clyde

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Posts posted by clyde

  2. Posted

    OK, this is the best Far Cry game I've played.

    I played 2 and 3.

    There are significant mechanical systems that I have not experienced in an open-world shooter before that I am just now understanding the synergy of. I'll preface everything I say by mentioning that this all might be the way I imagine things are happening and not the actual mechanics.

    So I'll list the mechanics that seem to be working well together:

    1: Sphere of influence:

    I get the impression that enemy respawns are based on the general amount of progress you have made in the game and the proximity of "liberated" areas you are surrounded by. Progress you have made seems to effect the difficulty of the enemy units and the liberated areas effect the frequency of enemies arriving on the scene. At first I was kinda working outpost-to-outpost and everything was easy (but that is fine, I don't care if it is easy). But then I decided to just drive a truck way into enemy territory to get a specific story-NPC that I wanted to recruit. I was startled by how many enemies kept showing up, like they didn't stop. I realized that it may have to do with surrounding territory not being liberated, so we have been fighting our way back to friendly-held territory all night. The next point makes that more interesting than expected.

    2: The friendly NPCs.

    So currently, I can only have one friendly NPC fighting alongside with me. They can either be a story-NPC or just some random schmoe I rescue from a bear or a cult road-block. It seems like I can have as many story NPCs as I want in my roster and 3 schmoes available at any given time, but I can only have one present at the time. But what I'm starting to realize is that even if I rescue a schmoe and I don't hire them, they still pick up weapons and just start roaming the area. So as we are fighting our way back to a friendly town, I'm rescuing tens of schmoes who all grab weapons and then get on a vehicle and go their own way. But they fight without me commanding them.

    As we have been moving back to friendly turf, more and more I will hear gunshots in unexpected directions, go to investigate only to find a few schmoes I rescued an hour ago have gotten into an altercation with the cult. This feels significant just because it affects how I have to approach the skirmish, I can't just assume the fire comes from enemies and blow the traffic jam up.

    3. The environment and setting are hand-crafted to a high level of fidelity that is not apparent at first. At first it seems like generic woodlands, roads, and farms with big red Just Cause silos that you are to blow up in order to gain piss-off-the-enemy points. But as I find more areas and traverse agricultural fields that initially look just like an agricultural field I've already traversed, I'm seeing that it is just a geographic culture that is consistent and not something akin to repeating tiles. What this means is that the pacing/spacing of gulleys, fences, creeks, fields, farms, woodlands, and roads creates as sense of space denser and more immersive than any open-world game I've played. This becomes more apparent as I go into barns and houses to loot and perhaps end up defending the area from a few enemies who show up. When this happens the space becomes more detailed an intimate as I think about its layout at first for a battle-plan but then as I imagine it lived in as an operational farm as I move around looting bodies or try to Assassin's Creed my way into a hard-to-reach spot that hints at an easter-egg.

    These systems interact in an endearing way. An extreme example of this is me and Grace running across a field as a

    Spoiler

    plane is strafing us

    , finding cover on a pine ridge with shrubbery from which we see an

    Spoiler

    aggressive mockery of baptism occuring

    at the river below. We clear them out then I begin to fish from that shore. Grace covers me while I reel 'em in. When I say Grace is covering me, I mean she is putting beads on schmoes we freed an hour earlier as they drive their 4-wheeler to a spot that overlooks us. Those schmoes drive off and we hear gun-fire and it feels like a real possibility that Grace will go help them out while I finish bringing in this sturgeon I've had on the line for the past minute.

    This is my favorite Far Cry.

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, marginalgloss said:

     

     

    Can your buddies die? I'm guessing there is no Far Cry 2-esque option to execute them while they lie writhing in pain... (God that game was grim. It seems inconceivable now that it ever got made in the way it did.)

     

    More importantly can the dog die? What happens when the dog gets hurt? Is the dog going to be okay? These are the important questions which the reviews do not tell me.

     

    Seem like they are just on a cool-down when they die. But you still have the ability to try and revive them when they are dying.
    Something worth mentioning here is that there are buddies who are actual characters with stories, and then there are just towns-people you can hire who are pretty much just like buddies but you have to unlock their upgrades. This is a fun part of the game for me. I tend to enjoy running with lady-archers. Sometimes I run into someone and I'm like..."I'd love to have you on my team, but that means I have to let someone go." these potential hires are everywhere. It is overwhelming how many people you can hire. I feel like sometimes I run into the people I have since fired. It's awkward.

  4. Posted

    7 hours ago, Henke said:

    Played the first 3 hours last night. I've liberated the town to the south and gotten Nick his plane back. So far, so good! Spotted a few minor bugs, mainly just AI behaving in silly ways(like driving a car into a lake), but nothing game-breaking.

     

     

    What's the reference? I searched through the bunker and the watchtower but didn't spot anything obvious.

     

    Spoiler

    When I went in that fire-tower there was a woman calling over the radio for Henry and talking about all the smoke from the fires. Maybe my imagination is just too active, but I suspect people working on Far Cry are aware of the Campo Santo / Idle Thumbs connection and were nodding at them after all the Far Cry 2 talk.

     

     

  5. Posted

    2 hours ago, Ben X said:

     

    Wait, really? I was kidding, I didn't imagine that could be true! I've gone back and spoiler tagged in case you're serious and Cordeos hasn't caught up on the thread yet.

     

    Nah, I'm fukin with ya. But this would have been better and now when people see what I'm talking about they won't be impressed because their expectations are too high!

    😜

  6. Posted

    I'm enjoying this a lot. I turned off the waypoint and compass HUDs and the world being stuffed full is no longer a problem for me.

    If you've played a Far Cry game you know how an altercation on the road ends up continuing as more cars arrive and such? Well add an NPC that fights with you along to that.

    This game has a Red Dead Redemption feel for me. The setting is lovely (I have a GTX970 and the foliage and lighting are very nice) and there are a lot of little things you run into where NPCs need help because they are being beat up. So me and this dude with a bow that is running with me came down a hillside at night because we saw three enemies with a pickup beating a civilian up on the road. When I start attacking my buddy lights his arrow on fire and shoots it at them which of course spreads. I should have known this would happen; I asked him to shoot a deer when we were in a field on top of a mountain and he lit his arrow then too and set the deer on fire. Anyway, fire is spreading, it's fine, more enemies come, we kill them too. But me and my buddy are using a truck for cover and all of a sudden the right side of my screen is lit like by a torch and I'm like "what is that?" My Buddy has a flaming arrow and he's aiming it saying "Don't worry, I got 'em" and I'm thinking "O.K. I'm glad you see one cuz I thought they were all taken care of (I had a lot of the HUD off at this point)" and he then shoots the civilian we were rescuing point blank with a flaming arrow. Fire is spreading, I go to the civilian to revive him (still on fire). We are beside a truck that is on fire, it explodes immediately after the revive. The explosion blows my buddy into the woods, so all I hear is "Help me, I'm not going to make it much longer." I don't have the HUD on so I'm moving around searching for him by the sound of his suffering. I find him and revive him. It was really fun. It is very similar to Far Cry 3 but I think the setting is FAR MORE interesting, not just the militia/prepper stuff (which I do enjoy) but mostly it's the hunting-cabin/U.S. national parks feel of it. The characters are written and performed in a Rockstar style. They are mostly parodies, but I don't play many games with that anymore so I'm enjoying the qualities of these performances that time will not be kind to. I like the theatrical nature of the goofy characters and their parody circumstances.

  8. Posted

    3 hours ago, Cordeos said:

    Most of the articles I have read say it has done little to nothing to upgrade the gameplay systems, is it worth getting now to coop or should I wait for a sale/when I get bored of Surviving Mars?

     

    I don't think there is much urgency. I haven't played a Far Cry game since 3 and this is a very pretty iteration of that lineage for sure. I played about 2 hours and the world is stuffed with common mission types, nice looking settings, and rare one-offs that are quite neat to discover. The gameplay feels very similar, but the NPCs are janky fun. I got in a car with some guy because it seemed like the right thing to do and it was absurd in a fun way. There is some fun to be had for sure.
    I suspect I'll be playing this slowly for a month or so. It's a nice world to hang out in when a cut-scene isn't happening.

    If you are afraid of some legitimately surprising one-offs and one reference amazingly specific to this community on the tutorial-island being spoiled, then it may be urgent for you.

     

  9. Posted

    I have it preloaded, but I lost power in a snow-storm and it isn't scheduled to be back til Thursday.

    4 hours ago, Henke said:

    I'll probably pick it up later today, tho I haven't decided whether to go with PC or PS4 version yet.

     

     

    I'm in the U.S. and I can sometimes play games on voice-chat between 1pm-9pm GMT on weekdays. If you don't have anyone you want to play with on PS4 and those sometimes are good for you, I'd be interested in doing some co-op on PC. I have no idea if the server-connection would be good enough if I'm on the east-coast of the U.S. and you are wherever you are. 

  10. Posted

    The second "Really?"

    We are both gullible and it is fun for us to fool each other, but it can feel like a betrayal if it goes to far. The first "Really?" we are allowed to embellish the lie. But on the second "Really?" we say "No, not really."

    I find that this constraint makes the joke much better. I think it encourages us to see how far we can push that one and only opportunity for embellishment while maintaining a sliver of belief in our mark.

  13. Posted

    I'm playing through Blood Dragon for the first time while I wait for 5 (I got it for free at some point). The first mission was a slog and I don't think the way they did the neon aesthetic, cut-scenes, or character design holds up in 2018. I'm going to play more though. I'm looking forward to seeing how much things have changed since 3 by butting these up against each other.

  14. Posted

    I just saw The Greatest Showman. I'm struck by how much I disliked it while feeling empathetic with the decisions made in the movie's making (I haven't read anything about the production, I'm just talking about what I see in its presentation). Something felt wrong. It made me like La La Land less.

  17. Posted

    I'm taking the opportunity to jump into the hype-cycle for Far Cry 5. I've been watching the promotional material and I've decided I'll buy it at release to enjoy the conversation about it. I skipped 4 and Primal and never finished 3, but enjoyed my time on the first island. 

    From what I gather the tone of 5 is going to be rather awkward, but to be honest I'm looking forward to that. There seems to be a lot of designs of the characters, settings, and writing that are are sloppily derived from the more extreme media-versions of U.S. politics circa 1990-today. I'm looking forward to the satire that hits home and criticism of the inevitable poor taste. I expect it to be a lot like GTA5 in this way, but I suspect it will have a slightly different sensibility and I'm looking forward to reacting to that. 

    Mechanically, I'm looking forward to enemy AI's that revive each other and friendly NPC's that lool like they will have agency that is broken in funny ways. I saw that there is an automated driving feature that I'll try for novelty too.

    The setting looks like it will be pleasant to spend time in, especially with all the simulated wildlife. I am concerned about how I'll handle scenes of torture though.

    I'm also hoping to try out the co-op mode at some point but I am horrible at scheduling out time for it so I doubt I'll play much of the game that way. 

     

    I know I'm just listing features of an unreleased game, but I'm excited and having a good time!

  19. Posted

    This isn't really the same thing but last night I watched Moana for the first time and one thing that struck me was that I was waiting for Captain Cook to show up and he never did. It was a bit of a relief to just have a story about an indigenous people's mythos instead of the story having to be about colonialism because an indigenous culture was featured.

  22. Posted

    2 hours ago, phoebeshalloway said:

    Recently there's been more of a push to create those small social communities within the larger ones--all the "Weird Facebook" groups are an example--but those don't feel like quite as authentic to me, since they're still within this massive corporate framework. Thoughts on this? Suggestions for more interesting ways to use the internet?

     

    I think there is a tendency to idolize the past. 20 years from now people will feel like nothing is as authentic as Facebook groups once were. That isn't to claim that you (particularly) don't need something that Facebook groups aren't offering.

    As far as finding what you are looking for, I suggest trying to make it. It's not that you will necessarily create an interesting space, but I suspect that the process of creating it and promoting it will bring people out of the wood-work that have similar sensibilities and they might know where the real stuff is happening.

    Screenshot_20180114-134527.thumb.png.e57ade0b11d109686934661832f0c326.png

  23. Posted

    This year's CES has announced multiple 180 3D consumer video cameras. This is exicting imo.

    One's I've heard of thus far:
    -Lenovo Mirage Camera

    -Yi Horizon VR180

     

    ------------

    Also I played with King Spray again today to make a graffiti asset for a game. It turned out great and man that app is so much fun to use.

  24. Posted

    I watched this movie for the second time last night. I liked it the first time, but I enjoyed it more the second.

    Kylo Ren is easily my favorite Star Wars character ever. He is so interesting as a villian. 

    To be honest, I watched the movie the second time in order to pay attention to

     

    Reylo

    and it did not disappoint.