Fabricant451

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

I finally found something I genuinely love in Ghost of Tsushima and I wish the whole game was just that but then the game would just be For Honor so never mind.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

SWTOR is on Steam now so maybe it's time to get back on that horse

What Are You Listening To?

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

Honestly yes if for no other reason that Origins and then Odyssey effectively splintered the fanbase anyway with people who don't like the new direction. I can't speak to Valhalla but Origins at least had the story build to the creation of the Assassin's so the name fits there but Odyssey predates Origins and basically has to hardsmash its way into the series canon that it probably would've been better off just being its own thing.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

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Do you not think they do the same thing with AC (and Watchdogs)?

@Dolerman

I think you can draw similarities between pretty much any given open world game, Ubisoft or otherwise, but ever since Far Cry 3 the focus has been on the eccentric villain while the tone has whipped back and forth with no regard for consistency. Having to spend the early parts of Far Cry shooting animals so you can carry more than a rock and a flower is asinine. Assassin's Creed has at least attempted to add something new with every entry - whether or not that's been successful is up to the individual - and with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla they are fundamentally different games than everything that came before. They offer different experiences from each other but similar within the context of their own franchises.

Far Cry 3 was a pretty different sort of experience from Far Cry 2 but 4, Primal, 5, New Dawn, and even probably 6 have all just been cut from the cloth of 3. Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey share the name but at this point they're far removed from everything else that they might as well be called new games. Yeah, you climb things in both but climbing things is as much a part of Assassin's Creed as it is, like, Uncharted.

Watch Dogs hasn't had as many entries but it's already got an identity problem but other than the fact that it, too, is an open world I wouldn't say the philosophy behind it is the same as Far Cry which have all felt the same since 3 down to the focus being on the villain over anything else.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI NOCTURNE REMASTER IS HAPPENING FUCK EVERY OTHER GAME

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

Because you are angling for a job at Ubisoft's PR team. And I'm still plenty young, auntie.

@Dolerman

What can I say, they've got good benefits. They'll put out the same games every few years and all I'll have to do is pretend like Far Cry hasn't been chasing the lightning in a bottle of 3 that has since dominated the design philosophy of its open world games.

Also they'll probably take anyone at this point, they could use some good PR of late.

I suppose if it wasn't 4th game in a row glorifying the 'troubled dad' trope that seemed to dominate media of the 2010s, I'd think it was less shit...but still probably not good.

The problem with game directors getting older and becoming dads is now gruff dad protagonists learning that it's okay to have emotions are a quick and easy way to garner points for 'Wow what a deep character!'. As an action game it doesn't hold a candle to its peers or even itself but I bought into the story enough even if Kratos is still the big lame and always will be.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

I think Ghost is 3 (maybe a 3.5) out of 5 as well though.

@Dolerman

Then why are we still reliving the glory days of our youths with this back and forth.

You called God Of War a 3/5 so does that mean 'bad' or does it mean 'servicable'?

God of War is a bad action game but there's enough outside of that to make it a 3/5.

And RDR2 only sticks out because it was a game where I laid out all of the issues with the game as clearly as I could only for you to toss them aside as if it was the irrelevant ramblings of a homeless guy trying to sell you pencils from a cup. You can't blame me for feeling a little eye-rolly when most of the issues you pointed out were the exact ones I was trying to articulate.

And I admitted that I was hasty in my thoughts but I stand by everything I said at the time and equally so what I said when I played more of it.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

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Shit, dude. did you get an internship at ubisoft this summer? I'm talking about ghost in relation to AC because that was literally how I started the discussion. On it's own merits it's just fine. Compared to AC games in general it's refreshing. Oddessy just wasn't that good, very few AC or Ubisoft games are. But I see this is series you're invested in so I won't do this dance. Hopefully you'll pull a RDR2 or God Of War (2018) and just end up changing your mind about the game completely, rendering this whole discussion kind of moot.

@Dolerman

But it's not refreshing. It's also-ran. It's just got a unique coat of paint. That doesn't make it bad, it just makes it a remix of a song that some people like more than the original. You're out here acting like I hate the game because I think it's like a 3/5 as opposed to a 4/5. Odyssey is better than it but outside of them both having open world trappings and stealth, one is an RPG and the other isn't and the systems therein differentiate them. If Tsushima didn't have the technical/lighting aspect then it would be an actively worse game but it does and that helps cover for the rest of it - like covering a crack in the wall with a nice painting.

And for the record, I think God of War 2018 is a bad action game and I only 'changed my mind' about RDR2 because I played more of it and the issues became impossible to ignore - congrats to you for disliking it first I guess, your medal got lost in the mail though, shipping is a motherfucker. I'm likely not about to change my mind on Tsushima because right now my mind is at "This is a serviceable game that I probably won't really think about once I put it down". Why do you act like someone changing their opinion on something when presented with a fuller picture is bad?

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

<Snipped quote by Fabricant451>

The window on perfect parries is a 10x tighter in ghost than the couter kills in something like black flag, which gives you the ability to counter kill anything instantly, and being in the right stance doesn't guarantee anything when you're surrounded by multiple enemy types, or even when you're against the same type. If I fuck up my positioning or time my attack string badly, the stagger combo isn't auto killing anything. Now the new-ish combat style of origins and oddessy has the arcade double speed dark souls which ditches the counter kill crap but also makes enemies like wonky damage sponge terminators. It's not fluid.

@Dolerman

I don't know what game you're playing but even with just a rank 4 katana all I have to do is swap to the right stance, hit triangle one or two times to stagger, and then they're dead. That's even before I think to just throw a sticky bomb or do the legendary attack that pretty much staggers immediately. It's beyond simple and call it fluid if you like but there's little in the way of variety unless I actively choose to play inefficiently because while perfect parries might have a tight window (I've seen tighter), regular parries do not and at this point the only thing I can't parry are bears. Every tool at your disposal is less about making the combat fluid and interesting and engaging and more about finding ways to kill enemies that much quicker. You don't have to keep dragging another game through the mud to make this one stand up.

Even if I pick the wind stance against 4 spear enemies, I can still be turned into swiss cheese if I pick my attack approach wrong, despite all of my combat abilites, something can always go wrong. It also incorporates the principles of Sen, Go No Sen, and sen no sen (albiet lightly) by giving you options to deal with attacks outside of parries, like disrupting their own 'wind up' with a well placed attack of your own.

Or if you're up against four spear enemies you just hit circle a bunch, throw a sticky or smoke bomb, assassinate, wind style, dead spears. It's not some tactical combat game where you have to think of your approach before every encounter even if the story missions would have you believe it is. The stealth mechanics are really lacking to the point where the preferred option is to just do a challenge and thin the heard every time. Every enemy telegraphs their attack so far in advance that you'd think they were trained that way. Archers still shout their attacks even when everyone else is dead because otherwise it might be unfair or dishonorable or something. The game is so slavishly devoted to its style that it's an active detriment to the overall combat experience with how many times a fucking tree or bamboo shoot has gotten in the way of the camera.

The combat in ghost isn't perfectly rewarding but combat in anything but a pirate ship in AC has never been rewarding (and even then it wears bloody thin, real quick).

Look, dude, I get that you don't like AC but if Tsushima can't stand on its own without having to drag another franchise then is it really standing on its own. Combat is more fun in Odyssey if for no other reason than it having more options in terms of loadout, ability, and approach. If you want to talk about wearing thin then Tsushima shouldn't throw those stones in the glass house it built.

The skill tree has the advantage of having skills I actually end up using and want to use instead of just bells and whistles which technically make me more of a badass but feel hollow or impractical.

Like every skill in Tsushima has an equal or better equivalent in Odyssey down to both games having a goddamn kick that launches dudes and a shoulder tackle and a heal that takes a full resource pip. Not every skill is just 'number go up now'. Stuff like the 'slow time while aiming' or 'shoot three projectiles at once' are far from hollow or impractical. You have more freedom to tailor your playstyle and approach in Odyssey because of the loadouts and abilities and that, in turn, makes for a more versatile system. It's not deep but it's something.

I'm with you on the charms, but I ditched the traveller's attire as soon as possible. I'm unlocking the map fast enough by just chasing foxes and birds in my armor and I'm in no rush to do any of that faster. The customization works on an aesthetic level, It looks nice enough for me to want ride over to a flower out of my way so I can get my scabbard to match my headband. It's just the right amount of incentive for a cosmetic upgrade.

I'd prefer it if I could pick and choose the bonuses the armor gives so I could wear the one that looks the best in white while maintaining the abilities that are more geared to how I'd like to play the game. I'm never going to use the samurai clan armor or the Tadayori armor but I sure wouldn't mind the option to slap the concentration boost on the cooler outfit I am wearing. Sure, it's not practical, but I settled into my look already - white dye, headband of death, no face mask, white sword set - that the only reason I'd get flowers is because there's a trophy to buy vanity gear. And if I didn't have to pull up the menu to swap between the two I use then it'd be a lot cooler and I'd be more inclined to at least use other sets. But I'm basically locked into the traveler's attire because, again, the ping for collectibles and the wider fog clear and if I forget to switch to the outfit I actually like then the only thing I lose is style because the bonuses aren't substantial enough to matter outside of, like, the concentration one.

I'm not going to sit here and defend the story, it's a pretty stand stoic revenge/liberation tale. What I like about it is that it doesn't break my immersion of being a wandering ronin. Jin's character is just flat enough for me to be able to project my own goals of becoming more powerful without me getting bored or pissed off when he opens his mouth, when compared to a lot of other open world games including AC, this is a godsend.

Meanwhile I'm struggling to give a shit because this is another game where the protagonist gets hung up over breaking his code or doing something he doesn't like for all of a cutscene then has no problem doing it for hours on end. At least it's amusing to cut open doors instead of opening them. Jin is the least interesting character in his own story and it's hard to project my goals onto him, personally, because my goal isn't to get more powerful it's to see what's that undiscovered location oh it's just another fucking fox den or a fucking pointless haiku good thing my uncle isn't in jeopardy or anything.

I really like how everyone in the game is pretty no-nonsense but still manage to feel distinct from each other, the game wont win any TLOU2 type awards for the acting. But I never feel the urge to skip a cutscene, when Lady Masako told me about the slaughter of her family after seeing the bloodstained tatami and broken naginatas in her estate, I gave a shit. Which is something an AC game has probably made me do twice over the span of a dozen games.

Yeah cool and in Odyssey going back to my home island only to find that my sparing of sick people now means a plague has ransacked the island hit made me both give a shit and realize that there might actually be consequences, minor or otherwise, to decisions but again, that doesn't make AC worse or Tsushima better because people respond to things differently. The only story thread that has made me want to see it played out is the archer and his protege and even that's like half because it's the Dharma dude from Lost and he's cool.

And I never feel like there should be less mongols after clearing outsposts because this isn't far cry. It's literally the mongol empire they are the in-universe example of the endless horde. If anything I'm surprised there aren't more of them crawling about, they probably have a metric fuck ton of ships posted in every sea surrounding the island.

But when the objective is literally measured in how much of the island you have 'liberated' it rings a bit hollow when you liberate a bunch of shit and the only change is now there's burned grass. Clearing outposts in Far Cry 2 just meant eventually outposts were repopulated but your goal in that wasn't to liberate the country. If I'm supposed to be liberating Tsushima, then I would think I would start seeing less Mongols and more bandits to at least make it seem like I'm actually, you know, liberating and pushing back the invasion.

Oddessey's story might make you feel more in tune with greater conflict but when you get to know the people in your island are ubisoft-usubtle wink-and-nod swingers who want to have pansexual orgies with you, it's hard for me to take my role in the fight for these people very seriously. Seeing Jin's bare ass when he gets into the hot springs is about all the fanservice I need for a game like this.

Sorry that Greek people liked to fuck I guess? Like there aren't even that many people you can fuck in Odyssey and your role in that game isn't to end the war or liberate Greece you're a mercenary and your ultimate goal is unraveling a conspiracy while there's a war in the background.

So yeah the game is on the better end, of open word stuff. It's somewhere between Breath of the Wild and Mad Max in terms of quality.

Shit no wonder I'm coming down hard on it then