Yesterday at PAX West, BioWare and Electronic Arts hosted a presentation forAnthem, which was livestreamed for fans who couldn’t be at the show. While the presentation was plenty exciting for those looking forward toAnthem, it also has garnered attention for a comment made by one of the game’s producers that references the infamousSpider-Man"Puddlegate" controversy.
For the uninitiated, there’s been some controversy over the last few days stemming from changes to puddles in the upcoming PS4-exclusiveSpider-Mangame. Fans have accused Insomniac Games of reducingSpider-Man’s graphical quality from what was shown at events like E3, which the studio has denied. Even so, that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists and others to continue accusing the game of a downgrade.
During theAnthempresentation at PAX West, one of the game’s producers pointed out a puddle that could be seen in one of the images. He said, “You’ll see there’s a puddle. […] So before we move on, there’s a 98% chance that puddle’s gonna be changed, moved, reduced.”
TheSpider-Manpuddlegate controversymay be mocked by some, but to be fair, BioWare has been accused of graphical downgrades in the past. In fact,Mass Effect Andromedais notorious for its poor facial animations that were in the launch version of the game, and so there may be some legitimate concern among fans thatAnthemwon’t look as good as its gameplay trailers when it launches early next year.
It remains to be seen if anyAnthemfans need to worry about the game getting a graphical downgrade. In the meantime, its PAX West presentation is notable for a lot more than this joke by one of the game’s producers. It was at PAX West thatAnthemgot a brand new story trailer that showed how it is closer to past BioWare titles than previously expected, and it was also confirmed that the game will get aplayable demo on February 1, a few weeks before launch.
Anthemwill launch on February 21 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
