Multiplat AFL 23 - PS/Steam Releasing May 4, Xbox TBC

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

WHEN CAN I PLAY? READ BELOW:

• PlayStation (Physical): Thursday 4 May
• PlayStation (Digital): 8:01am AEST Thursday 4 May
• Steam: Currently 8:01am AEST Thursday 4 May, may be moved to 12:01am AEST
• Xbox (Digital or Physical): TO BE CONFIRMED, unlikely to be 4 May

Spoiler: Specific Big Ant quotes about the release:

Those that pre-ordered PS versions will be able to play on Thursday, disks will have already been mailed by retailers, they will also be available in-store.

Steam will also be available Thursday.

Stating the obvious, we are still having issues with XBox.

Seriously, anyone that looks hard knows there’s issues - why do you think there are so many exclusives for a particular platform that are not marked as exclusive, but are only on that platform.

If I took that road, life would have been a lot easier.

Xbox digital and retail will release at the same time - that is not a decision we get to make.

It applies now and I will no doubt pay a price.

Spoiler: Other Quotes

Re: commentary team

Spoiler: Other Quotes

Hamish is still there, Daisy didn't make it into the final version of the game.

We added Gary and increased the workload of Harf.

Re: game availability/release dates

I can never give 100% guarantee about anything in the future, but as it stands today, the statement I am prepared to make it that all stock that is at retailers on 4 May will be available for sale.

As to the amount that will be there for sale, and whether it is enough, that is a question I cannot answer.

It will be made digitally available on the various platform holder electronic stores.

Clarifying, the game will not release prior to 4 May 2023.

I am vague as there is one platform that has had sufficient stock at retailers and the other has not, and I cannot name them (contractual reasons).

The game will not be further delayed because of the numbers of units in stock.

Re: Steam listing

I've already put in a request for the screenshots to be replaced with current ones, they'll probably only be there for a day.

As much as the feedback has generally been positive, these are old, meant to be placeholder only and were not meant to go live.

Re: playing lists

All playing lists are accurate for the 2023 season.

Re: content creator footage

This is all prior to day one patch (as some have noted updates like numbers etc are apparent)

Re: Career mode

A head's up on Career mode.

At the AFL 23 Launch night I mentioned the non-team based Individual Career Mode in an interview with Dean (Twistie3). As alluded to at that same event, we were working with the AFL and AFLPA to include as many past legends in the game as possible.

The great news is that we have received approval for far more AFL legends than were previously envisaged, but this has meant that we had to make the tough decision to divert resources away from the Individual Career mode development. The individual Career Mode function will not make it into AFL 23, Career Mode will be entirely team based. I expect this mode to be include in future iterations of the game.

Re: microtransactions

You do not have to make purchases, things can be earned.

Re: general development

So fundamentally flawed, in so many ways, it’s bananas.

We are doing AFL as it’s a passion project, without us doing it there would not be one being made.

So much more upside with making games that are played internationally, let alone one that will not even be played in every state in this country.

 

[andy_c91]

This would be a game changer for sure, hated how easy set shots become after playing the game for a few days. This would genuinely challenge you. Great comment


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And it should be easy enough to have in afl 23 seeing a version of the mechanic is already in cricket 19 and 22. But for afl 23 it can work like the following:

Left stick is used to aim the player left or right ( this is used to accomodate wind AND most importantly how the player uses their right joystick)
Once you have aimed your player , using the left joystick push forward to start run up.

Now this is the fun part, using the right joystick the player will have to pull back to start setting the power for the kick and when the player has reached their preferred power level it then moves onto the next part. One thing I would want is that pulling back the right stick is up to the player, the reason I would want this I’ll explain further down.

So once you reach your desired power level you will have to push forward on the right stick to essentially do your ball drop and kicking motion which also sets the direction of your kick. Most players won’t push the right stick forward and have it end up completely straight which is also part of the fun.

If you have a tendency to push forward on the stick and have it end up let’s say at 11 o’clock or 1 o’clock you will need to adjust how you aim your player using the left stick. And we know in real life some players have left to right kicks or they hook it a bit. Prime example Tom Hawkins, his kicks goes left to right all the time and I would suspect he aims at the left goalpost to accomodate his kicking style.

I mentioned above how I would want the right joystick and when to engage it up to the player. Let’s say you have a player take a mark just on 50. Their stats indicate that most likely they won’t make the distance. I would want the option to get as close to the man on the mark before I kick it, which we can replicate if the player (us) decides when to use the right joystick to set the power and take the kick. And if you get too close to the man on the mark there will be a high chance that the ball gets touched.

 

[Xtreme]

You want it to be challenging enough that you don't always kick a goal

But you don't want it to be infuriating when you score 1.15 because of it

EDIT TO ADD In past games once you learned the timing of the power bars yes it got easy, the challenge then came from increasing the conditions of the wind and/or then trying to challenge oneself by only scoring from 50m+ out and/or doing tight angle shots. Tight angles + the worst wind = fun.

 

[ESSENDON INSIDER]

Critiques and suggestions are not grudges, I thought it was a mechanic they had brought over from Evo 2, which was a bad unrealistic one.

fair

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Critiques and suggestions are not grudges, I thought it was a mechanic they had brought over from Evo 2, which was a bad unrealistic one.

Seems like the only things they've brought over from Evo 2 are no gang tackling or AFL logos on the back of jumpers.

 

[jdoggdrool]

BigAntStudios, what are the odds we'll get to see some extended gameplay footage this week?

 

[maskmcgee]

What do you mean the game decides? By random do you mean? The thing is about Live 1's goal kicking on the run, if you compose yourself and move in a straight motion towards goal, your chances of scoring a goal is most probably, similar to real football. If you zig-zag and sprint around, your chances of scoring a goal on the run are much lower in Live 1

So it's chance based, regardless of whatever stability bonus you get, so it might decide you zigzagged 1% too much and miss instead. So the game decides. You can't actually aim, there's no visual representation of your aim.

your chances of scoring a goal is most probably, similar to real football.

No in real football your able to aim and pick what angle you kick it, running in a straight line dosen't magically make you target the right point.

 

[AnAussieWancker]

Pro Team Idea
Collections for every team or even every card available to collect you would get some sort of reward. for example for collecting every Collingwood Season'23' player. you get a () Rated Tony Shaw as a reward for doing so. I feel it adds some incentive for players to collect a lot of players they may not even use and putting some actual use to them.

 

[dart]

Pro team idea:

Build your own all mullet team to take on the "All Mullet VFL/AFL team of the century" and if you win you receive a 99 rated mulleted legend, eg Stephen Kernahan, Wayne Weiderman, young Nathan Buckley, half of the 1980s hawthorn team

 

[andy_c91]

So it's chance based, regardless of whatever stability bonus you get, so it might decide you zigzagged 1% too much and miss instead. So the game decides. You can't actually aim, there's no visual representation of your aim.



No in real football your able to aim and pick what angle you kick it, running in a straight line dosen't magically make you target the right point.

So hear me out, To avoid ‘chance’ based kicking for goal lets make it solely user input which could be done via the following.

Instead of using buttons for kicking and handballing let’s move it to where you have to combine the bumper and joystick together

So left joystick is still movement but, replace x, o and square for handballing and kicking and allow players (us) to have to hold down R2 or l2 combined with the right joystick to handball and kick.

Let’s say you are running left to right and the goal is at your 3 o clock, you the player would hold down r2 (kick) move your right joystick left (9 o clock) to charge up your kick power and then to kick flick your joystick to your right (3 o clock). This will change depending on where you want to direct your kick or eve handball.

Might sound silly but I reckon this will make the player (us) actually have to aim And more control. I say this because let’s say you have a player running left to right (9 to 3) and want to kick to 1 o clock. The joystick method would still allow your player to run ‘straight’ while still being able to kick where you have directed your right joystick to.

 

[RU_]

As long as it’s ‘FIFA esque’ with how goals/points are differentiated, I’m happy.

 

[DaveM303]

Seems like the only things they've brought over from Evo 2 are no gang tackling or AFL logos on the back of jumpers.

Evo 2 had AFL logos on jumper numbers.

 

[ESSENDON INSIDER]

gang tackling fr would be sick to have in the game

 

[mickelboy182]

For all the jokes, no gang tackling would be a pretty big misstep.

 

[Ignacious Constantino]

How would gang tackling work in practice? Does it exist in rugby league/union games?

 

[Lesnish]

For all the jokes, no gang tackling would be a pretty big misstep.

With the way AFL is going there won't even be tackling or bumping in the next few seasons.
If Ward gets rubbed out for the tackle on Neale I reckon Big Ant may as well patch out tackling.

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[PeliDJ]

How would gang tackling work in practice? Does it exist in rugby league/union games?

As someone who still plays RLL4. They still have 2-3 man tackles in the game but tackle mechanics are very different between afl and Rugby. Plenty of things that rugby can do that afl can’t for example: ankle taps, tackling from the legs things like that. So guess it would be hard to transfer the tackle mechanics over


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[GoldbergsGold]

So it's chance based, regardless of whatever stability bonus you get, so it might decide you zigzagged 1% too much and miss instead. So the game decides. You can't actually aim, there's no visual representation of your aim.



No in real football your able to aim and pick what angle you kick it, running in a straight line dosen't magically make you target the right point.

No, it's how you move only just before you kick the ball. You can still zig-zag while running, but if you want an accurate kick, you need to at the last stretch change your movement to an orderly and composed fashion just before having a shot on goal. The longer you do that, the better your chances are. That's much like real football, players are shown trying to compose themselves and movement methodically when having a shot on the run goal.

it's where your player is facing that is essentially the aiming mechanic, partially similar to real football. Perhaps if you want your player to kick in a different direction away from where you're facing, maybe Big Ant should implement a aiming mechanic similar to their League Live games.

 

[mclovin99]

You want it to be challenging enough that you don't always kick a goal

But you don't want it to be infuriating when you score 1.15 because of it

EDIT TO ADD In past games once you learned the timing of the power bars yes it got easy, the challenge then came from increasing the conditions of the wind and/or then trying to challenge oneself by only scoring from 50m+ out and/or doing tight angle shots. Tight angles + the worst wind = fun.

I don't want it difficult from wind as evos 2 wind was unrealistic

 

[swanny3636]

Anyone getting a physical version of the game will not get past the opening menu.

Wait but if we can’t play because Xbox hasn’t got copies yet why are there some people with copies of Xbox and ps

 

[PeliDJ]

Wait but if we can’t play because Xbox hasn’t got copies yet why are there some people with copies of Xbox and ps

From what I can gather skipping through the 1000 page forum is that someone at a JB store put them out for a tiktok and someone kid also managed to get their hands on a copy somehow, probably another store breaking the date


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[swanny3636]

From what I can gather skipping through the 1000 page forum is that someone at a JB store put them out for a tiktok and someone kid also managed to get their hands on a copy somehow, probably another store breaking the date


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Yeah but what I mean is if some people have got copies of both OBVIUSLY you can get them so why can’t we play

 

[Lesnish]

Wait but if we can’t play because Xbox hasn’t got copies yet why are there some people with copies of Xbox and ps

There hasn't been any evidence of anybody with an xbox copy?

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[PeliDJ]

There hasn't been any evidence of anybody with an xbox copy?

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I think the video had the Xbox copies



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[Lesnish]

I think the video had the Xbox copies



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Which video mate?

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[PeliDJ]

Which video mate?

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Haven’t actually seen it but again from reading through the forum the tik tok that got posted of the JB or wherever they worked employee putting them out


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