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Started by Keef Monkey, 11 June, 2011, 09:35:35 AM

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GrudgeJohnDeed

I've not actually finished one since Assassin's Creed 3, but I think if you're enjoying the latest AC and are thinking of trying another, the previous one Origins is probably your best bet at being the most similar. That was its triumphant return with some new ideas - a lot of people felt it was getting stale and formulaic before then, myself included!

Although those older ones are still good games in their own right, if removed from the context of being one in a long line of very similar games. They often go for very cheap too if you have an Xbox, they're all backwards compatible. Avoid AC1 like the plague though, it's prototype trash!

Link Prime

Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 18 October, 2018, 12:02:55 PM
Avoid AC1 like the plague though, it's prototype trash!

I remember buying into the hype for Assassins Creed I, purchasing the steel box special edition, and being bitterly disappointed by the game play and jerky graphics.
I've only barely dipped my toe in the AC universe since; bought II on XBox 360 but never even played it, then bought III on PS3 but gave up after about an hour due to the shoddy controls.

Mixed reviews for the deluge of subsequent games has kept me away.

Have to say though, the comments on Odyssey below are piquing my interest.

SIP

Quote from: Link Prime on 18 October, 2018, 01:37:35 PM
Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 18 October, 2018, 12:02:55 PM
Avoid AC1 like the plague though, it's prototype trash!

I remember buying into the hype for Assassins Creed I, purchasing the steel box special edition, and being bitterly disappointed by the game play and jerky graphics.
I've only barely dipped my toe in the AC universe since; bought II on XBox 360 but never even played it, then bought III on PS3 but gave up after about an hour due to the shoddy controls.

Mixed reviews for the deluge of subsequent games has kept me away.

Have to say though, the comments on Odyssey below are piquing my interest.

I really disliked the first Assassin's Creed, probably why I've avoided the series ever since.....but this really is a million miles away from that first game.

Link Prime

Yiz had me at the Witcher III comparison.
It's on the ol Amazon watch list - awaiting a price drop.

Keef Monkey

Just finished Call of Juarez: Gunslinger for the first time and really enjoyed it. Not played a CoJ game since the first (the second passed me by and that Cartel sequel was apparently awful), but glad I finally got round to this because it's ace.

Meaty gunfights, a really stylish art direction and a neat unreliable narrative device, and not too long so didn't overstay its welcome. My one complaint is that the art style looks nice but can make it hard to pick out enemies during some shootouts as they blend in a lot - you've got a focus ability that highlights them but that can only be used sparingly so there were some fights I got a bit miffed with not knowing where the bullets were coming from on a first try.

Other than that though, really fun stuff and having the collectibles be 'nuggets of truth' which tell you the actual events the tall tales are spun around was a nice touch and made them genuinely interesting to find.

Professor Bear

Quote from: SIP on 18 October, 2018, 01:41:41 PMI really disliked the first Assassin's Creed, probably why I've avoided the series ever since.....but this really is a million miles away from that first game.

I tried most of the AC games (a couple of the fam are big fans) but just found them... not fun.  Great environments, but the climbing mechanics were shit and the combat annoying up until Origins, which was a huge improvement and felt like a different game series.  Loved it - even ended up going platinum on the trophy list.  I tried backtracking from there to Black Flag and Syndicate, but while Syndicate showed promise, by and large the series only really got playable with Origins, IMO.

wedgeski

Currently re-enjoying Diablo 3 with my wife on the Switch. Truly excellent, although the radial gear menu certainly takes some getting used to.

Link Prime

Quote from: wedgeski on 28 November, 2018, 09:26:15 AM
Currently re-enjoying Diablo 3 with my wife on the Switch. Truly excellent, although the radial gear menu certainly takes some getting used to.

Never played a Diablo game in my life, but the Switch version does look very cool.

Even if I don't end up getting it for a while, I couldn't help but order the forthcoming Amiibo tie-in and instant objet de désir: https://www.gamestop.ie/Other%20Products/Games/71029/amiibo-diablo-loot-goblin

WTF even is a 'Loot Goblin'? I'll find out someday soon.


wedgeski

Quote from: Link Prime on 28 November, 2018, 09:46:48 AM
Quote from: wedgeski on 28 November, 2018, 09:26:15 AM
Currently re-enjoying Diablo 3 with my wife on the Switch. Truly excellent, although the radial gear menu certainly takes some getting used to.

Never played a Diablo game in my life, but the Switch version does look very cool.

Even if I don't end up getting it for a while, I couldn't help but order the forthcoming Amiibo tie-in and instant objet de désir: https://www.gamestop.ie/Other%20Products/Games/71029/amiibo-diablo-loot-goblin

WTF even is a 'Loot Goblin'? I'll find out someday soon.
You'll learn to crave them. Then hate them. Then just crave them.

shaolin_monkey

Quote from: Link Prime on 18 October, 2018, 01:37:35 PM
Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 18 October, 2018, 12:02:55 PM
Avoid AC1 like the plague though, it's prototype trash!

I remember buying into the hype for Assassins Creed I, purchasing the steel box special edition, and being bitterly disappointed by the game play and jerky graphics.
I've only barely dipped my toe in the AC universe since; bought II on XBox 360 but never even played it, then bought III on PS3 but gave up after about an hour due to the shoddy controls.

Mixed reviews for the deluge of subsequent games has kept me away.

Have to say though, the comments on Odyssey below are piquing my interest.

If you like pirates, I thoroughly recommend AC IV:  Black Flag.  I had no end of fun with sea piracy, boarding vessels, taking them over, giving them crew, setting up trade routes etc etc.  The only dull bits of that game are where you have to mess around on dry land.

The others I wouldn't bother with - all very dull.

I may pick up Origins when it drops in price by about £40 or so.   :D

The Enigmatic Dr X

Can't stop playing Fifa. I never knew I was a masochist.

Man, I am rubbish at it. I keep getting my arse handed to me by 15 year olds.
Lock up your spoons!

Keef Monkey

I beat the last boss on Runner 3 on the Switch last night, loved the game. It gets pretty brutally hard as it goes on (for a clumsy fool like me at least) and the checkpoints were sometimes annoyingly far apart but I was totally hooked throughout. Any game that has a boss called Sausage Santa who is a robot and fires sausages at you and says 'sausage' every time is a game of the year contender in my book.

Never played one of these before, want to hunt out the first two now! Still got all the bonus levels and alternate routes to play though but reckon those'll be tougher and might break me!

Theblazeuk

I got a shiny AMD RX 580 in the Black Friday sale.

All the settings! All of them! HIGHER. MAXIMUM SPEED.

I'm still mostly playing the same old games bought on the cheap mind, but it's nice to be able to put them up to ULTRA settings for the first time in my life. PUBG looks splendid.

Shame the latest game I got was Stories Untold, a parser/click adventure game riffing on 80s horror. Pretty good so far, completely 'on rails' so more like an interactive cutscene but does wonders with its atmosphere. But that 580 isn't doing much there.

Keef Monkey

Finished Uncharted 4 last night and there was lots I loved about it and a lot I really didn't. The pros and cons list for me would be almost identical to the one I'd give The Last of Us or the previous Uncharted games to be honest.

Stuff I love - The story, the performances and the way they're captured. Their writing and performances for the small character moments are incredible, Naughty Dog really are one of the best in the business in that regard. Was fully invested in the characters and Nathan and Elena's marriage and story arc was so well observed that I was right there with them. Also loved the times where the platforming and the jumping and swinging and running etc. really worked and when they worked those elements into the big action set-pieces the whole thing clicked and felt fantastic.

Stuff I didn't - The combat, as with other Naughty Dog games, just doesn't work for me mechanically. There were a bunch of times where it was physically impossible to line up my crosshair on an enemy because of the blocky jerky way the reticle moves, having to find a new position to line up a shot when I should have them dead to rights was annoying. The enemy AI makes the gunfights more annoying than exciting too, either using cover in ways that make things fiddly or just rushing you like idiots. And the grenade spam. Bloody hell the grenade spam. Enemy grenades in cover shooters are a fantastic way of forcing you to change things up and think on your feet, but you have to key in some sort of control on the frequency of that sort of thing. A grenade flying towards you when you've been getting a little too comfortable is great, but enemies throwing grenades roughly every 5 seconds (as happened in a bunch of my encounters) so that you can never get a shot lined up before rolling away again is just a massive pain, especially with the lack of fine control on aiming.

The stealth had a lot of the same problems I had with TLoU as well, in that ND's signposting leaves a great deal to be desired. Some sections you can sneak through without killing anyone, others you can spend 20mins doing that only to find the exit isn't available until you've killed everyone, Naughty Dog never tip you off to which of these approaches are valid from stage to stage. And that's if you can find the level exit - most of my stealthing (and a lot of my navigation in general) in Naughty Dog games is me wandering around aimlessly with no idea of if I'm heading in the right direction or not, eventually getting spotted and killed and going back to the start.

It could be I'm along in having these problems with the enemy encounters, because they throw so many shootouts in that you have to imagine it's held in some regard as a shooter. Thankfully the final stages weren't quite the drag the first 3 games turned into (all of those were about 2hrs longer than necessary with those 2hrs being repetitive fights packed into the end) but it was still bothersome enough that it dragged my enjoyment down.

That may have been a bit ranty and I'm definitely being overly harsh because overall it was a solid 3/5 for me, but basically I think the things Uncharted is good at it is very, very exceptionally good at, and the things it's bad at it has continually been bad at for 4 games while the Tomb Raider reboot series came along and nailed all those messy elements and in my opinion overtook it on the puzzles, platforming and exploration side of things too.

TR has never made me care about its story and characters in the way UC4 did though, so it wins hands down in that area.

Looking forward to playing the standalone expansion as I'm told it focusses more on the elements I enjoy and I've heard from a bunch of people that it's actually stronger than the main game, so should be good. 

Keef Monkey

Oh, and (more briefly) I also finished a co-op playthrough of Halo 5 that me and my brother have been chipping away at for a while. Had played it before but looks way nicer now it's enhanced on the X, and while some of it drags a bit and the story washes right over me it does have some of my favourite levels in the series and feels really, really epic in places.