in and play the game every month for a year, or year and a half," Irving said. "So we've done a lot of that stuff, and then we have things that we do with EA, because EA has lots of employees. We have lots of people play servers in-house and play the game. So not doing that, but we've done other things to get the same feedback."