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29 minutes ago, azrael said:

Anyways.....

How is Far Cry 5? I may consider it when it goes on sale on Steam.

I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but to be fair I am a massive fan/shill of the series, going back to the original PC game and the Instincts remake on the original fatty Xbox. The game is gorgeous, I'm on an Xbox One X and in 4K with HDR going this game is a jaw dropper, really beautiful. Huge, dense map with tons of stuff to do, better progression, better quest giving, coop, less samey style collectathons and missions, they even took out the monotonous towers that you had to climb to unlock the map, the map unlocks much more "naturally" now, through progression on side quests and other activities. The game is very open ended too, you do the tiny tutorial island and that's it, you're free to roam the entirety of the map, for better or worse. The game doesn't feel as much like a big digital check list like the previous games did at times, and the way you get quests now is much better then just running to the same person a dozen times over and asking "What's next?".

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5 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but to be fair I am a massive fan/shill of the series, going back to the original PC game and the Instincts remake on the original fatty Xbox. The game is gorgeous, I'm on an Xbox One X and in 4K with HDR going this game is a jaw dropper, really beautiful. Huge, dense map with tons of stuff to do, better progression, better quest giving, coop, less samey style collectathons and missions, they even took out the monotonous towers that you had to climb to unlock the map, the map unlocks much more "naturally" now, through progression on side quests and other activities. The game is very open ended too, you do the tiny tutorial island and that's it, you're free to roam the entirety of the map, for better or worse. The game doesn't feel as much like a big digital check list like the previous games did at times, and the way you get quests now is much better then just running to the same person a dozen times over and asking "What's next?".

Are there still enemy outposts to take over? I think that was my favorite activity in 3/4/Blood Dragon.

I also tend to like Ubisoft's open world games. Aside from the recent Far Cry games I'm a big fan of (most of) the Assassin's Creed games.

(I'm ashamed to admit I never played the original or Instincts, and I've tried several times to play 2 but I just can't get into it).

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I haven't played an AC since 3, and even then I only got like 50% through the game. Got sidetracked catching animals in the forest and finding things to spend money on, but eventually I started making so much more than I spent that the game got boring. I couldn't even find the secondary/tertiary pistol holsters when people I knew had it from like 15% on or so.

Since then I haven't found the desire to play The Ubisoft Sandbox Game at all, though I do admit Far Cry 5 has my interest piqued.

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11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Are there still enemy outposts to take over? I think that was my favorite activity in 3/4/Blood Dragon.

I also tend to like Ubisoft's open world games. Aside from the recent Far Cry games I'm a big fan of (most of) the Assassin's Creed games.

(I'm ashamed to admit I never played the original or Instincts, and I've tried several times to play 2 but I just can't get into it).

To be fair, Far Cry 2 was pretty meh, it wasn't very good. Outposts are definitely back, they are bigger and more elaborate then ever, plus tons of smaller farms and buildings to clear as well, I recommend it.

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10 hours ago, kajnrig said:

I haven't played an AC since 3, and even then I only got like 50% through the game. Got sidetracked catching animals in the forest and finding things to spend money on, but eventually I started making so much more than I spent that the game got boring. I couldn't even find the secondary/tertiary pistol holsters when people I knew had it from like 15% on or so.

Since then I haven't found the desire to play The Ubisoft Sandbox Game at all, though I do admit Far Cry 5 has my interest piqued.

3 was a low point in the series (but not as low as Unity, which is the only main-line AC I couldn't even finish). I really liked Black Flag, Rogue, and Syndicate, but if there's one I'd really recommend it's Origins.

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1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

3 was a low point in the series (but not as low as Unity, which is the only main-line AC I couldn't even finish). I really liked Black Flag, Rogue, and Syndicate, but if there's one I'd really recommend it's Origins.

Gameplay-wise it's fine, it's just the main character and the story that let the game down. Black Flag proves that point; move it to the Caribbeans(?) and turn Connor into a pirate(?), and suddenly the woes of AC3 are forgotten.

Origin looks fine, but... again, it's The Ubisoft Sandbox Game. I just can't bring myself to care to play one of those. They all bleed into each other - collectibles all over the map, capture watchposts to reveal map and said collectibles, etc...

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8 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Origin looks fine, but... again, it's The Ubisoft Sandbox Game. I just can't bring myself to care to play one of those. They all bleed into each other - collectibles all over the map, capture watchposts to reveal map and said collectibles, etc...

Play Origins, it's far more Witcher 3 with some AC in it then your standard fair AC game. Combat was revamped, stealth was revamped, it's an RPG now, all about the numbers. Far more story focused, a wider variety or missions, less follow missions, more interesting exploration areas like tombs and hidden temples, less collectibles, less focus on needing to collect what is out there, there are still view points to climb, but I never minded that in AC. As for Far Cry, as I mentioned above, 5 really tried to do away with a lot of the monotonous stuff you mentioned above, liked towers. Far Cry has always been tongue in cheek at times, in the beginning of 5 one of the NPCs even mentions he's not going to have you going around climbing towers all over the map, there are no mandatory towers, the map is revealed through actual quests, dialog, road signs, and gameplay.

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1 hour ago, dizman said:

More footage of Jurassic World Evolution, from what I've seen it takes a lot of influence from JP Operation Genesis so it should be a fun Dinosaur park builder game.

 

Looks good to me! I'll be grabbing it for my Xbox One X!

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4 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Good deal if you're into multiplayer (and if there's a decent, active community).  If you're into singleplayer, though, I still wouldn't recommend it.  I picked it up when it first came out, and I honestly regret it.  I probably only played for an hour.  The game felt pretty barebones; lots of MS to pick, but nothing to do with them except VS other players or VS CPU.

But hey, the next Gundam Breaker is coming out in the States, I hear.

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2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Good deal if you're into multiplayer (and if there's a decent, active community).  If you're into singleplayer, though, I still wouldn't recommend it.  I picked it up when it first came out, and I honestly regret it.  I probably only played for an hour.  The game felt pretty barebones; lots of MS to pick, but nothing to do with them except VS other players or VS CPU.

But hey, the next Gundam Breaker is coming out in the States, I hear.

oh thanks for the heads up, i'll wait for breaker

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17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Good deal if you're into multiplayer (and if there's a decent, active community).  If you're into singleplayer, though, I still wouldn't recommend it.  I picked it up when it first came out, and I honestly regret it.  I probably only played for an hour.  The game felt pretty barebones; lots of MS to pick, but nothing to do with them except VS other players or VS CPU.

But hey, the next Gundam Breaker is coming out in the States, I hear.

Yup pretty much this, Versus is a barebones game and there isn't much to do in singleplayer. Even if you were getting into it for multiplayer I'd still steer you clear since now it's almost all veteran players so it wouldn't be too fun for a beginner to get constantly stomped. 

I tried Breaker 3 and found it kinda boring, I do like repetitive button mashers like Dynasty Warriors but Breaker just never clicked with me (the customization was fun though). Maybe the new game will be better.

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48 minutes ago, dizman said:

Yup pretty much this, Versus is a barebones game and there isn't much to do in singleplayer. Even if you were getting into it for multiplayer I'd still steer you clear since now it's almost all veteran players so it wouldn't be too fun for a beginner to get constantly stomped. 

I tried Breaker 3 and found it kinda boring, I do like repetitive button mashers like Dynasty Warriors but Breaker just never clicked with me (the customization was fun though). Maybe the new game will be better.

I've played them all, and I think 2 was better than 3.  The campaign was a little longer, and I felt like the maps had more variety.

But the biggest thing they changed in 3 was that you could use parts to upgrade other parts.  While that seemed like a good idea on paper, in practice it meant that you could build your mobile suit then just keep upgrading the parts, so there wasn't much incentive to try swapping in other parts.  In GB 1 and 2 I was constantly changing stuff up, but I played through 99% of GB3 in a white Sinanju.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they shake things up in the new one, though.  One of the things I read is that you'll be able to swap parts during missions instead of only between them.

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6 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Might have to dust off my old PS4 for this, looks interesting, though to be fair, it also looks like the Batman Arkham games with a Spidey skin on it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

To be fair, the Batman Arkham games looks like Spider-Man with a Batman skin on him, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. :D :D :D

Does anyone remember the old PS1 Spider-Man game? Was watching an LP of it the other day and boy is it still as entertaining as it was as a kid, and still mostly mechanically sound, too. For being the first 3D Spider-Man game, they got a lot of the mechanics down exactly right.

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3 hours ago, kajnrig said:

To be fair, the Batman Arkham games looks like Spider-Man with a Batman skin on him, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. :D :D :D

Does anyone remember the old PS1 Spider-Man game? Was watching an LP of it the other day and boy is it still as entertaining as it was as a kid, and still mostly mechanically sound, too. For being the first 3D Spider-Man game, they got a lot of the mechanics down exactly right.

I'd personally say I still believe the best Spidey game we ever got overall, gameplay and story, was Spider-Man 2 for PS2. Great Spidey game, even more impressive, it was a great movie tie in game, which historically, are usually completely awful.

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5 hours ago, Tking22 said:

Might have to dust off my old PS4 for this, looks interesting, though to be fair, it also looks like the Batman Arkham games with a Spidey skin on it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Not the first game to borrow that gameplay style. Shadow of Mordor did as well and it worked and looked great.

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17 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Not the first game to borrow that gameplay style. Shadow of Mordor did as well and it worked and looked great.

Yeah definitely not a bad thing, Shadow of War/Mordor did it, Sleeping dogs for the combat, AC Origins and a dozen other games have borrowed "Detective Mode" from Arkham.

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3 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I'd personally say I still believe the best Spidey game we ever got overall, gameplay and story, was Spider-Man 2 for PS2. Great Spidey game, even more impressive, it was a great movie tie in game, which historically, are usually completely awful.

Spider-Man 2's one saving grace is its web-swinging mechanic. Fortunately, that one mechanic is so good as to make up for all of the other middling to downright bad aspects of the game. The PS1 Spider-Man is definitely not as good, but it's a more balanced package. At least in both cases, the CGI cutscenes are equally eye-searing.

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Not the first game to borrow that gameplay style. Shadow of Mordor did as well and it worked and looked great.

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

Yeah definitely not a bad thing, Shadow of War/Mordor did it, Sleeping dogs for the combat, AC Origins and a dozen other games have borrowed "Detective Mode" from Arkham.

The original AC had "Detective Mode" a full two years before Arkham Asylum debuted with the same thing. Granted, AA actually had some use for it, but still...

Heck, even the recent Spider-Man games have incorporated AA mechanics of one variety or another into them. It's like a disgusting ouroboros of gameplay design.

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17 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Spider-Man 2's one saving grace is its web-swinging mechanic. Fortunately, that one mechanic is so good as to make up for all of the other middling to downright bad aspects of the game. The PS1 Spider-Man is definitely not as good, but it's a more balanced package. At least in both cases, the CGI cutscenes are equally eye-searing.

The original AC had "Detective Mode" a full two years before Arkham Asylum debuted with the same thing. Granted, AA actually had some use for it, but still...

Heck, even the recent Spider-Man games have incorporated AA mechanics of one variety or another into them. It's like a disgusting ouroboros of gameplay design.

AC 1 and 2 had Eagle Vision, but then 3 kind of just changed Eagle Vision into an AC version of an upgraded Detective Mode. It all works, so I'm not too bothered. As for combat, it makes sense copying Arkham games, many games these days have a protagonist that is a hand to hand combat expert, and athletic, and should be capable of fighting a dozen dudes at once, so it just works. I remember the recent, and IMO underrated Mad Max game had Arkham combat as well, slower, and you fought fewer guys, and did more stabbing and killing, but it worked, and felt and looked good. It seems the Arkham games set a new standard for hand to hand hero combat, each game at this point just tries to put their own spin on it.

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1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

It seems the Arkham games set a new standard for hand to hand hero combat, each game at this point just tries to put their own spin on it.

They definitely hit on a sure thing back in 2009. Me, I'll still always prefer my DMCs and Bayos and Metal Gear Risings... okay, basically I'll just prefer my Platinum Games... but Arkham combat most definitely has aged very well.

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On 3/28/2018 at 4:44 PM, azrael said:

Anyways.....

How is Far Cry 5? I may consider it when it goes on sale on Steam.

How much did you like Far Cry 3 or 4?  There's a lot of the same sort of stuff going on; kill a bunch of stuff, take over outposts, do stuff for people, find collectibles, etc.  I'd say the main differences fall into three categories-

1. No more radio towers.  Initially, the whole map is grayed out.  You fill it in by walking around.  You can also talk to the people you come across, and very often they'll tell you where stuff is.  Road signs might indicate some type of animal or fish is nearby.  And sometimes you'll find maps that will mark locations of interest on your map.  Generally I like this, as it feels more organic and the radio towers were kind of boring.  In 4 I did most of them by flying a Buzzer to the top to avoid the actual climbing.

2. No more crafting, and no leveling up.  All the stuff you'd have got from hunting before, like bigger ammo bags or whatever, are considered perks now.  All the skills from the skill trees you could get whenever you leveled up are also perks.  Most perks are available to unlock from the beginning of the game; only a few have prerequisites.  To unlock a perk you just have to pay the required amount of perk points.  Perks points are gained in one of two ways.  The easiest way is to find magazines that give them to you.  There are usually 1 to 3 whenever you find a prepper stash.  The other way is through challenges.  When it comes to challenges, a lot of them are pretty easy and you'll do them naturally, like kill X number of enemies with a shotgun or get X number of headshots.  Some involve hunting or fishing, so while you might not need four deer skins to make a bigger wallet you'll still find yourself killing four deer for the perk points (that said, aside from animals that attack you, you'll probably kill the minimum required to complete the challenge and do a lot less hunting overall).  I'm fine with it, but if I'm being totally honest I like the separate leveling and hunting in 3 and 4.  Leveling for skills isn't super different than completing challenges you were going to complete anyway, but there are some you might not have bothered with (like killing X number of baddies with Molotovs), and hunting just isn't as important.

3. Progression.  In Far Cry 3 and 4 you could really spend as much time as you wanted screwing around, tracking down posters, hunting, whatever, and totally ignore the story.  In 5, the map is divided into three regions, and doing basically anything (side quests, story quests, outpost liberations, rescuing that one guy tied up that the baddies keep marching down the roads, etc) gives you points.  As you gain points, you'll see a message like "there are hunters after you," you'll get hit by a tranquilizing "Bliss" bullet, then wake up in some sort of plot-advancing level.  On the one hand, I like that it gives even small side quests more weight, but on the other hand in games like Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc, I actually prefer to avoid the main quests as long as possible (I put something like 40 hours into Skyrim without going further in the main quest than getting the first shout).  Also, since getting enough points in a region will raise the cult's level of interest in you, you'll find them getting more and more agressive while you're just trying to do stuff like loot stashes.  After awhile, it gets annoying trying to just explore when airplanes are flying overhead every few minutes.

On the whole, I'm still far from finished (I've totally liberated one of the three areas), but I'd say that my favorite in the series is still 4.  Aside from the radio towers I have a slight preference for the mechanics in 3/4, Kyrat was more fun/diverse than Montana, and the Seed family lacks the panache of Pagan Min.  But if you liked 3 and 4, 5 is similar enough that it's still enjoyable and different enough that it doesn't feel quite as same junk/new setting as 4 did over 3.

2 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

If it turns out to be hackable (or just has enough of the lineup that I want from it) like the NES Classic/SNES Classic, I'll probably buy one.  I never owned a Genesis/Mega Drive and I'm not as nostalgic over it the way I am the NES and SNES, but I could see myself collecting little mini consoles and hooking them up whenever I get that retro urge.

As for Shenmue, I'm in for PC, but I'm kind of curious why there's no Switch version.

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