sometimes you just can’t make it work
2 Likes
The original “press F to pay respects”!?
Aside from Primal going a bit left, everything since Far Cry 3 is an iteration on Far Cry 3. I would say either play 3 or skip to 5 or New Dawn. 4 was half baked on its additions and I think the story is less interesting than 5. Which is to say, I did not care about Far Cry 4’s story one single bit. Whereas in 5, the story setting was generally more fun to me. 4 was also never actually difficult.
I finished Obduction.
Overall, I recommend it. But do know that the ending is very brief and very vague. The journey to get there though, is pretty darn good.
The game does seem like it ran out of money or something. Because they build up and explain a fairly complex situation. But they don’t do a whole lot with what they explain to you. But let me try to explain, without spoilers.
The environments are great. The graphics are solid, if a bit rough. And the art direction is very good. On top of that, the exploration and puzzling is very cool and feels fresh, at a time when every 2nd game is some riff on Portal or Talos principle (which itself was a riff on other things such as Path to Thalamus). I mean, Obduction is 3 years old now. But so are some of those other games. And exploration is a big factor. It isn’t just a bunch of puzzle rooms completed in succession. You gotta run around all over the place in big environments which are mostly well realized. It gives you a real sense of place and you have to observe that place closely, to be able to notice what’s needed to progress. And its not just about being in impressive vistas. There’s clever use of doorways and pathways and guessing where the player is probably gonna look as they move through. Little stuff like that really helps endear you to the game even more.
And there’s a good balance of being told what to do, being indirectly told via notes/clues/items in the game world, and also just putting your feet to the ground and using your eyeballs.
So that all sounds great. and it mostly is. Where the game falls off is it eventually builds you up into the scenario at hand and sorta tries to script out some things so that you have some stuff happening in front of you or as you go along. There’s also some attempt at decieving you, etc. (mostly for flavor, not actually to affect your choices). And all that stuff is pulled directly from the notes and journals and things you’ve read. But…they don’t keep it up. For long at all. and that was a big bummer to me. Because its a pretty detailed scenario and for a minute there, it felt like some stuff was happening. Like you had finally done enough and found out enough, you now get to be a part of it. But it turns out there isn’t much of that and it feels like they probably wanted to do more.
And then the ending is just a couple of minutes and then cut to credits. And what happens during the ending is not clear. Which feels empty because you just spent a bunch of time running around doing all this stuff and it seems like you’re really supposed to know what’s happening and feel something clear about it.
Another area which shows some lack of budget/time is the opening sequence. You see, something happens to you in the beginning and if you had been setup to actually care about it, it would have been cool. Like if they had established a sense of place for your character and even some sense of your actual character; then then hitting you with the thing which happens. Instead, its just some pretentious narration which could be about anyone, with you walking a path for like 200 feet. and then the thing happens and then the real game starts. And later they explain how that thing happened to other people. But your’s was like the most boring of all. Oops? It actually feels like maybe the intro segment was one of the last things made for the game.
Also, there is a large multi-part puzzle, late in the game. One which requires a fair amount of backtracking (not complaining about that), multiple times. And different parts of the puzzle are cut off behind 16 second loading screens (load screens which are likely even longer on a platter HDD, such as a console). That was a cool puzzle. But the technical execution with all that loading made it painfullllll.
The game has a VR option and its probably pretty great. Those environments are awesome and running around through them in VR has gotta nice. Also, the load screens would be super trippy in VR. The screen breaks up into a bunch of confetti from wherever you were just at and then you can spin around and look at all of it. then it all comes back together and solidifies into the new spot you loaded.
I really enjoyed the core parts of the game. And if you can’t tell, I recommend it. But it definitely has some roughness which keeps me from being absolutely glowing.
Here are a few super unspoilery shots. I posted more in the Den of Screenshots. Which are slightly more spoilery to the first major area of the game. But don’t show anything from later in the game.
If you are on PC, I recommend using Reshade to add a couple of effects. But most especially, to replace the Anti-aliasing solution provided in-game. Its the most image blurring AA I have ever seen. Its really horrible.
2 Likes
the only far cry you should play is blood dragon
7 Likes
Maybe, but more than that I think it’s the sheer size and mass count of items/skills, general alright! movement and not looking like complete amateur ass
That is bringing a lot of the thumbs up. It’s rough in spots and still well over expectations, especially after kin disaster Mighty No. 9
I did play like an hour of Blood Dragon actually, I gathered it’s only like a 6-10 hr thing (if that?) would do again. Of super 80s neon indulgences it seemed like one of the best
I enjoyed blood dragon way more than any other far cry though I suspect it’s going to age the worst by adhering to a caricature of nostalgia
Only if you hate neon and the 80s!
–ambivalent shrug–
I like a lot of things made in the 80s, but I don’t like stuff like Kung Fury.
There’s also broad vs. tight homage and pastiche, which runs along similar lines to broad/tight parody; specific referents generate clearer, more specific, and more interesting nostalgia dips, while works engaging with it at the scope of ‘a decade’ tend to lack focus and bring in a lot of modern cruft unintentionally.
1 Like
I don’t hate Fallout 76. It’s quiet and I like building a cabin in the woods after fighting robots.
im playing link to the past because my ps4 controllers keep fucking up and i want to hold something that WORKS
when i got the flippers i was wondering are they called that because they’re fish slippers?
4 Likes
how is it with NPCS added?
They aren’t being added until the fall, so it’s just me and other players and enemies
1 Like
Mind blown!
2 Likes
I am also playing Bloodstained.
Wait, my bad, I’m actually playing Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight. Got confused for a second there.
After an hour, on a scale of Symphony of the Night to Dawn of Sorrow I give it a score of Circle of the Moon.
No I don’t know what that means either. I died a few times, so probably that.
7 Likes
Steal it
1 Like
There’s always the commercially sanctioned option for just this scenario, utilizing Steam’s 2-hour refund policy.
2 Likes
yeah that’s probably better