Multiplat AFL 23 - Part 2 with added Pro Team

[Kidneykid95]

Seems like patch notes are out already .. not sure how to feel about it.. thoughts??

ITS GONE LIVE ALSO! Just got it on PS5 = 1.7GB

 

[GoldbergsGold]

I really would love to see them get one more crack though. Given what happened day 1 I just don’t think this version will ever reach where it was supposed to.
In saying that we’ll probably never know exactly what went wrong on day 1 or what exactly the full game was intended to look like.
I’d be happy to give them one more go to build off the positives that do exist in this game to improve it to what we were all hoping for.

I'd like to see it polished and the contested play far more advanced in BA's next AFL game. I was pitching to game_chromosome to introduce into their footy game a very innovative mechanic never before seen in an Aussie Rules title: 2, 3, 4 tries at marking a fumbled ball that bounces out of a players hands like real footy, instead of just a 1 try pluck or a spoil.

Ross said around 14 years ago, their plan was to make each mechanic more advanced for each sequel, starting with marking for their hypothetical AFL Live 2, I believe.

 

[CraigMc24]

Can I earnestly ask what you think happened with the launch of this game then if it isn’t BA’s fault in your mind?

I’ve never said it wasn’t BA’s fault and that’s never been a thought in my mind. BA are ultimately responsible for what the put out at launch and clearly something wrong happened with the day 1 patch. I ain’t denying or defending that. All I’m saying is without any idea or knowledge of what happened at launch and without the facts, I ain’t the type to just jump to the negative and assume the worst and throw out theory’s or accusations. What happened has happened. Am I annoyed? Alittle but am I going to get on here and complain and whinge everyday about it? No, it’s not in my nature.. its also not going to change anything.

I also believe without all the facts, I’m talking of what went wrong at launch and what’s happened since between BA and Nacon for them to decide on external testing. Without knowing all the inside facts, I’m the type to give someone the benefit of the doubt regardless of all the other stuff that seem to annoy everyone else, that’s just me. If someone can provide the inside scoop, facts and explain to me everything that went wrong at launch (from inside BA), what’s gone wrong since and why it’s gone wrong I’ll happily listen and maybe then I might say fair enough no more benifit of the doubt.
I know a lot of people on here seem outraged as to how the game has launch and that’s fine, all the power to em. I ain’t one to get outraged, again it ain’t in my nature and I always try look for the positive before the negative. That means giving the benefit of the doubt.

Now for the record, I can’t sit here and defend the launch, that would be stupid because it wasn’t great. But without knowing all the facts, I believe in falling back on giving benefit of the doubt for now. That’s how I look at things, I know others don’t and that’s fine

Question: why can’t we all be allowed to see things differently, agree to disagree without anyone questioning why, attacking that person or laughing at them? Both sides are doing it.

 

[ShaunWDT]

I found this pretty hilarious over on the BA forum almost 2 days ago (still unanswered BTW)...

Seriously? An issue that has been complained about constantly since release and they'll just see what they can find out 8wks later!

Surely with all the bug and suggestion reports that have been submitted since launch they would have a list of those most frequently mentioned and whether they are a priority or not.

It shows how little of a clue they have with the way they reply to the vast majority of these issues, like its some state secret that a problem that has been there for weeks is in the game lmao, play the game for an hour you pick up 99% of this shit.

 

[BRAB]

The vast majority of the people on this site were ecstatic that BigAnt had the license. A combination of poor communication and a disastrous release meant that most of the goodwill has been eroded. The problem was they had to market a game that clearly wasn't ready for release and that limits the options in terms of communication.

That being said, I still think a BigAnt that doesn't have to release 4 games in 6 months is still the best option for AFL gaming moving forward, as long as they hire a social media person and ban Ross from communicating with people moving forward.

 

[Xtreme]

AI vs AI sometimes does reflect real life

Hawthorn getting belted!


Almost like the first day at launch - WITCHES HATS!!

Spoiler

Myth Busted ? Held the tackle button down the entire time - opposition player never let go of the ball and BALL UP

Spoiler

 

[GetAroundHim99]

That being said, I still think a BigAnt that doesn't have to release 4 games in 6 months is still the best option for AFL gaming moving forward, as long as they hire a social media person and ban Ross from communicating with people moving forward.

We all know that's never gonna happen. XD

I agree that Big Ant are still the best option for AFL gaming compared to who else would realistically do it but my god, They really have killed that perception with the general public. A good amount of them would prefer someone else and that's not good.

 

[Quivorir]

I think you'll find that the irrifutable industry data says otherwise mate.

 

[StoneyHawk]

seriously...some of you really need to let some shit go...life's too short. Go get another hobby!

 

[Mantastic]

seriously...some of you really need to let some s**t go...life's too short. Go get another hobby!

Just let it go, mate.

 

[Quivorir]

Agreed. Some posters should take a hard look at themselves.

 

[carn tigez]

seriously...some of you really need to let some s**t go...life's too short. Go get another hobby!

See my post earlier today. Everyone keeps coming back because we have radio silence or vague comms from big ant. Personally I keep coming back hoping, mostly vainly, there's a new patch.

And each time it just adds more and more frustration and then you see people exploding. Which is basically happening to even the most loyal big ant fans now as this draws out

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Haven’t touched management mode in a couple of weeks. Still worse from a gameplay perspective than season?

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Haven’t touched management mode in a couple of weeks. Still worse from a gameplay perspective than season?

Yep

 

[GetAroundHim99]

I think you'll find that the irrifutable industry data says otherwise mate.

I do know that's a joke considering how much Ross went on about the "Industry Data" whenever someone questioned if they were even making money on this game but to be serious for a sec, That supposed data that Ross went on about has to be completely different to what we've seen or he's completely lying.

From what we can see, This game is dead from a player base point and seems to sell so few copies and is seemingly refunded all the time that it's hard to see how you could make money with this sort of game. The math doesn't add up from what we can see and probably this is something that Big Ant should have never taken on from a financial standpoint.

I have no clue how they'll make any money from Pro Team at this point. No-one is playing it and almost everyone seems to have moved on. These supposed numbers that Ross went on about just don't add up. Is 5x the budget of AFL Evolution 2 $25? Has something heavily subsidized the game? I really honestly want to see these numbers and see the books to compare, and I know that will never happen in a million years...

Something just seems fishy and not quite right here.

 

[RG16]

seriously...some of you really need to let some s**t go...life's too short. Go get another hobby!

Mate you're a New York Jets fan. That's worse than being a Dallas Cowboys fan. Give it up! At least this game has only had some of us disappointed since April unlike the 1960s for the Jets.

 

[Xtreme]

Imagine if they release another patch and nobody knew it because of all of the bickering here

** They haven't **

 

[CraigMc24]

From what we can see, This game is dead

Genuine question.. Do we all honestly think the game is dead? Considering pro team, cross play, Xbox be released and hopefully countless more updates to come. Not attacking his point just genuinely curious

Discuss…

 

[Treehill23]

Genuine question.. Do we all honestly think the game is dead? Considering pro team, cross play, Xbox be released and hopefully countless more updates to come. Not attacking his point just genuinely curious

Discuss…

I think it’s very close to being dead. Player base has never been big on steam and assuming Ross is correct in saying that Xbox copies will make up a minority of owners, I’d imagine the rest are losing their patience with lack of updates on PS4/PS5
ProTeam will launch and they might get certain players back for a couple of weeks but it won’t be a huge life span due to the season almost being over

 

[Chuckinho]

My daughter just won a PS5 at the Swans game tonight.

So, it's official, I'm on the "when is the next PS5 patch? bandwagon" (Even though I haven't bought the game yet.)

 

[RG16]

My daughter just won a PS5 at the Swans game tonight.

So, it's official, I'm on the "when is the next PS5 patch? bandwagon" (Even though I haven't bought the game yet.)

That's a fantastic win for going to the footy. I would've been stoked winning a GameBoy Advance or GameCube at Doggies games as a kid

 

[GetAroundHim99]

Genuine question.. Do we all honestly think the game is dead? Considering pro team, cross play, Xbox be released and hopefully countless more updates to come. Not attacking his point just genuinely curious

Discuss…

I mainly say that as the player base has been dropping like flies and a lot of people have just seemingly given up waiting at this point. You can tell from the reaction on Social Media and on here along with the active player stats we can see.

You can give all the updates and features in the world and improve it over a long period of time but if people just aren't interested anymore, They're just not going to bother to come back and play the game.

As the old saying goes, You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. This is very much one of those situations at this point.

I wanted AFL 23 to succeed and I still think Big Ant are the best option we've got but damage has been long done and I can't see it turning it around. If we do get another AFL game from Big Ant, Maybe they might have a shot with that one if they get good word of mouth if the game ends up good and what we should have gotten this time. (I guarantee that pre-orders will be down for it.)

But besides that, I don't see a redemption story here for AFL 23. Almost everyone has dropped this game like a stone from what can be seen online and from the metrics we can see. It just came in too broken, too barebones and has taken too long to even get it to where it is now which is nowhere near what people wanted... It's very hard to bounce back from that.

Finally, I do respect you being quite respectful about things here. You're a lot more patient than most people are. That's certainly a good thing to have.

 

[ItsJonesy777]

Genuine question.. Do we all honestly think the game is dead? Considering pro team, cross play, Xbox be released and hopefully countless more updates to come.

You’re comparing two different timeframes.

You’re asking if people think the game is dead now vs the game being dead with the things supposedly coming. It can still be dying off now with people putting the game on the back-burner until those things arrive (if they do) or people could have just given up completely.

I’ve seen several comments from people across various social media platforms saying they wait forever to find online games which wasn’t the case in the first few weeks.

Several posts from people here saying they haven’t played in x amount of weeks or they’ve decided to give up until x, y or z is added or fixed.

I’m yet to see many, if any comments of people increasing their play time in the last month or so. I’m talking about playing actual matches and not academy and creation stuff.

 

[Nicho50]

For me personally it is dead as in the hype to want it or play it. I mean by the time it arrives on Xbox my interest in the footy will be next to nothing as my team will most likely be in its last 3-4 weeks of footy and on a gaming note it isn't far off NBA release which that game will take up most of my limited time anyway so I don't see the point in forking out money for a game that I am not really going to play.

The only thing that may get me on board is if pro team gets really good reviews and players are constantly added / updated and come the 24 AFL season there is automatic roster updates similar to how NBA games go with that when there are any roster changes. If we don't get the updated rosters then I would probably say no. The most likely time I would want to play the game is towards the start of the season when the hype for footy is at its highest.

 

[BlackMamba]

My daughter just won a PS5 at the Swans game tonight.

So, it's official, I'm on the "when is the next PS5 patch? bandwagon" (Even though I haven't bought the game yet.)

Finally some reward for all your Academy work… albeit an indirect reward… haha.
Great stuff mate, that’s awesome.

 

[Mootsy]

Honestly though. I'm actually enjoying the game a fair bit, i guess it's just lacking some modes. Y'know. No doubt the gameplay still needs a bit of fine-tuning. But i really do see the potential in what is already here in the game.

For the most part the game is actually pretty impressive in terms of the animations, the game design, the art design, the mechanics etc. I mean, the crowd looks awesome, the stadiums, the ground. In terms of gameplay, it feels nice, sort of like a Fifa take on AFL, which i think is a good idea. The forward line kicking for goal aspect is well crafted and enjoyable. I like the features like ball-trail and tactics. Rucking, marking and hand balling and precision kicking is fun. I think that what would help over time is more variations and realism to the gameplay over time, such as having maybe 10 or more animations for a tackle, and maybe 15 or more options for a marking animations that work in sync with the gameplay variations. Clean up some of the bugs that are still there etc.

The issues i have are:

• The invisible cone! Take Fifa as an example, you can run anywhere without an invisible cone stopping you from running in. So let's say i run past the kick in zone on the goal-line, i should be able to choose to do that and it's a free kick or a 50-metre penalty to the opposing side, instead it's a glass wall that i can't run through, it might be better to just be given the freedom to make stupid decisions.
• I think eventually you'd want to have a certain realism to player characteristics and movements, now i'd imagine that is hard to achieve on the first version of a game. But it's something that Fifa and 2K have managed to accomplish(albeit over twenty years), the players you control feel like it's those players actually playing. I don't like saying it because i know it causes some rolling eyes, but Evolution 2 seemed to begin doing this on a very basic level as well. But they had 3 goes at it, 3 updates to the one game. So, and i think they went hammer and tongs on it to their own limitations etc.
• Fix the marking and play on bug, when you haven't played on...
• I'd try and get rid of the floating players and goal umpires, moonwalking instead of running, it looks a bit tacky, to be honest, and i'm surprised it wasn't ironed out early on. It has been fixed a lot since the recent patch though.
• In terms of the game-testing, i don't know, it's easy to assume stuff etc, but i would have thought common sense analysis would have lead to the fixing of issues that existed early on and not necessarily waiting on bug reports. So if i'm a games-tester, the first thing i'm doing is looking at the obvious bugs or things to iron out first, one of them would have been the floating feet and the wayward handballs. Not entirely sure why the obvious things weren't fixed up int he first week. But again it could have been a coding issues that was complicated, i have empathy for all of that, but i'm just wondering.

Essentially you have the potential for a really great game, i think.

I will continue to support and am rooting for Big Ant, basically, I know they can get this game to a nice level.

It's not the negative, dire thing that people are suggesting, but no doubt the launch was bad, it didn't go well. which whilst disappointing, you can still salvage this game because it exists, it's here and it can grow, you can retool it etc, re-inject it etc. Big Ant are probably the biggest sports game developers in the southern hemisphere, with their noses in the vicinity of the bigger developers. So the game should be in the right hands!