The line that leads to modern birds diverged from other theropods in the Coelosauria in the mid-Jurassic while Velociraptor lived in the late Cretaceous, between 75 to 71 million years ago. It would be more apt to call them cousins. Velociraptor mongoliensisis not directly ancestral to modern birds. Those guys embrace their velociraptor ancestors. TIL that if a chicken gets injured, others will peck at the wound, sometimes even killing and eating the injured bird. Maybe if it hadn’t been trying so hard to be Destiny 2.5 it could have carved out an identity of its own, it’s certainly a lot more fun to play than its inspiration. But the kernels of a good game are there - exquisite and lovingly rendered visual details, a core gameplay loop of jumping around, flying, and fast paced combat with a multitude of different enemies - and it could have become something great, had EA and Bioware not rushed it out the door too soon. Sure, in the end it’s ultimately not a good game. Whatever else can be said about Anthem - the lore is presented in a way that makes it slide right off of your brain, the voice acting is uneven, and the Frostbite engine seems to be a bear for developers trying to animate faces on it, to the point where the character creator in Anthem is “pick a face and be done with it, damn your eyes, no, seriously, we’re not even gonna try and let you choose your own eyes” - I am still in awe of the whole experience of piloting a Javeline exo-suit and engaging in combat in the lushly rendered jungles of the game. Last night I fired up the game and gave it a couple hours of playthrough, and I have to say, up until I got to the hub city - a forgettable location whose name has already escaped me - I was having a blast flying around doing a mission. But I will say this much - the initial gameplay loop of flying around in a futuristic mech suit is freaking amazing. There’s a laundry list of valid complaints about Bioware’s failed foray into looter shooter territory, and I’m not here to belabor them. Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you Anthem is a hidden gem you’re missing out on.
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