The Secret(ish) History of Anthem | Xplay

[@xplay]

What is the best Bioware game of all time?

[@suburbannegro411]

Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age Origins.

[@Jacob-ml5bp]

@@suburbannegro411 the correct answer

[@Welcometofilm]

KOTOR and mass Effect 2 full stop.

[@dabblerdeluxe775]

Jade empire was pretty awesome

[@Jacob-ml5bp]

@@Welcometofilm I’d say it’s between mass effect 2 kotor or DA origins. It’d be disrespectful to try and say one of them is better than the other 2

[@Ultimataco]

Takes me back to hear Adam talk about video games, makes me happy

[@willkriss1497]

No kidding. It also reminded me of the old G4 show Icons

[@spencercar8080]

@@willkriss1497 The new Xplay secret(ish) history series is basically a modern Icons or at least as close as we're going to get to a modern Icons.

[@wtfsamusidk7574]

Love adam

[@NeoWind]

His wife was recovering. He even said he was going to be away. For some time

[@nathanskywalker1536]

I agree with you dude

[@JohnWilliams-cr2sz]

I am still a bit heartbroken about Anthem. I was so excited for that game in the lead up to, and was so sad when it launched, only get my hopes up and crushed again with the announcement and cancelation of 2.0. I know the chances are basically non-existent, but a small part of me hopes BioWare will return to it someday and make it a great game to play.

[@davidm.schreckii1426]

I am so right there with you believe me, there's a piece in me with.hope that anthem isn't entirely forgotten, I absolutely loved the idea, concept and gameplay of this game, the flying, OMG the flying perfection imo

[@Herowebcomics]

That would be awesome! It had such great potential! The flying was amazing! You could actually fly over the heads of enemies and shoot down at them! And that music was wonderful!

[@duomaxwell90]

I actually still play every once in awhile just because the concept is so good

[@Lancer_]

I was working at gamestop before launch and after and I got to keep the giant wall cling of all 3 types of Exosuits flying. I kept it for years until I moved earlier this year. I still hope so too. It really did have the potential to change the gaming atmosphere.

[@shorts26]

Yeah the game was amazing to me and started off better more unique and more story than destiny did at the time of its launch...the story lore and system was great even though you could see some inspiration...I always hope they will because it was ea who did it but if it was smart live service makes great money...

[@ryanbrown5339]

I wanted so badly for this game to be good. It was good…but the buggy beginnings and absolutely INSANE endgame grind (and lack of additional endgame content) killed it. Am sad.

[@Chijiko]

Goodness I remember the grind at the middle of the story that basically was a stretch of game time.

[@jonathanmoore8886]

Think what killed it was Bioware and EA abandoning it. Grindy games are all over the place, they get the support they need.

[@gho5trun3r68]

The story was also non-existent and the jet pack was such a tease and incredibly clunky to use.

[@kylecamden]

Please don't stop making content, Adam. Your videos are THE best thing on G4

[@gregruddock5662]

Man I hope Adam enjoys producing this type of content as much as we enjoy absorbing it...

[@RAYoung-ie3cf]

It's really good to see Adam again. My college roommates and I watched a lot of G4 back in the mid 2000s.

[@BabyD576]

These are seriously the best videos! Keep em coming.

[@syntheticXstasy]

Love this. More long form Sessler content please!

[@AbbreviatedReviews]

I think the original idea of Anthem being an open world game about surviving as long as you could would have been really appealing. That being said, I though Anthem had some good parts. I liked the world and the combat mechanics were decent enough to keep me playing all the way though. I was really interested to see what their rework brought. Things like numerous load times, a functionally disappointing hub zone, lack of content, and the awful loot system could all have been addressed to make a competent game. I imagined a world where it would work more like The Division where you'd exist in the world and hubs were places you could return to when you wanted to.

[@codybishop7526]

Sooooo good to have Adam back, giving his opinions

[@50nuccio]

Hope he keeps them to games and not politics.

[@missedputts]

@@50nuccio i hope your mom keeps them to games and not politics

[@50nuccio]

@@missedputts 😂Drrrrrr, good one, Dave Chapelle. 😂😂😂

[@cleetusi9559]

I love these history's, I didn't know I needed them and glad they're here!

[@willkriss1497]

kinda reminds me of the old G4 show Icons

[@LaraxusArt]

Anthem had such potential to be incredible. Despite all it's flaws, the core gameplay is still crazy fun. I was so sad when Next got canceled.

[@Obi_Wanna_Blow_Me]

Right? I loved the actual gameplay.

[@809200]

Got that right. I am so sad that the 2.0 remake got canned. The game play was really good.

[@bjohn961]

I love that XPlay is back and to hear Adam talking about games again is the icing on the cake!

[@V0KAN]

Absolutely love this breakdown and historical context you provided, Adam. Great work. It's appreciated and your voice in the gaming community has been missed!

[@Batz130]

The team meeting where they brainstormed ideas without romance but that's all the devs wanted to do had me crackin up 🤣🤣🤣🤣 well done and realistic 👍🏼

[@be-noble3393]

Good journalism is hard to find. Good Gaming journalism is much harder to find. Glad you can keep making things like this.

[@evo542]

The Sess man cometh. Love ya G4 and X-Play!

[@TGMinnieeMee]

The XPlay logo peeling off of the wall is giving me so much anxiety 😳

[@angrysarcasm2229]

The 'Bioware Magic' was lost because of the never ending search for more money. I also suspect they treated their staff badly. Demanding they use one software that wasn't capable of meeting their needs is likely a good indicator as to how their people were treated overall. I get the need to save money, I do, but creating the need for more man hours isn't the way to save. You can't sacrifice the lives of your people with deadlines and 17 hour work days and expect the 'magic' to happen.

[@temporary67315]

So they took the Renegade attitude instead of being Paragon? Dang

[@Muskers92]

I love that the camera cut to Adam when he said "narcissists"

[@jimjam51075]

He was clapping the biggest when this ship hit the iceberg a while back.

[@haydenvassar]

The secret(ish) history videos are some of my favorite things Xplay has done since it’s come back. Really great stuff!

[@WDSimp]

PVE-focused multiplayer action games are just about my favorite thing in gaming right now. It's always a shame when one of them doesn't pan out.

[@BlueAxis3]

Love having you back, Sess! The rest of the team is doing you proud though!

[@Peringon]

I loved the little sketch about the development of npcs in Anthem 😂😂 I'd like to imagine it is a bit like that

[@joshuaclark9366]

Good to see Adam back at it!

[@Jay-xq2bz]

Getting a peek into the behind-the-scenes for these games has been pretty informative. I played the beta/demo for Anthem a while back and ran into the weirdest game-breaking bug I've ever encountered, which was great because it kept me from buying the game on release date. Also, I feel like the quality of X-Play (and G4 in general) skits has had a sharp uptick lately, which is great.

[@Shorkshire]

I wanted this game to be great SO BADLY. my friends and I still go back to it occasionally because the combo system and the FLIGHT SYSTEM is so damn good and fun and explosive and great. Hell, the name "The Anthem of Creation" sounds absolutely incredible and there was so much potential for lore. I wish bioware didn't mess this up. So freaking depressing when they cancelled "Anthem NEXT/2.0"

[@someguymatt]

Broke my heart when Anthem 2.0 was canned.

[@evo542]

I personally never played Anthem, is it a loot shooter or more of an RPG or both?

[@Mgkamiolo]

@@evo542 Its a shooter looter that was supposed to have a deep story. It exceled at shooting but rng loot sucked and the story was very short.

[@reservoirdog3168]

Yes! I love these long secret history episodes from Sessler.

[@JKnuckles]

great video. I really appreciate TBH's pov

[@joshwhite6633]

I just need more Adam doing videos. That's it.

[@thryceberry]

“GET IT ON GET IT ON GET IT ON!!” Lmao love this channel

[@lionvstuna4015]

Adam is the only reason I sub to Xplay, keep up the great content Sessler!

[@darcyska]

Thanks for this video! I was always curious as to the massive development, launch, and fall of the game

[@jestahjava4255]

That meeting sketch in the middle 😂 amazing

[@blade5883]

Great to see the Adam Sessler back on Xplay

[@LunnchBoxx45]

My friends and I were so damn excited for this game. We played it for a couple months, and we even had fun with it during that time, regardless of the huge issues it had. We were sure that the Devs would fix the game. We were loyal, we were patient, and all we got were those emails and social media posts of empty promises. This had become "the game that shall not be named" in my group. I really wish they took their time with it and stuck with the original vision. This really could have been something special.

[@kaizerzero07]

i really like this kind of videos, keep up the good work guys.

[@bearianna]

Hello Mr. Sessler! I feel like everything is right in the world again, hearing you talk about games! 😮‍💨🎮 (honestly thought Adam was fired again! 😬)

[@tac0belz]

I hope we see the flying mechanic from Anthem shows up again. Best. Ironman. Simulator. Ever.

[@SlavicGold]

The man the myth the Sess! Glad to see his videos are back

[@wmascolin]

I'm a simple man, I see The Sess and I click.

[@falcon64z8]

Great video, I can't to see one about Battlefield 3042 in the future!

[@DoofusScorpio]

I so wanted Anthem to be the next big thing. I remember it looked like Destiny plus Iron Man suits. I also remember how at the time I liked the classes more than Destiny. Throw in the PvE focus that Destiny lacked. But then it came out. I eventually bought it for like 3 dollars on a PlayStation clearance sale. Honestly the wasted promise in the game is heartbreaking.

[@kunafox]

this is the kind of content i stay subscribe for, lead with some interesting topic and keep the joking to either somewhat elegant or minimal.

[@carloronce1967]

Nice to see Adam again. 😊

[@sevrahn614]

Damn.. the original concept for Anthem as an endurance PvE game sounds... absolutely incredible.

[@metalx224]

I'm so glad Sessler is back in gaming! These videos are great!

[@willkriss1497]

Much love for Sessler and all of g4 😎 i would be happy to listen to him talk about anything

[@ratmdex]

So weird i've been thinking about Anthem earlier this week and now seeing videos coming out about it this week.

[@MrMightyZ]

What blew my mind was that despite wearing armour at least 4 inches thick, my character had a shapely and supple bottom. Or the armour had a shapely and supple bottom. The Javelin, I mean.

[@ganjjabarsmedium2347]

Fantastic breakdown Adam, this is top quality gaming content 👌

[@brandonmoore9037]

Thanks for covering this fellas. I'm uber sad Anthem failed. I loved the flight dynamics. Now I'm worried...Dragon Age....Mass Effect...

[@NeoWind]

The traveling and the suit were awesome. I agree and the flight system was fun :)

[@nevertrumpfromthejump]

Another of a million clearcut examples of making a game to make money as opposed to making a game because of vision and passion. Big name publishers won't ever learn from their own or contemporaries' mistakes.

[@nevertrumpfromthejump]

@TELEGRAM ME 👉X-play👈 🖕

[@weepinggiraffe]

Adam Sessler you have not missed a beat since 2007! What a talent.

[@kzgc8y3n]

The Empire Agent story from Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) is one of the greatest Star Wars stories ever written; gritty, mature, dark, endlessly intriguing. If you haven't played the game yet and you like the Vibe of Andor or are looking for something that isn't all Force powers and Lightsabers, but still oozes Star Wars, please for the love of the Force play the Agent storyline in SWTOR!

[@mikekirby2085]

Anthem was so much fun. The flying was amazing and the combat was pretty darn good as well. Obviously Bioware was their own worst enemy during the process, but i cant help but think how many additional problems EA added to the mix. Frostbite engine especially. The unmemeable thing kind of encapsulated it though. Instead of doing high quality animations and ensuring things are polished, they just put colanders on npc heads. Same thing with the heat buildup. Nothing like having to land every 60 seconds to cool down. Fun was obviously not a consideration.

[@MrMightyZ]

The very first bad impression were the tiny humanoid enemies that had almost no life-like behaviour and just lined up to get shot. They looked like the tiny humans from early mechwarrior games and behaved just as basically. It was like they’d never even played halo or Destiny or fought those amazingly animated and behaviour-rich enemies that behaved like actors from children’s pantomime (in a really good way) and my heart instantly fell.

[@IHJello]

Damn dude this was so well done. Its a shame this is the greatest thing Anthem has been involved with for me personally bc I never had the chance to play. I fully see myself playing the hell out of this if they didnt chase that Destiny high.

[@blairsnyder1067]

Wow this only came out in 19’ seems like so much longer ago

[@Spookytrer3]

More of this please

[@Herowebcomics]

You know what the not secret history of Anthem is?! If they had made the game an off line campaign with online multi-player like Halo or something,then the game might still be around! They could fix all the other problems with it and it would be amazing! ...And I hope that that happens someday!

[@Mgkamiolo]

EA wanted a live service and monetize it, and all those require a constant online connection. From the beginning it was built around that so not sure how well a stand alone offline campaign would work.

[@Herowebcomics]

@@Mgkamiolo It would work just fine as a game,not a live service though!

[@Nztytech]

one of xplay best series I like these look back on games

[@DC-eq4yh]

I pre-ordered this game and it wasn't as bad as people think but the story felt like a side mission and I never even made it to a cataclysm and I don't think I even got the third javelin but it had potential

[@disky01]

Larian Studios now has all of the love I used to feel for BioWare in its heyday.

[@MoesTavern3304]

Glad this series is back!

[@Thegreatequalizer]

While some may disagree I feel like Bioware has increasingly pursued the "Action" aspect of "Action/RPG" to the detriment of the "RPG" and it has overall made their products worse off for it.

[@UTxTheArchangel]

Its one of those disillusion things for gamers. Fact of the matter is RPG in Bioware have been in a marital separate since Mass Effect 2. ME2 got rid of most of the RPG like mechanics and leveling of ME1. Fans high on copium say its more simple and better. But reality is ME2 is just a third person shooter with an Action RPG story. And ME3 was more of the same. Dragon Age 2 went heavy in action but went less in storytelling and world building. DA1 brought some of that back, and to this day is probably the most RPG Bioware game(along with The Old Republic) since ME1.

[@trshxgod8040]

This dude like the Alton Brown of gaming

[@yyygyy1]

to be fair, this game actually will be referenced for a long time

[@spencercar8080]

I love the Secret(ish) History series.

[@allencunningham9002]

This game was beautiful and felt incredible to play. The games big downfall was lack of overall content, once you completed the short campaign you have a raid you could do but that was it.

[@HopeEsthiem15]

I'm here for pain, loved the game

[@doctorb4n3]

Anthem had so much potential, with time maybe it would succeed. It still has players even in GM3 content.

[@thisithis]

I still remember that one gun in the game that someone showed that had 0% critical damage with a 0% chance of hit, and 0% reload speed. did Bioware even test this game???

[@MegaMasterX]

Anthem deserved better. It still deserves better.

[@runekey]

I'm begging you, PLEASE give Sessler a pop filter 🙏🙏

[@f4rr3r]

As a Destiny fan, looking back on Anthem really is interesting. I still don’t know why BioWare devs were so dismissive of Destiny whenever it was brought up as a comparison point in interviews. Why did they have so much contempt for the only game to make a success out of the live service action / RPG-lite formula? I can only assume it was misplaced confidence in their own product.

[@newkgn1978]

All this time i thought that X-Play thing on the wall was real, now I'm finding out it's just a stick-on! 🗣️Everything i know is a lie! 😭

[@graefx]

I was really excited and hopeful about 2.0 especially in the wake of FF14 and No Man's Sky revisions. Theres a diamond in the rough there and some beautiful graphics. Wish it could have gotten revamped or the assets repurposed into something new in a majoras mask sorta way

[@OffbeatPlay]

Mass Effect Andromeda was killed for this game. I really wanted to like Anthem, but playing the beta felt REALLY hollow. The gameplay was fine, just the overall stuff felt really halfbaked.

[@doobiesnax9238]

love the segway transitions of the show, i love xplay!

[@Ltldogg69]

This is a great video and the stuff I miss from X-Play and Adam. X-Play needs way more of this and way less of stuff that has been on the show since it's revival.

[@TheBigTunaMunster]

Sad that ME Andromeda suffered for this misstep. That game had potential.

[@PrettyRagdoll]

Watching Bioware implode has been my biggest gaming heartbreak

[@v2occy809]

I played Anthem Beta with a buddy of mine because he was so excited. I knew after about 5 hours of gameplay this game was dead on launch. He was pissed off at me and I decided not to buy it. Saved myself a good amount of money.

[@chefwillbeats]

This was a good doc. I can see the vision being lost for anthem. It was a so close yet fumble game.

[@TheSrtones]

Mr.Sessler. It’s great to see you again. New to the the channel and hope to see more from you.

[@hoofhearted4]

Absolutely love Anthem (playing it right now). Been a fan since beta. Absolutely hate EA for abandoning this game. It's a one of a kind world, unique game, that I don't think any game will ever capture what this gams did for me.

[@USA92]

Enjoy the game. Play every now and then. An incomplete game but I find it gorgeous and fun.

[@hotfightinghistory9224]

The gameplay in Anthem was just phenomenal. God I wish it had been made by the Bioware that existed before EA took over.

[@raphwolf]

I wish they would just release Next. I really liked the core gameplay of Anthem and had high hopes when they mentioned working on Next.

[@HopeEsthiem15]

looks like the comment section is filled with ppl who'd be happy to see a revival of Anthem. Unlikely but warms the heart

[@kzgc8y3n]

I hope this channel is doing well and that you folks are making some cash for yourselves.

[@TeamSoraPresents]

Also, BioWare developed Sonic Chronicles for the DS. Just thought I'd remind you.

[@superwerewolf90]

Lmao literally how I imagined the BioWare planning meetings

[@CommandLineVulpine]

We forgot to talk about the TORtanic controversy and ME3 ending controversy

[@MasculineMilquetoast]

Max from "MDK 2" needs his own game.

[@Eliphasleviathan93]

Moar stuff like this.