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.

 

[Selim]

really random but something i hope is worked on (cant remember what it was like in afl live ) but in evo 2 when a player gets injured during the match even if its an acl that player will still play out the game kinda breaks the immersion and i hope its something that works properly like if they are injured they shouldnt be coming back on at the start of the next quarter lol

also curious to see if the sub works, i weirdly feel that could be something that breaks

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

What do u reckon on getting the likes of legends such as your James Hirds and Jobe Watsons into the games … with the obvious scandal… theyre legends and deserves to be in there but u reckon they would be able to

If they are able to be an assistant coach at the Giants and on the channel 7 commentary team, it’s not really an issue.

 

[Sozza]

Will I be able to play on both Series X and Xbox One and still have everything saved as the one? I have a series x at home but an Xbox one at my partners.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Didn't Live 1 have pretty big marking/spoiling issues at launch that were patched a couple of weeks later? It then went on to become the best AFL game to this day.

I can see similar happening here with some of the "bugs" already mentioned. All up though, I'm excited and will be playing ASAP.

I'm not too sure. I feel like there was only one patch, and that was months later. Patching cost a lot of money, back then. And there certainly wouldn't have been a patch for PS3 a few weeks after, since that was during their internet outage due to a hack.

 

[bennymate]

At this point of time from all of the gameplay we've seen so far, everything has been improved except gameplay.

 

[Freo16]

The run down/incorrect disposal tackles look almost like it’s skipped a frame in the video, maybe I’m missing some close up detail.

Can someone at big ant just do a “sweep” of all the grounds over the next day or two to make sure the broadcast side is correct, that’s already 3 or 4 main stadiums that are flipped and I’m pretty sure Optus was the same in the trailer.

 

[BuddyF23]

If they are able to be an assistant coach at the Giants and on the channel 7 commentary team, it’s not really an issue.

That’s what I thought as it wouldn’t be hard to get him… now just get Ben cousins

 

[Freo16]

also curious to see if the sub works, i weirdly feel that could be something that breaks

Like the sub in Live 1 that crashed the game every time it was used

 

[BuddyF23]

Tbh game looks amazing and yes it’s got some issues as all games do but these issues are minor and only one (the run down tackle animation) looks a little faulty but that’s the only gameplay issue and it doesn’t overly change the game … others are visually so that can be fixed quite easily … so props to BigAntStudios

 

[GoldbergsGold]

At this point of time from all of the gameplay we've seen so far, everything has been improved except gameplay.

That's what concerned me, they focused on all the extras and obviously looks like they gave the gameplay less attention. There's missing aspects of footy that Big Ant have actually put into their other sport games. So, it's perplexing why they're leaving them out, when they're key aspects and they've already created similar mechanics for their other sport titles.

They have to make the tackling more advanced. I saw a part of Michaels video where it's a 1v1 tackle, but there's free players everywhere, who in real football would come in to support and lock the ball in or help rip it out of a tackle, but they're all running away from the contest for no reason, because there's no gang tackling or support mechanic.

 

[Freo16]

A few nit picky things:

- As others have mentioned the whistle sounds terrible, like something out of finals fever back in 96

• The rain looks good up close but I’d really love a full on downpour weather option
• It also seems like wet weather doesn’t affect gameplay much at all, even the ps2 games had the old ‘rain makes players slower and kick distance shorter’

- I agree with those that said the stadium looks a little dark, JNT posted a shot of Optus a while back and the top tiers looked dark there as well

 

[GoldbergsGold]

A few nit picky things:

- As others have mentioned the whistle sounds terrible, like something out of finals fever back in 96

• The rain looks good up close but I’d really love a full on downpour weather option
• It also seems like wet weather doesn’t affect gameplay much at all, even the ps2 games had the old ‘rain makes players slower and kick distance shorter’

- I agree with those that said the stadium looks a little dark, JNT posted a shot of Optus a while back and the top tiers looked dark there as well

The whistle sounds like those older Wicked Witch footy games. It's ironic, because Wicked Witch made their whistle sound effect realistic for Evo 2.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

At this point of time from all of the gameplay we've seen so far, everything has been improved except gameplay.

There's loads of gameplay improvements, but I was expecting key compatible gameplay mechanics from Big Ant's Rugby League Live series and their Lacrosse series in AFL 23, but they're absent. If they could add the advanced 3v1 tackling from League Live and the collisions/evasions from Lacrosse, the game's contested play mechanics would be amazing.

 

[tastiger]

Been on night shirt and don't want to read through all the comments.

Can anyone tell me if sliders are in the game? Only reason I ask is that hopefully it's one way to make a game less perfect and have more sloppiness if required.

On VOG-L09 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[mclovin99]

I love how everyone went from praising the game to being concerned over a few days.
The only ones that have played it says it feels much better then anying we've had before so just chill

 

[St 07]

That's what concerned me, they focused on all the extras and obviously looks like they gave the gameplay less attention. There's missing aspects of footy that Big Ant have actually put into their other sport games. So, it's perplexing why they're leaving them out, when they're key aspects and they've already created similar mechanics for their other sport titles.

They have to make the tackling more advanced. I saw a part of Michaels video where it's a 1v1 tackle, but there's free players everywhere, who in real football would come in to support and lock the ball in or help rip it out of a tackle, but they're all running away from the contest for no reason, because there's no gang tackling or support mechanic.
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View attachment 1675983

Such a great post.

Having some players hover over the ball as the ball stays in/slips based off player ratings would do wonders for gameplay.

 

[Browny977]

Doesn’t really look like tippa looks more like karate kid

 

[Gameova_]

Doesn’t really look like tippa looks more like karate kid

Who is tippa?

 

[AzzaLow]

I will admit I have not been in-love with everything that Big Ant has done during this marketing campaign for the release of this game. but the game itself looks solid for the most part. People complaining about easy difficulty A.I need to chill out, when have you ever seen a game on easy difficulty ever include intelligent a.i? On top of that I think some of the glaring issues are obvious some look like a easy patch some others its hard to tell if its a day 1 patch ordeal of its a work in progress ordeal, mainly the A.I standing around waiting to tackle the player that's shrugging a tackle.

 

[Selim]

Marking - Every contests looks like a 1 v 1 lockup, and 95% result in a mark to one of them. I wish that at least 50/50 marking contests ended with a spoiled ground ball. (is there even the ability to intercept mark and or spoil?)
And if someone is going to win it, height and making ability should come into the equation.

jjust on the contests always resulting in marks, its on the easiest difficulty of course everything was being marked mostly by Michael, and the ones that arnt are probs due to Michael mistiming his marking option and AI marking it,

played a game of AFL EVO 2 on easy and was marking everything even outta position so hard to judge afl 23 on that when we have only seen easy

 

[Browny977]

Who is tippa?

Anthony McDonald-tipungwuti

 

[Cummdog3000]

Thanks for the footage Michaels, BA.

Honestly I wouldn’t have even thought about the camera angles from each side of the ground if not mentioned on here. Personally if this gets overlooked in favour of polishing up other elements of gameplay I’d be all for it. Overall it looks much better than Evo 2. hopefully they deliver on management mode. given their history of patching and quality of life updates on cricket it would be nice to see if they keep track for some feedback in here on fixable things once we get our hands on the game.

 

[mickelboy182]

Hopefully either just the capture or the build, but the framerate in Michaels' video doesn't look great. Makes some already rough animations even more juttery.

 

[Mkcaptain]

I'm not sure if fatigue has been turned on in the version of the game shown yesterday. Looked like it was the same players in every centre bounce.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

I'm not sure if fatigue has been turned on in the version of the game shown yesterday. Looked like it was the same players in every centre bounce.

2.5 minute quarters doesn’t help