10 Biggest Disappointments From E3 2018

5. Anthem Still Looks Completely Soulless

Name a character from Anthem, I dare you. How about the world it takes place in? A settlement perhaps? The enemies you're facing, or the reason why?

I can tell you the suits you're piloting are called Javelins, but unless you really made a point of paying attention to the assortment of Bioware devs divulging new information in a pretty plain manner i.e. directly to presenter Andrea Rene, rather than in a trailer, the game continues to be something of a protracted misfire.

Anthem is the game that Mass Effect Creative Director Casey Hudson returned to Bioware to work on. It's what the studio prioritised over Mass Effect Andromeda, and the thing that's in theory, going to restore the good Bioware name after Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition failed to catch on.

And yet... the result is something already in Destiny's shadow. A shadow that means very little.

Destiny has become near-parodic in its treatment of fans as gambling addict-like consumers of combat scenarios and nothing else. Anthem's reliance on squadding up, nabbing loot and grinding - whilst ditching RPG staples like romance-able NPCs - further paints Bioware as a studio making products without meaningful identities.