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Day: 27 March 2018

Review: Sea of Thieves

Written by David Uncle on . Posted in Games.

My crew are raiding an island fort, taking out skeletons like professional pirates. We spot sails in the distance, and rush to our ship to give chase and claim us some loot. Only, that boat is actually ours, and some other players have raised our anchor and set our ship adrift, leaving us stranded. Shiver me timbers indeed.

It’s moments like these that make Sea of Thieves such a laugh. Rare have really captured the thrill of pirating, and an open-world co-op sandbox is the perfect setting for it. Sailing around as a crew is immensely satisfying, for various reasons. From performing sea shanties together, to pillaging islands for treasure and most excitingly, ship-to-ship combat.

Getting drunk together is also hilarious, as if you down too many mugs of the ominously-vague ‘grog’, you’ll throw up. If you catch your sick in a bucket, you can throw it at your friends (or enemies) to temporarily blind them. What’s more, being covered in your sick makes them sick too. It’s gross and admittedly gratuitous, but it’s fantastic, rambunctious fun.

Image: Rare
Image: Rare

My crew’s PvP tactic was as follows: 3 crew-mates unleash a cannonade of doom from the ship, whilst a fourth team member smuggles a barrel of gunpowder on or beneath the enemy ship, before blowing them sky-high. Then, in the destructive aftermath, it’s all hands on deck as we steal as much of their hard-earned treasure chests as we can.

The regular raids are also a guaranteed slaughter-fest. Every once in a while, a skeleton fort will be lit up by an ominous skull-shaped cloud, alerting the whole server to the prospect of getting rich. At these events, you must defeat several waves of various types of skeleton and then a boss, which rewards you with large amounts of treasure. Naturally, when these events appear, most crews flock towards them, making them exhilarating PvP hotspots. My crew took on (and defeated) five or six different groups during one of these events, and it was some of the tensest fun I’ve had in a while. By the end, our boat was riddled with boarded up cannonball holes and depleted of supplies but most importantly, we had won, and we were rich.

However, this is where Sea of Thieves needs improvement. The only items you can spend money on are cosmetics for your pirate, your weaponry or your boat. Admittedly, giving your pirate an eyepatch, peg leg and a hook arm is awesome, but after a while having nothing to spend your money on but cosmetics feels like too much hard work for too little a reward. Some items are expensive, too. A new sail or hull pattern for your ship costs at least 70,000 gold, which takes quite a few hours to grind. I’m not against grinding, in fact in some games I enjoy it, but in Sea of Thieves, it didn’t feel worth it just for aesthetics.

The game’s main ‘boss’ is an enormous kraken who will attack your ship at random, and he’s a tough fight. You’d probably expect some epic loot from such an endeavour — a few thousand gold perhaps, or maybe a title, but no. There is no reward for killing the kraken, arguably the hardest task in the game.

The lack of content really is the biggest issue with Sea of Thieves. There are only two boats. Why not add man-of-wars, frigates and triremes, each with their different advantages and disadvantages in naval combat? Indeed, the world needs more activities too.

As it stands, you have four main money-making activities to do: find buried treasure, kill undead pirate captains, kidnap animals and do raids. What this means is you can experience all the activities the game has to offer in 2-3 hours, if you so desire. They should implement additional features like fishing or placing bounties on murderous players and hunting them. Rare themselves have said the possibilities are endless with this game. So why are there so few at launch?

It must be said that Sea of Thieves has a beautiful art style. Simple yet charming terrain and character textures, mixed with some of the best water textures and physics I’ve seen in a game. On a clear day, the sea really is gorgeous. During storms, the waves get choppier and the skies darker, and it creates a truly grim atmosphere that’s a joy to experience.

Image: Rare. A beautiful sunrise over the rolling waves
Image: Rare. A beautiful sunrise over the rolling waves

A small issue for me, but perhaps a greater one for others, is the always online aspect. If you play this game alone or in a pair, you will be forced to use the smaller ship (fast, but poorly armed) and will be in the same game as crews of three to four in galleons, which have literally four times as much firepower. Exploring the waves is also just a bit boring alone — there’s no merry pirate banter, you must flee from any fights and there’s none of the gratification of successful teamwork paying off.

In summary, Sea of Thieves is the combination of indie co-op sailing games like Blackwake and the AAA quality of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. It’s an extremely fun pirate game in a crew of four friends, and PvP combat is hugely satisfying. Sadly, the game is let down by lacklustre solo gameplay, and the current lack of interesting items and activities to spend or earn money on. Rare have confirmed they’re working on updates to add more content, so hopefully they make the game live up to its £50 price tag.

7/10

Live Review: Django Django at the Ritz

Written by Ethan Davies on . Posted in Music.

Django Django has been riding high, recently. A new album with some critical acclaim and mainstream success has lead to their latest tour, which stopped at the O2 Ritz on Wednesday, a sold-out affair at times.

I arrived just in time to catch the first support act, Man of Moon, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The Scottish two-piece displayed punchy drums throughout, alongside tight guitars, and an effervescent light show that ought to have been seen by more people. As the Royal Blood-influenced half hour set drew to a close, the final song, ‘Sign’, really caught my attention. Its electronic influences added something to the powerful performance of the two-piece, and complemented Django Django’s synth-heavy performance.

Following Man of Moon came Self Esteem, who were radically different to the opening band. Self Esteem are made up of three vocalists and a drummer, with lead vocalist Rebecca Taylor also occasionally using an electric guitar. Self Esteem’s performance was somewhat confused: stripped back (at times just being one vocalist and finger-snapping), it didn’t directly follow from Man Of Moon. That being said, the more heavy songs from the band were very much enjoyable. Taylor’s talent in undeniable, as seen in her other project Slow Club and when she returned to perform vocals for ‘Surface To Air’ with Django Django – drummer Victoria Smith also produced an impressive display. The issue of Self Esteem is that they either become more pop-friendly (and therefore become a Haim clone) or lose their message by having too small a crowd to play to. It’s unenviable.

Next up was the main act. Django Django walked on stage to rapturous applause, and excitement in abundance. Quickly they delved into album opener ‘Marble Skies’, and the pace kept up, playing ‘Shake and Tremble’ and lead single ‘Tic Tac Toe’ in quick succession. Singer Vincent Neff’s performance was one for the ages: he encouraged people to dance, seemed genuinely thankful for the sold-out show (despite the fact Django Django formed nearly ten years ago), and delivered a vocal performance that at times was mesmerising. Synthesisers were well performed by Tommy Grace, who also deserves a mention for his keyboard skills, and drummer David MacLean and bassist Jimmy Dixon both didn’t put a foot wrong either.

The setlist was varied and the gig succeeded because of that: the performance had a well-rounded feel to it, and older fans of the band certainly appreciated that Born under Saturn had not been forgotten, with ‘First Light’ receiving a warm response. The only issue with the show was the somewhat unpredictable nature of the performance of tracks off Marble Skies. ‘Tic Tac Toe’ sounded even better than in the studio, but ‘In Your Beat’ fell short of the recorded version. The same can be said of ‘Further’. This isn’t a major issue, as I recognise how difficult it can be to recreate some studio tracks. However, given the vast array of instruments on show (by my count there were 11 performed by the band), and impressive percussion throughout, did show the disparity between the performance of some newer songs.

Overall, Django Django served an enjoyable night of live music. Their performance was exciting, immersive, and topped off by some of the finest frontman-ship you’ll see on the gig circuit today. When I reviewed Marble Skies for The Mancunion, I wrote that with a more tempered approach to experimentation, the band would have hit a perfect 10. These same issues are still there: newer tracks were performed unpredictably, but nevertheless competently.

8/10

Tez Ilyas Photo: Gaby Jerrard PR

Interview: Tez Ilyas

Written by Eleanor Forrest on . Posted in Arts.

With a bibliography including two series’ on BBC Radio 4 and TV appearances on shows such as Mock the Week (BBC 2) and The Last Leg (Channel 4) Tez Ilyas’ unique brand of observational humour seeks to subvert stereotypes whilst demonstrating the diversity surrounding what it means to be British.

The Mancunion had a quick chat with the man himself:

The show is called Teztify and you’ve said that you’re doing it as a sort of ‘Teztify’ against assumptions that the world has of you, what do you mean?

I’m a Northern, working-class, Asian, Muslim and I’m British so its kind of like what do people think and what are the assumptions they have when they see someone like that on paper. Its kind of combatting and even owning those assumptions.

How have those assumptions effected you in your life so far?

Well you know theres a lot of phobia in this country. There’s racism, there’s class prejudice, there’s the North-South divide. I’m just bringing it to the national attention with lots of laughs.

One persons’ experiences are not the everyday, lived experiences of someone else. With the whole #MeToo movement I’m not a woman so I’ll just shut up and listen and see what people are going through and their experiences that I’ve not necessarily lived, or can even begin to understand, its about listening to what people have to say I guess.

How much do you want your work to effect people of the same, or similar, background as you? Do you think it does?

Its not for me to say but I just want them to come out and enjoy it, primarily laugh and if they get something more from that and they go away thinking ‘this guy is talking about a narrative that I know but I don’t see in the mainstream’. That would be really nice, but the main thing is I want them to laugh and I’m from the heart.

You’ve worked on BBC Radio 4 with your show Tez Talks, what was that like?

Amazing. BBC Radio 4 have been very good to me for a few years now. After my first show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015, which was also called Tez Talks, they wanted to work with me and create a Radio 4 series from it in 2016 and that went really well there is now a second series that was just released last month. I’ve been really happy with the support they’ve given me and its nice that they’ve shown me a lot of love, I really appreciate that.

You didn’t start off as a comedian, you actually did Bio-Chemistry as well as a Masters. Was there ever an inkling that you were interested in doing something else?

When I finished my degree I kind of realised that I didn’t want to do science, I didn’t want to live my life in a lab, so I decided that I wanted to do a Masters in Management which led to me getting a job in London. Comedy came after that, it was an accident really. There’s not really many people in the Arts from my background and so doing this feels a bit like a privilege, but there should be more opportunities for people that want to do it and thats something I’m quite passionate about. Because maybe I would have got into it sooner if the opportunities were there.

As a comedian, would you say you’re in a unique place regarding the political climate and the situation a lot of countries seem to be heading towards?

We have a platform to say what we like, hopefully as part of a joke. Definitely I think the world is crazy but there’s also so much commentary that it can be quite difficult and things become out of date very quickly. So commentary on say Donald Trump, even within a week whats said can become old news because he’ll have done something else. So it can be quite difficult keeping up, but also it is a very interesting time.

If you want to here more from Tez his stand-up tour begins at London’s Soho Theatre 27th – 30th March and will be reaching Salford with two shows on the 29th April at The Lowry.

Live Review: Kylie

Written by Alexander Corns on . Posted in Music.

Gorilla, 14th March

Kylie Minogue has performed in Manchester frequently enough, but never in a venue as intimate as the 550-capacity Gorilla. Tickets sold out in seconds for this tour of five small European venues. The atmosphere in Gorilla pre-show was one of anticipation, as everyone in the room knew how fortunate they were to be there.

There was no support act — you’re seeing Kylie Minogue, who needs a support act? — and Kylie came onto the stage, clad in double denim and sporting a beaming smile, to perform three tracks from upcoming album Golden. The highlight here was the delightful ‘Raining Glitter’, a track-title which foreshadowed a showering of the audience in that very thing.

Whilst these first three songs have not yet been released (although an argument could very easily be made for ‘Raining Glitter’ to have been a lead single), the reception each received was immense and even seemed to surprise Kylie: “I always try to prepare myself for Manchester,” she told the adoring audience, “but I never can.”

She informed everyone that she felt it right that, as these are such special, intimate shows, she should play songs that you perhaps don’t hear her play as often, as opposed to making it a ‘Best Of’ show. There was no place for Kylie classics ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ or ‘2 Hearts’, then, but instead, a beautiful rendition of the brooding ‘Breathe’ as well as a stripped-back performance of ‘Put Yourself In My Place’. The audience showed their appreciation by ignoring a dramatic pre-chorus pause and simply firing their singalong straight into it, which certainly kept the band on their toes. Her pre-encore acoustic ‘All The Lovers’, too, was a crescendoing delight.

Keeping with her new country sound, she performed a rendition of ‘Islands In The Stream’ that had everyone grinning, though no one more than Kylie herself, especially at a completely spontaneous acapella singalong of her duet with ex-boyfriend Jason Donavan, ‘Especially For You’. If ever there was a metaphor for her relationship with her fans being more powerful than any other relationship, this was it. Indeed, throughout the night it was the fact that Kylie was so obviously having a great time that was truly infectious.

Her songs aren’t all wholly cheerful though, even if the melodies at times suggest otherwise. The banjo-accompanied ‘A Lifetime To Repair’ sounded like an Alanis Morisette-esque number, but betrayed a smiling-through-the-pain attitude that hasn’t been explored extensively by Kylie before. The end of the chorus told us “If I get hurt again I’ll need a lifetime to repair”.

A similarly new topic, which was tackled in the night’s final song, ‘Dancing’, is that of mortality. Kylie is turning 50 soon (she’s “49 and ten-twelfths”, apparently) though she still performs (and looks) as though she could be approaching 30, but the song gives no indication of slowing down. She sings “When I go out, I wanna go out dancing” in the chorus, and the song itself was one of the strongest of the night and, arguably, one of her best ever singles.

The key word when considering the entirety of this show is ‘fun’. It looks fun to perform and she showed a love for her fans by choosing to do this intimate tour as well as her arena-filling one later in the year. It was also immensely fun to attend: the deafening cheers after each song, old and new, told you that much. That her music still feels so fresh after 30 years of performing is a testament to her hard work and reinvention, and if this is a taste of things to come then new, country Kylie will continue to wow crowds far bigger than the lucky few who were given a chance to see her up close tonight.

9/10

‘The Zine is Dead’ – an NME Obituary

Written by Will Baldwin-Pask on . Posted in Music.

Last week saw the final print of the famous music magazine, NME. After 66 years and recently strangling sales struggles, the once thriving force for new guitar music gasped its final, physical-format breath to go online only.

One Guardian article suggested this was just another casualty of digitisation, another magazine that can’t keep up with the explosion of online content, or the declining purchases of actual paper. At the foot of the Guardian’s article was a plea for £1 donations to secure their own future, so their bitterness is understandable.

But a changing world of news accounts for only part of NME’s fall.

NME has benefited massively any time British rock music had an outburst. The eruption of pop in the 60’s, punk in the 70’s, Britpop in the 90’s and eventually indie in the 00’s would pump fresh life into the publication with each scene’s chart prominence.

But the magazine was as good as the bands it adored. And although the music evolved, the audience stayed as young and white as ever. When some in the editorial team suggested a focus on hip-hop and dance music in the 80’s, they ended up sticking to what they knew, making icons out of Morrissey and other puberty-mood heroes.

This might have been their biggest mistake. Although it must be said, riding wave after wave of white-boy guitar bands kept their head above water, and at the turn of the century, they helped curate an indie scene that would carry them right up to their grave.

If you stood in the middle of the 2000s and looked around at the indie music scene, the talent was undeniably staggering. And celebrating that was what NME did. The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys and many others plastered the front page each week. The indie bands that the mag put its faith in were exciting and original enough to turn an NME into a music fan’s best friend.

In a way, this was NME’s hubris. Indie music has proven to be the furthest that creative, progressive guitar music in this country can go. NME committed themselves to this scene and even helped carry it. But once the big bands started to split, the fans split too, knocking up a coffin for the magazine that had brought them all together.

The fact is their role has been made redundant. Streaming services can tell you what’s new and what’s suited to your taste in a matter of clicks. Music mags like Noisey, Resident Advisor and Complex offer genre-specific entertainment that young people want and have far better online presence. ‘Fire In The Booth’ is more likely to catapult someone into the charts now. When it comes to musical hegemons, guitar music is almost all the way out; for now, hip-hop is here to stay.

“Rap the new rock’n’roll!” Right again Kanye.

If you look at the last few Reading Festival line-ups, you’ll see a clear transformation in young people’s taste. NME, who shared a stage with Radio 1, were rightfully at the forefront of accommodating new music. For three days in August, NME offered the best of indie rock for all the young people celebrating exam results. But now the line-up has shifted towards hip-hop, grime and dance in step with the preferences of Reading’s sixth form demographic. Whilst the festival has adapted, NME has not. This year, rather portentously, the stage was just called “The Radio 1 Stage”.

But even if their death was due, NME has undeniably served several generations of music lovers. If you’re skimming this then you probably picked up the magazine yourself at some point. You were part of the final wave of readership and you’ll be among the last to remember its relevance.

NME influenced my earliest taste in music as much as Zane Lowe, my dad and the Inbetweeners. I loved their appraisal of the most obscure, new, unsigned electronic duo from London each week as much as I loved disagreeing with their 10/10 reviews and arse-licking of the Gallagher’s. I haven’t read one for years, but for years I read them and consumed their reviews, recommendations and ranking lists wholeheartedly. I may have grown out of NME but they were, unashamedly, an informative part of my adolescence.

My first copy frontpage ‘Them Crooked Vultures’. There were a bunch of photos from a Muse tour, a few pages of Thom Yorke chatting shit; one edition is going on eBay for around £7. It was the kind of pompous poppy nonsense that drew me in and kept me drinking the drivel, just cos it was so damn reassuring to feel as if you were part of something beyond charts and radio; to see the entire upswing of bands like Biffy Clyro, Florence + the Machine and Peace; to sense a shared adoration for good quality music with endless others, transcending the shitty stuff friends played on the school bus, because you paid £2.50 a week and they’d never been to a gig in their life.

For people like me, NME will ultimately be no more than a fond memory. They’re sort of like that person you went out within year 10, your first love who you don’t talk to anymore and who probably isn’t as big a deal as you initially thought – but when you see them pop up on Facebook after all these years, you know they set you on course for the rest of your romantic life, and that’s how you’ll always think of them – and that’s cool.

There are countless kids like you and me who used to care about what NME had to say. None of those kids cares now. But that doesn’t mean we can’t mourn.

NME is no more. Their stubborn support of indie killed them. But the next time Jake Bugg comes up on shuffle, think about where that support took you, and the sort of music fan you’d be if it hadn’t been for NME.

Style file

Written by Sophie Walsh on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

How would you describe your own personal style?

Sports teacher X Courtney Love (with a sprinkling of The Simple Life Paris Hilton).

Who is your biggest style and fashion icon and why?

Freja Wewer. She’s a Danish blogger, sashaying her way across Copenhagen in collaboration sports-wear and a cloud of Marlboro Red smoke. Her entire blog is written in Danish but her Instagram features the same photographs, pictures speak a thousand words after all. I get most of my fashion inspiration from Instagram, I try and follow all the small independent magazines as they are often the first too jump on quirkier trends, as well as up and coming designers. My top tip is to utilise the save feature, I use that as a mood board. It’s full of blondes, not in a weird Hitchcock way, but so I know what best suits my colouring.

What are your favourite luxury and high-street brands?

My favourite luxury brand at the moment is Burberry. I recently purchased a suspiciously cheap Burberry rain Mac from Depop, we’re talking full on Nova Check print from shoulder to knee. Yep, that’ll get me kicked out of a few shopping centres.

For everyday items, I go to Cow vintage. They sell it all, from sweatshirts and jeans to cowboy boots. My favourite formula for a night out however, is usually a bottom half from Urban Outfitters, at the moment I’m liking a reworked camo mini skirt or a pair of combat trousers. Then a basic top like a bandeau or Bardot from my guilty pleasure Misguided (it’s not all bodycon dresses and thigh high boots, it’s cheap and good for simple layers). To finish, a pair of trainers or Docs (we all know that only the sh*te places make you wear heels).

What are the beauty essentials you cannot live without?

Glossier, Glossier, Oh Glossier. Shall I compare thee to a Summers day, thou art more lovely and blah blah. You get the idea (sorry Will). The hype was spreading. The Christmas money was in. I was sceptical but I gave it a go. After using the Phase 1 kit: Milky Jelly Cleanser, Priming Moisturizer  and Balm Dotcom in cherry, along with Solution, a daily exfoliator, I felt transformed into a glowing seraph (with the occasional zit).

As far as makeup is concerned, I like to keep it minimal in the day, focusing on skin and eyes. I was so tired of buying foundations that talked the talk but did nothing for my skin. So, I made it my mission to try out every one on the market, surviving on free samples from Selfridges for over a year (shout out to Karen on the Clinique counter). Then finally, I discovered RMK Creamy Foundation that “works to enhance the skin’s barrier function, resulting in a skin supple and glowing”, at £38 a bottle it is a splurge buy but by God it’s worth it. RMK “holds firm roots within the New York make-up artistry scene and is carefully brought to life in dedicated laboratories in Japan”.

Which fashion trend would you like to see burn and die?

Those bikini bottoms that are pulled right up to the waist and up the arse. Skinny Jeans. Snap backs of course, goes without saying. River Island tops with either a New York skyline or sunset scene. Ice gem hair. God, there’s too many.

If you could be transported in time to one fashion era, when would it be and why?

J’adore late 90’s and early 00’s style, but it was only a few years ago and I’d rather not be listening to Sexyback on an IPod Nano again. Without a doubt, it would have to be Baroque France. The court of Louis XIV in Versailles. Think off the shoulder, metres of silk, frothy lace and dripping in jewels. Parties, alcohol, food, sex, more alcohol. Where else would you be able to be this extravagant? Decadence at its finest and I need it tbh.

Photo: FuseTV

Brian Cox: abolish first-year exams

Written by Amy Wei on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

Brian Cox has stated that he wants to abolish first-year exams at the University of Manchester.

Cox, a professor of particle physics at the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said that professors “talk about it quite a lot”.

The University of Middlesex became the first university to abolish first-year exams in 2004, after first-year drop-out rates rose to 25 per cent.

“That would be something I would like to see,” Cox told The Mancunion in an interview.

Professor Brian Cox told The Mancunion that he supports the scrapping of exams “because I want students to come to university and be faced with an existential crisis, which is like: ‘why am I here?’ Because I’m not here to pass the exam, because there isn’t one.”

“So therefore, what am I doing? And of course, physics students are here to learn about nature — that’s actually what you’re here to do. You’re not here to pass the exam.

“I actually don’t care if my first-year students pass the exam or not.

“I mean, I know that it’s a mechanism by which if you really fail, you get thrown out. But I don’t really care about that. I care about people enjoying the act of learning and understanding, because that’s what you really need to do well.”

Some Russell group universities, including Birmingham and York, have already abolished exam assessments from entire courses. Hundreds of courses at newer universities have also abandoned examinations.

Earlier this academic year, Cambridge University announced they are seeking to scrap all written exams across all their courses.

Critics have warned the decline of exams in UK universities was putting degrees at risk of being “dumbed down”, and could result in an increase in academic plagiarism.

When asked if he was worried that abolishing exams would cause first-year students to slack off, Cox dismissed the fear.

“I don’t worry about that, because there might be a small minority, but… I came here to learn about stuff! You know, I didn’t come here to pass exams, I wanted to know about astronomy. So I think most people are like that, especially at a university like Manchester.

“There’s quite a selection effect operating, you’ve obviously done well, you are good enough to be here when you’re here. So there’s not a problem with your intellectual capability, so if there’s a problem with your motivation, that’s something that’s going to stay with you, actually. It’s going to cause you problems later in life.

“If you have this opportunity to come to a university like this, and be exposed to so many ideas and have so many opportunities, and you choose to spend it all in the bar, then I think that you’ve got some other problems.

“So, I think actually being given that responsibility and freedom is probably a more important gift than continuing along the line that you had at school. Which is: why are you at school? To pass the exam. Why are you at university? Not to pass the exam, actually — to learn about stuff.”

The professor clarified: “I’m not saying get a third.”

A second-year undergraduate at the University of Manchester expressed doubts to The Mancunion about the idea: “I think [exams] are a good practice so you know what’s coming in second year.”

Laura Swain, an English Literature undergraduate, agreed: “I do feel they perhaps help in giving you the experience of what to expect from an exam at university, so you are not completely oblivious when you have exams that actually count towards your degree in second year.”

This discussion comes after the Universities and Colleges Union’s (UCU) announcement on Tuesday, the 13th of March, that they intend to escalate USS strikes to potentially disrupt May exam season across Russell group universities in the UK. Brian Cox himself is participating in the strike.

Sally Hunt, the Union’s general secretary, said: “The strike action for this week remains on and we will now make detailed preparations for strikes over the assessment and exam period.

“We want urgent talks with the universities’ representatives to try and find a way to get this dispute resolved.”

Anthem reeks of EA’s stifling over-ambition

Written by Jeremy Bijl on . Posted in Games.

Aside from what we saw at E3 2017, we don’t know all that much about Anthem.

Not much, except EA want it to be huge, describing it as “the start of maybe a 10 year journey” for developers Bioware.

Looking at Anthem’s known features also goes some way to demonstrating what EA want from this game: everything. Anthem is an open-world, co-operative, MMO (or possibly ‘instanced shared world’) first and/or third-person shooter with RPG elements, also featuring a choice-based story emphasis, a weapon upgrade system and an in game economy. In other words, every major AAA gaming craze from the current console generation.

Of course, much of this echoes the story of Activision, Bungie and Destiny. Destiny, which was originally pitched as a shooter meets MMO, had similarly lofty ambitions along with a deal for multiple sequels and DLCs.

Destiny, however, faced a notoriously troubled development. Speaking to Jason Schreier, Jaime Griesemer, a senior developer at Bungie, spoke of the pressure the studio faced, saying “there was a looming feeling that Destiny had to be the greatest thing they’d ever done,” describing the game as an “impossible ideal.” Bungie also had the pressure of developing their first game since Halo, so audience expectations were high to say the least.

Of course, EA and Bioware are themselves under a lot of pressure external to the ambition of Anthem. The last game the two worked in tandem on, Mass Effect Andromeda, was arguably as tumultuous as Destiny, with five years of development culminating in a game that was received poorly and criticised heavily. Compounding this, EA have had an awful year in the headlines and, after debacles with Need for Speed and Star Wars: Battlefront II, are in the midst of an image crisis.

In Destiny’s development, this external and internal pressure became evident long before the game came out: there were a number of warning signs – senior figures (including Griesemer himself) were let go, Activision and Bungie had public disagreements on Twitter regarding Destiny’s E3 presentation, and, at one point, a poorly recevied leaked supercut was released, prompting a complete change of direction for the game.

Similarly troubling signs are already emerging from the otherwise clandestine development of Anthem. In July 2017, Bioware’s general manager, Aaren Flynn, stepped down, and in March of this year, Drew Karpyshyn, the studio’s most reknowned writer, also left the studio. Both had been working on Anthem.

Elsewhere, an ex-Bioware employee publically declared that Anthem will be “an example of EA’s monetization plans.”

The last of these early warning signs is perhaps symptomatic of a larger problem for Anthem and Bioware: the game is tied indelibly to three of EA’s overarching ambitions: the Frostbite Engine, their microtransaction policies, and their ‘games as a service’ model.

The Frostbite engine is the one most likely to cause internal conflict, and Bioware have previously criticised the tool. Again speaking to Jason Schreier, Bioware cinematic artist John Epler commented regarding Dragon Age: Inquisition that the Frostbite Engine “was absolutely the worst tools experience I’ve ever had.”

photo:Wikimedia

Later on, Kotaku reported that the Frostbite engine had also been extremely problematic in the development of Bioware’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, and that the EA DICE developed engine, whilst incredibly powerful and competent for some purposes, was equally unwieldy and ineffective in regards to other vital tasks.

On the level of consumption, I have to admit I’ve never been smitten with the Frostbite engine. Out of all the engines, it is no doubt the one that is capable of producing the most beautiful scenery and the meatiest environments, but – perhaps appropriately, given its name – it has always felt a little stiffer and less responsive than the likes of the Unreal engine and the Creation engine.

As I hinted at earlier, the Frostbite engine isn’t the only EA entity shackled to Bioware and Anthem – we’re also likely to see a fully integrated microtransaction/lootbox system.

If, as EA’s Patrick Soderlund suggested, Anthem started development four years before its E3 demo, then it would have been commissioned in 2013 – the year current CEO Andrew Wilson took over. Even if it had begun prior to Wilson’s promotion, it is likely that Wilson would have arrived early enough to mould the game while it was still in pre-development.

Given that the Wilson 2013-present era was the start of an age in which the likes of FIFA’s Ultimate Team kickstarted a phase of really quite aggressive monetisation, it is likely that anything commissioned under Wilson at that time would follow that EA philosophy, which involves not just optional extras, but sewing microtransactions (often quite ingeniously, I must admit) into the core mechanics of the game – a period in which they twice won The Consumerist’s ‘Worst Company in America’ award.

More like macrotransactions photo: EA

If Anthem has indeed been constructed, at least to some extent, around this, then it is overwhelmingly likely we’ll see it in the finished product. Given that we are now, time-wise, 60-80% of the way through Anthem’s development cycle and that the E3 demo occured before EA’s controversies with their monetisation systems, it seems inevitable that the game will be the apex EA’s of creeping plan to normalise in-game purchases for already premium price games, as the aforementioned ex-Bioware employee suggests.

Granted, EA’s tough year with public backlash might curb the way pricing is scaled in Anthem, but given the period in which Anthem was conceived, it seems likely that monetization will be too deeply entrenched in the core mechanics of the game to eradicate the erosive effect that microtransactions, loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics have on the game’s core. Moreover, the fact that EA have now reintegrated microtransactions back in Star Wars: Battlefront II (albeit as cosmetics only) indicates that they are not yet done with the model, even if they have learned a thing or two about restraining it.

One last, but no less significant, factor that may be rolled out in full force is EA’s long term ‘games as a service’ (a.k.a. live service) ambition. Live services would seek to replace the annual installments seen in EA’s sports franchises with a subscription fee and continuous updates. This is something EA are already considering with the likes of FIFA and Madden, and the company may see Anthem as the ideal way to integrate it.

This would make the “10 year journey” statement make far more sense: EA are essentially chasing their own GTA V and desperately want a game that retains a significant player base over time.

The thing with games that are currently thriving with a live service model – the likes of Fortnite, GTA V and Overwatch – is that the player base isn’t sustained simply by the live service itself, but by the undeniable popularity of the titles themselves.

Yes, unsurprisingly, quality is a necessary prerequisite of such a model, and Anthem will have to be no different. Unlike EA’s recent titles like Mass Effect and Star Wars, a live service game has to create a sustained demand in the first place, and, especially for an original IP like Anthem, hooking this player base will be dependent on game quality rather than a promise of future improvement – we saw how that worked out for the likes of No Man’s Sky.

Should Anthem be a live service (as Blake Jorgenson has suggested) then it is not just sales profit that would be damaged by Anthem a poor launch. Indeed, the immediate realities of commerical and critical underperformance would be compounded as it would translate into a huge loss of future earnings.

Anthem’s eventual quality is now so tied the the fate of so many of EA’s endangered long term ambitions – the Frostbite engine, the live service, corporate monetisation policies, their reputation as AAA bastions – that the pressure on Bioware is fast becoming suffocating, and this is starting to show as those Destiny-like warning signs start to creep out of the woodwork.

Bioware, who will doubtless be aware of EA’s history of shutting down even the most illustrious underperforming studios like Visceral, Origin and Black Box, know better than anyone that, at this point, Anthem needs to succeed to prevent a veritable games industry red wedding.