Review Roundup For Far Cry 6

@vaativids: Hey there, just thought you might be interested to know I got a closed beta invite to Elden Ring.

@bu1ld0g: The combat is just like any combat situation, which requires timing. You circle your enemy and then you attack. This is usually a mindless, monotonous task in most games because they’re never thoroughly play-tested for difficulty purposes. Japanese games on the other hand are always thoroughly play tested so that they’re balanced challenges. Guerrilla didn’t care for that when they made Horizon: ZD. They made it, rushed the difficulty settings and made everything feel like a holiday on max difficulty.

But if you don’t want to fight like that then just go in as a sorcerer and blast everything with magic. That’s whole new way of fighting right there. Or get up on a roof and tactics him from above, creating massive damage.

Check out Prepare to Try on YouTube. The first series: Can a Noob Beat Dark Souls Before Dark Souls 3 Comes Out is hilarious, filled with British banter and plenty of arguments between the three guys.

You’re always making progress in every FromSoft game, no matter who you are, always learning the level design and always picking up new shiny items to empower you, which you never lose. Concentrate just a little bit and you’ll never need to explore that part ever again, because you’d have already found every item, and they’re in your inventory after you die. This sense of progress is fun.

Dying just teaches you what not to do. It’s useful for working out an enemy’s move set. Imagine beating a boss first try, only to have learnt his moves and movement speed when you’re down to you’re last bit of health. That’s not a proper boss. That’s just an enemy you took down first try after learning how dumb it actually is. Like in Kojima’s newest game, the bosses are forgettable because you only face them once and then they’re done in five minutes, never to be seen again.

The Dark Souls gameplay is fluid, you just can’t attack once your stamina bar is depleted, which is probably what you’re not keeping an eye on. You can still cancel your attacks with a roll. Elden Ring will have less emphasis on stamina. FromSoft want it to feel less restrictive to new players. But with all these games, open world or not, if you see a tough enemy too perilous to take on when there’s no bonfire in sight, you might want to leave him be and come back to fight him when you’re stronger. You always have options and multiple paths to follow. Not so much in Sekiro though, which is very linear and lacks that delightful emphasis on item exploration. Playing Dark Souls is just as perilous as entering any dungeon in any other game. Skyrim was the same. Final Fantasy is the same. Playing the first 20 hours of Fallout 4 without the VATS and going in a different direction than you did before is even better; more fun, more perilous, more exciting. Most games don’t have that though. You gotta really search for those kinds of tantalising experiences. I think a little sense of danger is always fun.

@vaativids: I don't mind dying, I mind when games are unnecessarily hard for the sake of it. Walking into an area and being insta-killed because RNG decided you didn't time that parry down to the millisecond.

I can get away with some roguelikes/lites, Everspace I enjoy - at least with that you get whatever items you had collected that run to better your gear and try again.

I picked up DS 3 & Sekiro cheap yesterday. Sekiro has kinda got me hooked, DS3 I'm bored to tears just playing the training level. The fighting in both though just doesn't feel fluid. Kinda hard to describe. The newer Assassin's Creeds, even though the combat down to button assignments (light & hard hits on right triggers) are near identical, AC feels way more fluid and responsive. DS3 feels like you have to time everything down to the millisecond or you get insta-killed and have to traverse an entire level to get back into the action. Though I guess DS3 is 5 years old now?

Did you ever used to play FF or Zelda back in the day?

I still play them now, mostly Zelda LTTP and FF 7/8. Massive fan of Ridge Racer too. Played OG FF7 that much the gameplay timer stopped working.

My SO was a gamer when we met, mostly GameBoy stuff. Currently fighting to get time on the PS5 as she's hooked on Far Cry 6! She was not impressed playing FF7 back in the day because I didn't tell her what happens to Aeris.

Spending that time playing FromSoft PC games to see if they will change my mind before Elden Ring.

@bu1ld0g: I agree with that for the most part. Ubisoft aren’t an exception but actually becoming quite the norm. With most other game companies also playing it safe, like COD won’t go full brutal Vietnam with a terribly controversial conflict. There’s certainly enough movies to borrow from to make it fresh again, especially with the potential of all that next-gen rainforest. Far Cry could have set their smuggling/faction storyline on Mars or something to give it a bit more life and individuality, if only to bring the series some lasting appeal. Assassin’s Creed didn’t want to go Feudal Japan like so many fans requested 12 year ago because of the overhaul of combat that would be required. Rockstar won’t make a GTA about three friends in dazzling neon bright Las Venturas (and it’s desert) in a Hangover meets Oceans 11 plot. Throw in some Scorsese’s Casino too whilst they’re at it. But they won’t. Their focus is on the village of Los Santos and it’s online mode. GOW won’t give Atreus his own acrobatic move-set and skill tree, and so the square button remains as weak arrows and is not the confident in-game character-switch square button should be by now. Battlefield’s DICE seem to want to just make online BR games now because they take less than half the time to make when there’s no narrative or campaign to build. Halo has gone GaaS with no strong story direction. DeadSpace and TLOU would rather Remake than plunge forward into new territory. Bethesda don’t make anywhere near the quality titles they once did. You could even say that Dark Souls 3 has an identity crisis in being very tributary to the original game and that FromSoft should have implemented Sekiro-like combat sooner.

@vaativids: borrowed elements

I hope you're right and it does revolutionize open world games, or at least evolve them. But Ubisoft are not the only company that play it safe. They all have been for a long time now.