Thirith on 29/7/2021 at 07:42
I have to say that I never had the problems you mentioned with respect to the locations, Yakoob. I found the environmental design to be exceptional - these are places that felt real to me, yet I also felt that they were learnable. One thing I had to unlearn very quickly, mind you, was a ground-focused mindset: whenever possible, I'd get to higher ground, awnings and the like while outside, furniture and lamps while inside. This would allow me to get close to people without risking being detected. I ended up playing both Dishonored games much more vertically, so to speak, than Thief, for instance, and it completely changed these games for me.
I also thought that the Crown Killer/Hypatia was signaled quite clearly, but it may well be that depending on what sequence you find the clues in, you either get it pretty much immediately - or not at all. Or perhaps there are one or two documents that you didn't find which clarified the situation for me.
Aja on 29/7/2021 at 14:45
Anyway, Dishonoured 2 sucks -- we all agree -- but recently I had a hankering for some Gears of War. I haven't played it in years, my XBox 360 is at my parents' house, and the only way to play it seems to be the Ultimate Edition, which serendipitously was on sale for half price. The Microsoft store is a piece of garbage, it took forever to get my controller working, and on a couple occasions the game got stuck at the intro "Contacting Gears of War Services", whatever the hell that is, but I've now managed to play through most of it, and... it's so damn good.
I remember it feeling weighty and chunky and satisfying, and it still absolutely is. I remember the locations being beautiful and interesting, and they are. And I remember folks here complaining about Cliff Bleszinski infusing the game with too much bro-ness, and they're still wrong about that. The dialogue is hilarious and well-voiced, and the story simmers without ever getting in the way. It also has a kind of mystery to it in the way that it hints a deeper backstory than it outright tells you. It reminds me a bit of the way From Software games tell stories.
The Ultimate Edition version is basically as I remember the original although I think the low-res version had a few graphical touches that, while designed around limited GPU power, were actually aesthetically superior. But that's a nitpick. And the game's only like eight hours long; perfect. In fact, Gears comes pretty close to being a perfect game. But next time I'll drag out and hook up the ol' 360 for the authentic experience.
Jason Moyer on 29/7/2021 at 19:04
I've spent most of this year replaying BL1 + 2 (and just enough of TPS to realize it sucks). I took all 4 characters in 1 to the level cap, Maya in 2 to the cap, and Zer0 to level 50-something in UVHM. Of the two, I think BL1 is my favorite because I like the subtler humor and the wasteland/mad max vibe, plus I think the second playthrough is less annoying because a.) you can stay on level for the main quests without doing much if any side stuff b.) gear levels are less important than they are in 2 so you aren't getting your ass kicked constantly if you get unlucky finding new gear (not an issue on NVHM in BL2, but by level 30 or so the level scaling is so bad that it's usually better to have a white rarity item that's your level than a legendary or purple or unique item that's one or two levels below your level c.) the in-your-face humor in BL2 is funny if you haven't played it before or in awhile, but is grating when you're just trying to quest and find cool shit (BL1 was smart in the way it didn't let the story get in the way of that).
Both games have shitty end-game content, for different reasons. BL1's difficulty is a joke because until you beat the main bosses of the main storyline and knoxx dlc in the second playthrough, nothing scales to your level and it's super easy to be way over-levelled for the entirety of your journey from level 0 to 69. It's also impossible (without save editing, which is risky) to reset the campaign to do a third or fourth playthrough with the world scaled, which would be nice once you hit the level cap because you could get higher-level quest rewards (you can grind respawnable stuff which is the only real endgame). BL2 is mostly fun through playthrough 2, even with the exponential damage scaling starting to get out of hand, but the third playthrough absolutely requires that you slag all but the weakest of enemies and most of the characters don't have a skill that accomplishes that, so the most common strategies end up involving complete cheese (like getting a slag gun from a dlc quest and never turning it in). With Maya, I had fun throughout the entire game because her skill is still useful (and actually, even more useful) at the endgame as it's bith powerful and can slag a crowd of enemies. With Zer0 I went back to the first playthrough and over-level cheesed through the Tina DLC to get a specific piece of gear (magic missile grenade) so I could slag shit, then I sat back and hoped the homing grenades hit the thing I wanted to kill or I'd have to toss more out, then eventually sit for awhile to let the grenades auto-regenerate. After doing that for a few levels and wanting to kill myself, I said fuck that and uninstalled it.
Now I'm finally playing Outer Worlds, what with it being delayed by a year on Steam and all that. I'm enjoying it immensely through what I assume is most of the first planet.
Malleus on 29/7/2021 at 20:28
I continued my journey through the
Assassin's Creed franchise with
Unity, and after an hour or so I was already in love with it. I think the world the devs created here is amazing. It's not just the clothes, the architecture, the detailed building interiors that are impressive, but the extremely varied NPC animations and interactions give this a very lifelike feeling. Walking the streets of Paris and Versailles is just so immersive and believable. I loved it. I played the game with French dub for extra immersion which made the atmosphere even better. I don't speak French though, so I don't know how good the dub is, but it made the game feel more authentic. Last time I could play an AC game with native dub was with AC2 and Brotherhood in Italian.
So, great immersion and all, but what about the gameplay? IMO this is Unity's strong point. Compared to previous games we have the parkour up and down function which adds much needed control to movement. Now we can also crouch on demand, which was sorely needed. There also a cover system now, which aids stealth nicely - unfortunately it's the glitchiest thing ever. It's nice though, when you don't get stuck face first in a wall. These and some other fine tuning of the controls made movement much better than in previous games, but it still has the occasionaly jank, like when you press forward+high profile+jump and Arno jumps 90 degrees to the left. This is one of the main things Origins was better at. Climbing might be way too easy in there, but the parkour is much more reliable.
But at least the moving around in Unity looks good, and by good, I mean damn amazing. The character animations are stunningly good, with lots of variations, almost all of which looks believable and humanlike. It's just a joy to just parkour around the rooftops of Paris. The assassination animations are great too, and swordfighting too is a joy to look at too, though the many fancy animations make the combat a bit too slow paced. It is still better than in the previous games, and also harder, which was a welcome change, but in the end the optimal play is the same as in Black Flag: 1. throw smoke bomb 2. kill 2-3 enemies as fast as possible 3. repeat until victory. Apart from that now we also have the option to do non lethal take downs, but the animation is longer and it's louder than assassination, so I don't understand what's the point of it. Looks cool though.
At the core, the gameplay is the same as in the previous titles (minus the ship stuff, thankfully), though since the combat is harder, there is more emphasis on stealth, which is a welcome change. This is still not a good stealth game, and often the situations devolve into combat, but still an improvement. There some wicked fun in killing a target, running away, turning a corner and blending in the crowd. The mission design is also much better. There are often multiple ways to kill a target, and there are side objectives to make infiltration, or the kill itself, easier. Apart from that, there are lots of other missions to do, and the generally great gameplay make even random side quests fun too.
The weak point of the game, I think, is the story. It had potential though, the revolution could have been an interesting backdrop, and the whole Romeo and Juliet idea had potential, but nothing interesting came of it. The whole story was dull, and Arno was largely a forgettable character. The depiction of the revolution was weird too, as it did little to give context to the events, and the whole thing had a sort of counter-revolutionary vibe. Because of these, this game works less as edutainment than previous titles IMO. I found an interesting youtube video, analysing these aspects of the story and generally the historical accuracy of the game (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r47yZIYBUzc).
But even with all these shortcomings, the game was very memorable and fun. The gameplay, and the world are so good, they carry the experience. Definitely a high point in the series IMO.
Malleus on 29/7/2021 at 21:32
Quote Posted by Yakoob
I never know where the guards are and what their patrols route are (no minimap, no echolocation, no nothing).
It's been a while since I played the game, but isn't there an ability that lets you see through walls?
Yakoob on 29/7/2021 at 23:55
Yup, I just got the Dark Vision ability + the "see items" upgrade and it makes the game infinitely more playable. I can actually walk into a cluttered room and see what the pickups are (except keys, keys are still nearly impossible to spot in some cases). Except now I'm basically constantly spamming this ability every 30 seconds.
In any case, I played next two missions and I'm finally starting to get in the groove and enjoy the game. I was a bit underwhelmed by the Clockwork Mansion given how much crazy hype I heard (it felt like a super cool idea that lasted about two rooms before going back to regular sneaking thru a base full of guards. I almost thought I did something wrong when I ran into and killed Jindosh like 10 minutes after his introduction), but the Conservatory was the first level I truly enjoyed. The space actually felt like a logical space so I had a much easier time orienting myself in, and it was fun jumping around between the levels.
Also, watching the guards have little conversations, chill on a bed or have little tea-party dates is definitely the high point of the game. Probably the best humanization of "average grunt" I've seen in a game.
reizak on 30/7/2021 at 09:54
I have mixed feelings about Dark Vision. On the one hand it's kinda indispensable, but on the other it's so indispensable that I just end up running through the game with it on and it takes a lot of the challenge out of the sneaking aspect, turns the pretty environments into dull monochrome, and the whispering gets a bit old too. I guess not exercising restraint is my own fault though.
Jason Moyer on 30/7/2021 at 18:29
I've done full stealth/non-lethal playthroughs without powers (i.e. blink and dark vision) and it isn't bad. Actually, I think I've done almost every playstyle imaginable (including no-crouching-full-agression/non-lethal, which is nuts) and enjoyed all of them.
Pyrian on 30/7/2021 at 19:48
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
(including no-crouching-full-agression/non-lethal, which is nuts)
Also known as "stop shooting the person I'm choking" mode. :cheeky:
