Category: Anthem News

It appears that a new pre-Cataclysm event is about to begin in Anthem. A new countdown timer was noticed and posted on Reddit indicating a new event is on its way.

If you’ve been wanting to see Cataclysm a bit early, you have your chance as it has landed on the Anthem Public Test Server starting today. Accessing the PTS requires an Origin Access Premier membership or ownership of the game on PC.

During a live stream earlier today, BioWare developers previewed the upcoming Cataclysm limited-time event. The event will run for approximately six weeks. Players enter a special map that is divided into a number of sections, though there is no set order in which they can be explored. Rewards and activities will change weekly throughout the duration.

Anthem devs have been largely silent for the last several weeks, but it seems they are still working on the game as evidenced by today’s surprise update. Most notably, today’s patch brings three Emerald Abyss Legendary Missions on board alongside a number of tweaks to creatures, Javelins and strongholds as well as a number of bug fixes.

The EA earnings report for Q1 2019 is in the bag with the gaming conglomerate reaffirming its support to “the live service for Anthem”. EA’s Andrew Wilson admitted that the game had not lived up to expectations but said, “We believe in the team at BioWare, and we also believe in what they set out to achieve with this game — building a new IP and melding genres to reach a new audience.”

When the v1.1.1 update goes live in Anthem, it will come with a number of bug fixes, but also with the removal of the Elysian Caches, a reward mechanic that was put in place about a month ago. Elysian Caches rewarded players with better chances for obtaining cosmetic gear, though BioWare said that “they were always planned as a temporary thing”. The door isn’t shut, however, on a possible return in the future.

Over the course of the past week, several tweets have come out from the BioWare team that have raised concerns for Anthem while simultaneously getting fans excited about Dragon Age 4. Earlier this week, Mike Gamble responded to queries that he, Jonathan Warner and Mark Darrah had moved from the Anthem team over to the Dragon Age 4 team while Ben Irving and Chad Robertson remain to lead Anthem.

As a result of “prioritizing things like bug fixes, stability and game flow”, several of Anthem’s Act 1 Calendar Features are being delayed. This includes the Cataclysm event, the Mastery System, Guilds, Legendary Missions – Phase 2, Weekly Stronghold Challenges, Leaderboards, and some Freeplay Events. “We set aside time for this work, but the reality is there are more things to fix and improve than we planned for.” Ben Irving & Chad Robertson wrote.

BioWare has published the patch notes for Anthem 1.1.0 that bring a long list of bug fixes and feature enhancements into the game. Among the notable inclusions of today’s patch, players will find that they will have access to The Forge during Missions, Strongholds and Freeplay which means that gear can be changed in the field rather than having to return to Fort Tasis or the Launch Bay.

In a new interview with Newsweek, Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts segued into a discussion of Anthem and what steps he would take to fix the game. Roberts believes, according to the interview, that gamers often have unreasonable expectations compounded by their hatred of EA. “A lot of gamers don’t understand quite how difficult it is to deliver everything working flawlessly,” Roberts stated. “The expectations keep ramping up and may be higher than people are humanly possible of delivering.”