#ea access

How to play Anthem early

Anthem is EA Bioware’s new first-person RPG shooter title. It’ll launch on February 22nd, 2019 and everyone is curious to see if Bioware still has the skills to make excellent RPG’s similar to their old titles like Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. To participate in the demo or play early, there are several different dates.

Anthem VIP Demo

Dates: Jan. 25-27

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Need for Speed Payback Details and Gameplay Trailer

At EA Play, EA announced a new Need for Speed game called Need for Speed Payback. According to the executive producer of the game, Marcus Nilsson, the player is on a revenge mission to take down a cartel known as “The House.” The game will offer players a different experience than previous Need for Speedgames with “more heist missions, intense courses, grueling car battles, and jaw dropping…

I played the trial of Mass Effect: Andromeda last night/this morning, and got as far in the main story as it lets you. Still got some exploring and stuff to do. Some thoughts so far.

Looks

Yes, as has been mentioned by many, the animations are a bit “Thunderbirds puppet” and the faces a little off. Whilst this may put some people off, it’s not enough to pull me out of the game. Graphically otherwise the game looks great. I particularly like the detail that wherever you stop in space is visible from the front window of the ship, instead of the generic starfields of the last gen games.

Writing

Characters so far have potential. Though it is difficult to avoid comparing them to the crewmates I spent three long games alongside. The writing so far is typical for sci-fi of this sort, a little clichéd at times, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m interested to see where it goes.

Gameplay

Pretty much ME3 style gunplay/powers in the shooty parts. The conversation choices have been broadened, avoiding obvious good/bad or right/wrong things to say. Exploration, the Nomad is what the Mako from ME1 should have been. Easier to control and doesn’t bounce like double d’s on a trampoline. Planet scanning from orbit is still a bit of a chore though.

Overall

As a fan of the series so far (apart from the ending of ME3 as it was at launch) I’m definitely buying this to see how it develops and spend some more time in the ME universe.