|
Post by JRavens on Sept 8, 2015 19:59:14 GMT
It really is pretty decent compared to other games. Like any video game it has it's quirks and can be exploited, etc. but overall I find it an amazing improvement over say Far Cry. Some silly things like the cardboard box are just homages to the older games. At times because of the dynamic weather, lighting and cloud cover they will spot me when I feel like they shouldn't, but again that plays into the unpredictability of it and for me makes it feel somewhat more realistic. The other day I crawled past a watch tower with the sentry staring right at me about 50-60 meters away and then later on another guy saw me moving around in the shadows from over 100 meters. The game really presses you to either be patient and exploit patrol routes or react quickly and adapt to unpredictable situations. I like it. I finally started encountering adaptive AI now. Guards are almost always doubled up and when I try a distraction they will often call to their partner to come with them to investigate. Some of them have started wearing helmets and gas masks. A ton wear nightvision gear (what? I like the cover of the night I finally scored an A on a mission. Now I just have to try and get the elusive "S" rating. I find my Snake being more ruthless now. I usually stun someone, analyze their stats and if good enough I will fulton them back to my base - otherwise I kick them to wake them up, grab them again and interrogate them about enemy guard positions. Then I knife them and dump the body.
|
|
|
Post by mikeweeks2346 on Sept 8, 2015 21:50:00 GMT
"I finally started encountering adaptive AI now. Guards are almost always doubled up and when I try a distraction they will often call to their partner to come with them to investigate."
What a refreshing change from Far Cry's "general" rule that throwing a rock repeatedly will get a NPC to stop a current activity and they'll at least move over to that rock. Of course pirates/mercs or a third-world rag-tag army ain't the Soviet army ...
|
|
|
Post by JRavens on Sept 14, 2015 15:18:41 GMT
Posted this on it's own thread under mods for other games, but thought I would put it here as well in case someone is ever browsing this thread: Made a small mod to remove the annoyingly long research and build times the game uses (ordinarily can take up to several hours IN GAME to research some of the higher level stuff - and the timers only move while you are playing the game meh). I find it really annoying like an MMO or an APP game to have these super long timers. Anyway I modded them out so anything you have the resources and requirements for you can develop without having a huge wait. Download mod here: www.nexusmods.com/phantompain/mods/8/
|
|
|
Post by willyr1100 on Sept 25, 2015 17:44:19 GMT
JR,now that u have maybe 50 or so hr's in or a couple of play thrus, what do u think over all, still giveing u a warm fuzzy feeling inside, as i am thinking of takeing the plunge, also how many patches have they released since the 1 u mentioned. thks
|
|
|
Post by JRavens on Sept 25, 2015 20:51:39 GMT
So the warm fuzzy lasted for a good long time. Still does to a certain degree. The game does an AMAZING job of trickling new concepts and game play aspects over the course of missions. For the first 20 some odd hours it seems like each time you do a main mission some new aspect of the game opens up... and there's hints of plenty more to come. The game also has a really wide and deep weapons/gear system which encourages trying all kinds of silly stuff. In terms of entertainment it's very very good. As far as difficulty - well clearly difficulty becomes less and less of an issue (or I wouldn't be tinkering with a hardcore mod for it). The game suffers from some of the same problems that Far Cry 4 (and a lot of games do) - * Power creep - the player starts out feeling weak, but can research so much technology and is exposed to so much repetition in the way enemies work that it becomes easier and easier to defeat the AI - comically so at some points. Where I once was lauding how frustrating the AI can be now I can run circles around it (literally - I will knock guys out, run up and kick them to wake them up and then run behind some boxes only to pop out and torture them again Enemies DO advance (get harder, have more vehicles, equip more counters to your tactics), but it's slow and imbalanced against what you can research and learn. The player will ALWAYS be better than the AI this is to be expected, but the problem with many AAA games is they cannot find a good balance of ramping difficulty against the player. This is expounded by the fact that games are (A) made with console crowds in mind and (B) designed to work easily with a wide range of players (very young, very old, experienced gamers and casual ones). It's a hard thing to do and I admit there are no easy answers so I feel open world games are especially prone to being mostly very easy (Far Cry 4) or mostly very hard (Dark Souls) with not a lot in between. * Exploitable AI - as above you eventually learn the AI weaknesses and it's pretty easy to exploit them. It's hard to say this is a bad thing because the ultimate "goal" of a video game is to beat it so you should be able to develop tactics that can exploit the AI, but then of course this leads to you becoming frustrated that the game becomes easier and less realistic and so you begin to disconnect from it. Again this is not an easy thing to balance in a video game. I at least give this game kudos for having a built in "response system" where the enemies start being generated with gear (armor, helmets, riot shields, gas masks, night vision goggles, shotguns, MGs, etc.) to counter some of the players tactics. It's not a perfect system (nor as aggressive as it could be), but it's definitely a welcome addition. * Repetitive game play - this one takes a while to kick in, but like a lot of open world games there reaches a point where you are just doing the same things over and over, but in slightly different locales. MGS V is REALLY bad withthis though as there is a point in the campaign where you literally have to replay the exact same missions but on a harder difficulty (game over if you get spotted, start with no weapons, etc. etc. that kind of stuff) I think it's a littel cheap and the rumor mill is this was done because the third chapter of the game got cut when things went sour between Konami and Kojima. * Bad Ending? - I've not reached the end of the game (no where near it), but in typical fashion tons of people are already complaining that the ending is either (A) bad or (B) incomplete/unsatisfactory or (C) all of the above. It seems like the nature of open world games makes it really hard to "Wrap up the story" but still allow the player to continue on in the game world. Or simply there's just a lot of sucky writers out there and gaming companies aren't trying hard enough with the stories they tell. Having said all of those negative things I still think this is a pretty AMAZING game (if you can enjoy the third person aspect). It's long, has a ton of content, does some really innovative things you haven't seen in other games and overall is well worth the cost of a modern AAA game. You can DEFINATELY get your moneys worth out of this game. It's had several patches now and I think the game feels really smooth or generally less buggy then the games we typically play. The controls are still kind of annoying to me at times, but this would be a non-issue if I would cave and play it with a controller. The first person mode feels a bit better. Still not enough for me to try and play the whole game in. Be warned that it has some of the "easy features" that Far Cry and many others do - tagging enemies and seeing them through walls and with tags above their heads, glowing objects that can be interacted with, and so on. In this game they feel maybe a bit more justified than in others and the options menus will allow you to turn off the various hand holding indicators and features if you want making it a very tough game indeed. My hardcore mod ups enemy detection ranges (sight & hearing), doubles weapon damage and reduces ammo and brings the players health and regeneration down so he is on par with the enemies and only slightly better than normal soldiers. I would play the game WITHOUT the mod first though as the default settings feel about right as you are first learning the game and it only becomes obvious after a few missions in how grossly overpowered you actually are. Anyway I DO still highly recommend it, but there's a LOT of great contenders coming out very soon so depending on peoples budget and time they may want to wait for the many other games we occasionally talk about here.
|
|
|
Post by willyr1100 on Sept 25, 2015 22:21:28 GMT
thks JR, for the run down, i appriaciate it, glad your helping it get a bit better , think i'll head over to steam and hit the buy button, thks again, edit that was eazy, now just have to wait a week for the download to finish,sigh
|
|
|
Post by flanker1six on Sept 28, 2015 22:23:57 GMT
I know the MGS series has been quite popular, but essentially................I hate stealth. Obviously, many games, including the FC series has some stealth, or stealth elements in them..................and I'm fine with that. I'll generally have a higher stealth tolerance in games that are hard core enough (i.e. the ARMA series) to demand it..........but I do like to "go loud". Over quite a bit of time; I've taught myself the hard way that games that REQUIRE a lot of sneaking and peaking; just aren't my style. Console port.....................while it may be a very good one; the phrase has such a bad connotation to me it automatically puts me off; though by itself it's not the deal killer the phrase "stealth game" is. Third person...................I prefer the option for 3rd and 1st, but if it was only 3rd.............pretty much the same issue as "console port". I could live with it if it wasn't for..................
|
|
|
Post by mikeweeks2346 on Sept 29, 2015 0:15:48 GMT
Not adding much here in response to Flanker's comments -- but just reverse the feelings regarding stealth and "going loud" for me ... Otherwise, same regarding console port and third person, with even more emphasize on the disliking the third person approach to gaming. It looks like however MGS V might have enough to offer, in the way of giving it a go when it's at a much reduced price, as well as adding a few mods ...
|
|
|
Post by JRavens on Sept 29, 2015 3:53:32 GMT
There's a significant amount of weapons and gear in the game that's tailored completely towards "loud" although it's of course billed as a stealth game. The primary driving force behind not killing is you can capture the enemies and send them back to your base where you get them to work for you (which is completely silly, but they hand wave it all because... mercenaries!). In practice it actually works pretty well. Inversly though there are some missions where you need to take out a tank column or a giant robot etc. so there is variety. I was surprised at how well the game supports various play styles though. Like Ajay the hero can carry a ridiculous amount of ordnance - pistol, AR/SMG/SHOTGUN, MG/LAUNCHER/SNIPER, a robotic arm, 8 different kinds of throwables and placables (C4/AP and or AT mines/Grenades/Molotovs/etc etc), and 8 "tools" (binoculars, night vision, etc.). You can also call in supply drops to resupply your ammo or swap weapons out. There are bonuses for being stealthy but the game also gives rewards for speedy play. I had the chopper drop us in the hotzone and I sat there with the side door minigun and leveled a base taking out all of the comm dishes and such. Shredded the enemy while the speakers blared Rise of the Valkyries. The very definition of loud Got one of the best ratings you can get (an S) for that because I completed the mission so quickly (and all the juicy points for the body count) So it's definitely a possible option. Guns can be switched to FPS and it feels better than it originally did to me, but still really inferior to a dedicated FPS like Far Cry. Console port... well it is that. I'm not surprised though because almost everything is these days which is so disappointing. The days where PC reigned king are gone. My biggest gripe is still the controls. Making him crawl around is a pain in the ass and he has the worst climbing ability ever. At least Jason and Ajay could surmount SOME hills. Snake runs around bouncing off rocks the whole game looking for ledges designated as climable. He can't even jump - only clamber over low objects like some rocks and fences. I would watch a few videos of the game to see what you think of it, but at a reduced price it would be well worth work picking up if it piques your interest. There's plenty more AAA games coming to fulfill your FPS desires though so absolutely nothing wrong with passing on it.
|
|
|
Post by willyr1100 on Oct 7, 2015 23:27:02 GMT
well i got it and it lasted almost 1 hr, couldn't set up the keyboard so that i could use the key pad for everything they just let u re key the letter keys. tried to use them for the right hand as i am a lefty and use the mouse with it, never got out of the hospital stair case alive, so rage quit after about 5 atempts got a refund as i'am not nimble enough for a controller, lesson learned, sigh
|
|
|
Post by mikeweeks2346 on Oct 8, 2015 0:43:52 GMT
Thanks for the feedback Willyr - I'm also a lefty, but long ago adopted to using the mouse (actually a Logitech trackball) with the right hand. And I've never gotten the hang of using a controller - a totally different concept on control from a KB/mouse configuration.
|
|
|
Post by JRavens on Oct 8, 2015 14:23:11 GMT
Sorry to hear that willy Glad you were able to get a refund though. The initial KB control scheme SUCKS even for the typical right handed gamer so I can't even imagine how frustrating it might be if you are left handed. That first hospital part is really long too (nearly an hour intro) so yeah if you can't use the controls right from the start then there's no point in even trying to just limp through it. I'm getting really frustrated at how lazy developers are in adding proper keyboard support for PC users. This keeps getting worse with each "AAA" game released. Supposedly this game had an 80 MILLION dollar budget and they couldn't put someone who had basic kb and mouse gaming experience onto adapting the control scheme or just for crying out loud adding support for ALL the keys?! Far Cry 4 did this too. It's downright shameful.
|
|