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.

 

[Nicho50]

I think YouTube did me dirty briefly to HD taking a while to catch up!

Doesn’t help on a phone screen to it was just hard to follow the ball.

What were your thoughts? Disappointing they didn’t miss, and like mentioned seems there’s no speccies and contested stuff looks pretty rough.

 

[Treehill23]

AI still makes stupid passes. Cameron marks it on the 50 and handballs it to the wing ? Tf ?
Ball floats in the air and barely rotates. At least this is the case for shots on goal
Players are standing still when they receive a handball. I swear this is an issue at the launch of every single AFL game ever. Why ?
Players are way too slow getting back off the mark. Again seems like something that always plagues the launch of AFL titles
When the ball is dropped from a tackle, it seems players stand around for a second or 2 before someone picks it up
Seems like there’s no advantage from a free kick. Play just stops as do all the players.
Seems on hard difficultly that the AI don’t miss shots at goal. 10 goals straight combined ?

Oh boy.

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

I prefer it to besting the AI by 100 points every time on the hardest difficulty. But yeah, maybe more accurate representation of set shot accuracy and a few mistakes here and there wouldn’t hurt

Just need to turn kicking accuracy and marking success down, spoiling and tackling up.

Not a single ball up or boundary throw in from 10 minutes of gameplay

 

[Quivorir]

Because it's on easy mode and the players kicking the goals are good at kicking those goals.

It might be because the game-mode is set to 1-on-1 style football, there may very well be different game modes.

My God the mental gymnastics you display are Olympic level.

 

[OhDustinMartin]

im holding judgement until well i see or i get to play against the AI In legend difficulty, i went and played evo 2 on easiest & legend last night and its crazy how dumb and stupid the AI is on easiest that it really doesnt tell you anything on how the AI plays like they dont even sprint lol so im just waiting to really give judgement

yeah, had a crack today too. fwiw i think it'll be good, just seemed to be a fair few problems that need fixing. as we don't know anything really about the game build, will have to suck it and see.

 

[Monfries7]

It will be impossible to play this game with commentary on unless they tone down Huddo. The others are okay

 

[Selim]

When its released it'll be oh every game had bugs at launch or remember theyre a aussie developer.
Tbf if it's the best afl game out day 1 anyone will forgive a few bugs

no but like have you played any new release of the past 3 years? there all hella broken to begin with now its crazy how much the standards in the gaming industry have slipped, i blame all those shitty survival games that released in alpha which meant games got away with being played in a shit state and the gaming community has just become fine with it

 

[Selim]

It was on hard.

I'm not sure what that means though in the context of AI vs AI though.

well. that is a tad concerning i cant lie ahah

really gotta hope there are sliders then

 

[Mootsy]

It will be impossible to play this game with commentary on unless they tone down Huddo. The others are okay

maybe he drinks a lot of coffee

 

[mickelboy182]

It might be because the game-mode is set to 1-on-1 style football, there may very well be different game modes.

Great satire.

 

[Bucking Bronco]

Way too much marking.

Looks like a game of quidditch.

Majority of an actual AFL game is loose-ball-gets.

Still an improvement on previous titles though...

 

[FearTheBeard13]

Just need to turn kicking accuracy and marking success down, spoiling and tackling up.

Not a single ball up or boundary throw in from 10 minutes of gameplay

Yeah and fortunately there’s sliders in the game to do so. I see a few things that wouldnt happen in a real game but at least we can adjust tendencies to our liking and along with patches I have no doubt it will replicate footy as accurately as possible. At least there wasn’t an unrealistic momentum swing. Sydney started hot and stayed there but it would also be good to see sprayed shots on goal and rushed behinds.

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

8.31 of the video, a Swan marks on centre wing, decides to handball it 60m backwards to Hawkins on his own, who then turns and goals.

XBox people, waiting might be the play.

Really hoping this isn't the final version, its AI v AI but...yeezus.

Yep I was quite shocked when I saw this. The AI we’re doing some ridiculously long handballs laterally. And also that massive backwards one you were talking about I think was Chad Warner, when he handballs like 50m back into defence and Hawkins slotted the goal. Also a player would have the ball in the corridor(centre half of the ground) with number of options for short handball receives in the corridor but would instead kick really wide laterally as they did for those ridiculous handballs.

JNT BA Overall I feel a lot better about the gameplay compared to last night. The hard difficulty did the trick. Advice to all the content creators- don’t ever play on easy again haha. (I understand this might be irrelevant for me to say if the easy AI smartness might improve by release)

Something I appreciated a lot was that AI banana set shot goal. I don’t think the AI in an AFL game has ever performed different types of kicks(bananas, snaps) for the set shot! I am not concerned about the AI setshot accuracy, I’m sure this will be an easy fix.

The play was very marking dominant. The kicking movement was very repetitive, very straight low kicks all the time, didn’t seem to be any high kicks or clearance kicks in play- was a bit weird. Even after a mark players never played on by running in a curve off the mark. It was very straight, straight, straight.

Anyway those were my thoughts, more confident in the gameplay now and what a string of patches could easily fix with the handball use, running off the mark movements, contested ground balls etc.

My one concern is how disjointed the player is when performing varied sequential movements one after the other. Hopefully they can fix this

 

[Orange Paradox]

Just noticed the scorebug logos have been updated. They seem much larger and more centred now.

Top is from Caden Macdonald's vid. Bottom is Michaels latest vid.

 

[JT_the_Man]

AI vs AI
2.5min quartets

Maybe give it 10 min.

HD piece still catching up to upload

I have some concerns.

Marking/spoiling - Not a single marking contest resulted in the ball coming to ground. Someone marked the ball in every single contest…
Loose balls - More than one time in a loose ball scenario I saw every player just seem to freeze and stand still for a second or two before anyone even thought about attempting to pick it up.
Goalkicking - Enough said, look at the scoreboard.
Decision Making - There were some very strange decisions made in terms of handballing and kicking to certain areas at times.
Menus - No QT, HT, 3QT or FT stats screens?

Those were the main things that stood out to me. Graphically the game still looks beautiful.

 

[Michaels]

Doesn’t help on a phone screen to it was just hard to follow the ball.

What were your thoughts? Disappointing they didn’t miss, and like mentioned seems there’s no speccies and contested stuff looks pretty rough.

The not missing piece I was a little shocked by.

I don't know if hard difficulty increases their accuracy etc.

I can't remember if wind was on either.

Regardless a few misses would have been nice.

I loved the banana set shot.

Players spread from the contest well.

It looked like they used the clearance handball a bit too which seemed to keep things more open than when I played. Good learning.

 

[BRAB]

Given how jarring contested footy is they might not want too many spoils to happen. The game looks at its worst when players are standing around waiting to pick up the ball and it looks great when players are transitioning up the field (until it gets to the 50m and they send it backwards)

I imagine it’s a pretty delicate balance.

 

[Michaels]

I have some concerns.

Marking/spoiling - Not a single marking contest resulted in the ball coming to ground. Someone marked the ball in every single contest…
Loose balls - More than one time in a loose ball scenario I saw every player just seem to freeze and stand still for a second or two before anyone even thought about attempting to pick it up.
Goalkicking - Enough said, look at the scoreboard.
Decision Making - There were some very strange decisions made in terms of handballing and kicking to certain areas at times.
Menus - No QT, HT, 3QT or FT stats screens?

Those were the main things that stood out to me. Graphically the game still looks beautiful.

Pretty sure there was at least 1 marking contest that went to ground.

I liked how some marks were from the player going back with the flight though.

Goal kicking was interesting, not sure if Hard mode played a part. Would have liked a few points though!

 

[GOTHELIONS16]

Yeah and fortunately there’s sliders in the game to do so. I see a few things that wouldnt happen in a real game but at least we can adjust tendencies to our liking and along with patches I have no doubt it will replicate footy as accurately as possible. At least there wasn’t an unrealistic momentum swing. Sydney started hot and stayed there but it would also be good to see sprayed shots on goal and rushed behinds.

Yeah we shouldn’t need to have to use the sliders though, big ant should be sliding it to optimum for us in patches and setting that as default.

 

[Flagmantle Pod]

Most of these issues can be solved from sliders etc but the standing around the ball waiting for someone else to grab it is perfectly fine if you’re trying to depict Freo

 

[Selim]

question for BigAntStudios JNT BA or Michaels is hard the hardest difficulty or is there still one or 2 more after 'hard'

like how does it go
easy
medium
hard
legend?

 

[mclovin99]

Given how jarring contested footy is they might not want too many spoils to happen. The game looks at its worst when players are standing around waiting to pick up the ball and it looks great when players are transitioning up the field (until it gets to the 50m and they send it backwards)

I imagine it’s a pretty delicate balance.

Id rather more spoils and handballing it to a team mate that is open then consistent marks.
I rather it be more rare to get a contested mark.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Pretty sure there was at least 1 marking contest that went to ground.

I liked how some marks were from the player going back with the flight though.

Goal kicking was interesting, not sure if Hard mode played a part. Would have liked a few points though!

Yeah, I liked a few going back with the flight, they were pretty impressive. There were some contests in there that simply had to be spoils though.

 

[chenny420]

looking at the gameplay maybe an extra months wait for xbox users is a blessing in disguise… graphics wise it looks great but everything else…

 

[mclovin99]

question for BigAntStudios JNT BA or Michaels is hard the hardest difficulty or is there still one or 2 more after 'hard'

like how does it go
easy
medium
hard
legend?

The hardest difficulty is obviously releasing it on xbox