Days Gone

Zero-Cool · 26-04-2019 2:41pm

Only got 15 minutes in, on my way to Willie's, before adult life got in the way. I like the opening and heavy feel of the bike. Will get a few hours in tonight but really looking forward to diving back in.

Very early spoilers about why Deacon is already character of the year.

Bro's before Ho's

goon_magee · 26-04-2019 2:50pm

To be fair a lot of reviews have also said the story really doesn't pick up until the last third, which if true means the pacing is waaaaay off, a game of this length needs to intrigue from the get go. I caved and bought a copy this morning, figured I'd see for myself and trade it in if it's ****e.

Tbh I'm about 5 hours in and have not enjoyed one moment of it. It's the definition of "meh" if you ask me. Gunplay is weak, AI is some of the worst I've seen in a long time, the start of the game is most definitely a slog and the game (so far at least) is 90% repetitive busy work that's been done better elsewhere. Even the main story missions dont seem to stand out, and a lot of them don't deviate from the boring and mundane objectives that fuel the side content. This was a huge problem with Mafia 3, there was absolutely nothing to distinguish between side and main content for the most part, which left the game feeling like a bland mess with no identity.

It feels like an open world game made in a vacuum, with its roots firmly planted in that Ubisoft era where most of the game played second fiddle to ensuring the map was filled with as many mundane tick box tasks as possible.

And as someone who considers themselves as stereotypically white as can be, even I think the main character is an absolute bag of ****. Maybe that improves later, but again, that's on the game for not making me give two ****s soon enough.

biggebruv · 26-04-2019 4:33pm

Preordered from smiths and it did not arrive today FFS who does there delivering?

The Specialist · 26-04-2019 4:36pm

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Very early spoilers about why Deacon is already character of the year.
Bro's before Ho's

Tsk tsk tsk tsk demeaning women and he’s not even on the list of accepted minorities?? Unacceptable. Kotaku and EuroSoapBox will have a field day

.

Gyan84 · 26-04-2019 4:52pm

Just finished the intro section about Willie's Garage. It's alright so far. Some annoying things though.

Tutorial hints just abruptly pop up and require you to hold down a button for a second or two to get rid of. I know everyone has different gaming abilities/experience but I don't think having a pop up saying hold square to pick up the item with the square button above it is really worth stopping you in your tracks to explain.

I also dislike how cut-scenes begin/end with a 2 second fade to black. Maybe because I'm used to red dead/God of war where it's practically seamless but it just feels really clunky.

My main gripe so far though: the flashlight. If you spin the camera around the flashlight moves with it but Deacon doesn't which is odd but more importantly the light itself frequently gets caught on random objects. For example, if you,re walking sideways towards an open door, instead of the light shining into the room, it'll stay stuck on the door frame outside, leaving the room pitch black until you fully walk in. This seems to happen with any other objects the light hits as well. Hopefully they patch some solution in.

The dark section where the flashlight really bothered me aside, I've enjoyed the first hour and a bit. The world and the characters/factions seem interesting and the shotgun feels nice to shoot.

JimBurnley · 26-04-2019 4:58pm

A couple of hours in and enjoying it so far. Reminds me if Fry Cry, but more fun. Only glitch I noticed was binoculars stopped working - saved, exited and reloaded and fine again now

goon_magee · 26-04-2019 5:20pm

Gyan84 wrote: »

Just finished the intro section about Willie's Garage. It's alright so far. Some annoying things though.

Tutorial hints just abruptly pop up and require you to hold down a button for a second or two to get rid of. I know everyone has different gaming abilities/experience but I don't think having a pop up saying hold square to pick up the item with the square button above it is really worth stopping you in your tracks to explain.

I also dislike how cut-scenes begin/end with a 2 second fade to black. Maybe because I'm used to red dead/God of war where it's practically seamless but it just feels really clunky.

My main gripe so far though: the flashlight. If you spin the camera around the flashlight moves with it but Deacon doesn't which is odd but more importantly the light itself frequently gets caught on random objects. For example, if you,re walking sideways towards an open door, instead of the light shining into the room, it'll stay stuck on the door frame outside, leaving the room pitch black until you fully walk in. This seems to happen with any other objects the light hits as well. Hopefully they patch some solution in.

The dark section where the flashlight really bothered me aside, I've enjoyed the first hour and a bit. The world and the characters/factions seem interesting and the shotgun feels nice to shoot.

The constant cutting to a cutscene to give what may be as little as 20-30 seconds of dialogue is an absolute nightmare. Games like Uncharted, Red Dead, God of War, Gears etc have all balanced actual cutscenes with using actual in game dialogue to deliver story to great effect. I love narrative and good cutscenes are a must, but not when they're used to the extent where they constantly pull me out of the narrative it's overkill (though to be fair, it's not taking much to pull me out at the moment).

Fiftyfilthy · 26-04-2019 5:30pm

Main gripe is how boozer keeps his amazing physique with zero training and little food and definitely no steroids

Zombies, apocalypse etc all plausible but not boozers biceps and triceps

biggebruv · 26-04-2019 5:30pm

Anybody here order from smyths get there’s today?

carter001 · 26-04-2019 6:53pm

Fairly good so far about two hours into it.

The Specialist · 26-04-2019 6:54pm

Fiftyfilthy wrote: »

Main gripe is how boozer keeps his amazing physique with zero training and little food and definitely no steroids

Zombies, apocalypse etc all plausible but not boozers biceps and triceps

Not much women around = supercharged “arm cardio”

goon_magee · 26-04-2019 10:31pm

I've gotten a lot of audio glitches and a couple of nasty crashes this evening.

First crash happened when I was just about to finish an ambush camp of 14 enemies off, all progress lost, I'd say about 45 mins of progress. Second crash was just as I was about to hit the last nest in Marion Forks, again about 30 to 45 mins of progress lost.

I think that's all she wrote for me, the content is weak enough first time round, never mind having to repeat due to the game not being polished enough.

dreamers75 · 26-04-2019 10:35pm

goon_magee wrote: »

ty.

It feels like an open world game made in a vacuum, with its roots firmly planted in that Ubisoft era where most of the game played second fiddle to ensuring the map was filled with as many mundane tick box tasks as possible.

To be fair ubisoft give you the tools to make the map fun. Guessing this isnt working for Days gone

goon_magee · 26-04-2019 10:48pm

dreamers75 wrote: »

To be fair ubisoft give you the tools to make the map fun. Guessing this isnt working for Days gone

I agree, as played out as the formula is, I never fail to have fun with a Far Cry or AC game.

Zero-Cool · 27-04-2019 12:51am

Got a couple of hours in so still really on but really liking it so far. The shotgun packs a nice punch sending limbs flying. The melee weapons are nice and vicious. The boot knife has some really nice kill animations, loving the combat so far. A couple of freakers I was fighting turned into a big group. The panic of getting to my bike and tearing through them was great. I already care more about my bike than main characters from other games.

Also, photo mode is a treat.

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1121923354070482944?s=19

Jordan 199 · 27-04-2019 2:37am

Played it for a few hours and it's a decent game. I like how Deacon looks too, like his style.

DarC_Kn1ght · 27-04-2019 10:50am

The flashlight is just...strange. Almost like they ran out of time to get it right.

27-04-2019 11:21pm

I hope your all playing on hard. It's some experience.

Invest in focus and melee on....

JimBurnley · 27-04-2019 11:26pm

Loving it so far. Hardly using me guns, all about stealth, melee and throwables! Took a while to do an ambush camp but delighted with myself once figured out a way :-)

Grumpypants · 27-04-2019 11:40pm

I'm very gun focussed. Ill try take out a few with a knife, especially snipers. Then either an SMG or assault rifle with a silencer. Move slow and steady from cover to cover. See someone, tap 4 bullets to the chest or use focus and hit a head shot.

Use skill points on recoil and focus and melee damage.

Put in another 5 hours last night. Great game.

Gyan84 · 27-04-2019 11:46pm

Played a bit more and enjoying it more now. Using the crossbow and a machete to cleave limbs and it's satisfying.

Still think the game needed a good bit more polish before release. Had a side of the road encounter that despawned before I got to it, but then the 3 enemies spawned in one at a time. Also had a sniper randomly spawn 20 feet behind me who shot me off the bike

Apart from that and a glitch where the hatchet melee weapon has the icon for an assault rifle it's been smooth sailing. Really like the parts of the story I've played so far. The thought of the hordes

hibernating in the caves and whatever is left of nero investigating it is interesting.

Also of course the first time I encounter a horde is when my bike just runs out of fuel

:pac:

kunst nugget · 28-04-2019 12:01am

Played about 5 hours so far and starting to enjoy it now - the way the cutscenes is handled is really annoying and there's far too many of them at the beginning. Playing it as stealthily as I can and enjoying it. There was one part where I was starting to clear out some nests and a group of marauders came to where I was so I was able to just set fire to the nests and then hide and let the marauders deal with the freakers that came out. Having to make sure your bike is got enough fuel seemed like it would be an interesting enough game mechanic when I was reading about it but its a bit of a pain in the arse at times and it can make you unwilling to explore the map at times

Sephiroth_dude · 28-04-2019 12:42am

What are the ? that appear on the map every so often ?

Zero-Cool · 28-04-2019 12:52am

Really enjoying it, they weren't kidding when they said 'the world comes for you'. Usually with an open world game, I see a question mark and I head for it. Do whatever is there and on my way again. I have come across 3 question marks where I went to the location and noped outta there again because 1 too many freakers, time of day, low on fuel, low on ammo, etc. I love how normal the game makes Deacon feel, not some superhero. Every fight is an actual battle and it's making me play the game differently than the usual open world games so I disagree that 'this is your usual open world but boring and done poorly'.

As for the critics, I saw pics of FB posts earlier but can't seem to find them now from an IGN 'journalist' and banter between either fellow IGN people or they were from other sites. They had 3 big issues with rolling eyes and scoffs aplenty.

1 - 'Too many white freakers'. Well it's Oregon, what do you expect. A quick Google tells me it's 85% white and the next highest race is at 4%

2 - They had a screen shot of their 'favourite pic of the game' of Deacon staring at Sarah's arse. Since when was it a shameful thing to have a gawk at your girlfriends/wife's arse??

3 - They ridiculed the writing because of one of the vows at the wedding 'I vow to ride you like my motorbike'. This line was in Sons of anarchy so it was either a tribute to that or more likely, it's an actual vow said at biker weddings to get a laugh.

Whatever about a game being mediocre, repetition, bad mission design, etc. but these people are obviously gonna be biased against the game when they point out these absolutely stupid things. It's like they chose not to have any fun with the game as it didn't meet their SJW vegan Snowflake beliefs.

Zero-Cool · 28-04-2019 12:55am

On a positive note, the game is damn pretty. I got caught in a thunder storm and the movement of the wind blowing through the trees blew me away. I recommend stopping to have a look at this next time you're in a storm.... As long as no freakers around.

https://twitter.com/Sheehy_83/status/1122284994544766976?s=19

kunst nugget · 28-04-2019 1:42am

I wouldn't have known that the wedding vows was from Sons of Anarchy but it does sound unbelievably goofy. Some of the script is kind of crappy which I might have overlooked but I tend to think about it during some of the overly long loading times. You can be critical of elements of the game, characters and plot and not be an SJW snowflake.

The major struggle for me is the transition between gameplay and cutscenes. It's very annoying at times. You can be stuck looking at a black screen, watch a cutscene, black screen, resume playing and then forty seconds later you're looking another black screen while another cutscene loads.

goon_magee · 28-04-2019 2:07am

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Really enjoying it, they weren't kidding when they said 'the world comes for you'. Usually with an open world game, I see a question mark and I head for it. Do whatever is there and on my way again. I have come across 3 question marks where I went to the location and noped outta there again because 1 too many freakers, time of day, low on fuel, low on ammo, etc. I love how normal the game makes Deacon feel, not some superhero. Every fight is an actual battle and it's making me play the game differently than the usual open world games so I disagree that 'this is your usual open world but boring and done poorly'.

As for the critics, I saw pics of FB posts earlier but can't seem to find them now from an IGN 'journalist' and banter between either fellow IGN people or they were from other sites. They had 3 big issues with rolling eyes and scoffs aplenty.

1 - 'Too many white freakers'. Well it's Oregon, what do you expect. A quick Google tells me it's 85% white and the next highest race is at 4%

2 - They had a screen shot of their 'favourite pic of the game' of Deacon staring at Sarah's arse. Since when was it a shameful thing to have a gawk at your girlfriends/wife's arse??

3 - They ridiculed the writing because of one of the vows at the wedding 'I vow to ride you like my motorbike'. This line was in Sons of anarchy so it was either a tribute to that or more likely, it's an actual vow said at biker weddings to get a laugh.

Whatever about a game being mediocre, repetition, bad mission design, etc. but these people are obviously gonna be biased against the game when they point out these absolutely stupid things. It's like they chose not to have any fun with the game as it didn't meet their SJW vegan Snowflake beliefs.

Definitely agree that those are ridiculous points for the most part. Curious to see if their reviewer was involved (Lucy O'Brien) as the the IGN review is fairly balanced and actually lists Deacon as one of the game's positives.

The only one of the above points you listed that I can see mentioned in the review is the wedding/bike riding comment, and to be fair, I don't know bike culture and have never watched sons of anarchy, so if I heard this with no context myself I would find that dialogue particularly cringey. As you rightly mention though, it does appear to have some significance, it's just not everyone has the context I suppose.

Anyway, I did enjoy the game a bit more today. The world itself is great to soak in and experience, I just don't find the game built around it very inspired. My main gripes are still the p*ss poor gunplay and the fact that main missions seem to blend in with side missions, largely reusing objectives and content. It feels like there would be a good 10 to 15 hour campaign in here somewhere, but the Devs felt it necessary to pad it out by reusing mission objectives and passing them off as main story missions.

The story is improving slightly also, though the pacing still seems way off, which I would assume is another result of the game being stretched out for the sake of it. Every time my interest piques due to a cool plot beat, it's bogged down by another couple of hours of busy work which detail any steam the story was building up.

goon_magee · 28-04-2019 2:16am

kunst nugget wrote: »

I wouldn't have known that the wedding vows was from Sons of Anarchy but it does sound unbelievably goofy. Some of the script is kind of crappy which I might have overlooked but I tend to think about it during some of the overly long loading times. You can be critical of elements of the game, characters and plot and not be an SJW snowflake.

The major struggle for me is the transition between gameplay and cutscenes. It's very annoying at times. You can be stuck looking at a black screen, watch a cutscene, black screen, resume playing and then forty seconds later you're looking another black screen while another cutscene loads.

My issue with a lot of the writing is that in trying to take itself so seriously, it comes off unintentionally comedic and ridiculous, so I find myself tuning out much like I do when the missus is watching Corrie or EastEnders. It's a shame because some of the story beats have been genuinely interesting, just let down by poor writing in places.

Grumpypants · 28-04-2019 8:13am

That ride me quote is from biker culture/sons of anarchy.

But in the context of the game, Sarah isn't a biker, so after they say their nice vows she gives Deacon a biker ring and says that line as a joke. They both know how it sounds and burst out laughing. It's actually a funny/endearing bit.

Later in that twitter conversation he doubles back to say it's not as icky in the game. So he knows how it was delivered in game, but took it out if context to post on twitter.

What's way worse is an adult using the word "icky".

Zero-Cool · 28-04-2019 9:17am

I'm not usually pushed on reviews every since Mafia 2 got a bunch of 7's and reviewers called it boring. I put it off for a year because of them and when I eventually got it, I absolutely loved it and hated that I hadn't played it a year sooner. Getting the same vibes off these reviews.

Anyway, enough of 'leave Britney alone' from me

I'm definitely noticing the fade in and out of cutscenes and I wonder if it's like what the Spiderman Dev recently on how they used cutscenes to load the rest of the map like a camera trick. The 6 hours of cutscenes might make more sense then or it may just need that time to actually tell their story. I dunno the full details of the spider-man Dev trick but it made me think about it.

Does anyone know how to get the pre-order bike upgrades? I have the level 1 trust at Copeland's and see the upgrades there but I have to buy them. I think I should have had the gas tank, shroud and boost upgrade straight away like I had the crossbow when I got my first gun locker.

Days Gone

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