Originally Posted By Stiler (21 NOV 2012 10:22am)

Here's some reviews for FC3, looking very good:

 

That looks fun! Well, the plot mainly looks silly & forgettable, but the gameplay itself looks like it could be really fun. 

And in regards to strategy, if you are looking for something more challenging, then why not check out the Blitzkrieg-series? I've just started the first one, and it is really hard, but in a fun way. Granted, it is a tactical game, not a strategic one (no base building or any of that stuff). A bit like a more large-scale close combat. 

....

as in real life, if you can't drive don't even bother trying to fly. I almost got a seizure watching that vid 

Originally Posted By markornikov (25 NOV 2012 4:09am)

as in real life, if you can't drive don't even bother trying to fly. I almost got a seizure watching that vid 

I actually did learn how to drive properly in Race 07

Heavens but the graphics for Assassin's Creed Revelations are beautiful!

I have been playing Assassins Creed 3 soooooo much since I got it tuesday. I actually couldn't play it because the game kept crashing my display driver. I spent hours googling and googling trying to find a fix for it. I cleaned out my video card drivers, ran driver sweeper, did so much work to try and fix it. I remember having this same issue with Sleeping dogs/deus ex HR), both of which I solved by setting my overclock (my card is factory oc'd) back to default clocks for the 580. So I tried that and no go either.

Finally after spending over a day and a half without playing but bits and peices (could only play 5 minutes tops before it'd crash out) I found some links through googling that the 580's have a notorious problem with their voltage being actually underclocked by the card makers because when they were developed DX11 wasn't really out in any games so they had to basically "Guess" and couldn't really test the voltages. Many people reported that putting hte voltage higher fixes it, and Asus even had a newer bios that did this. Though my card wasn't asus so I grabbed MSI afterburner which lets you do it on your own and set my voltage to 1100 (it was 1000 default) and bam, no more crashing. I posted this fix on othe ac3 forums where many other people with both 570's/580's were having the exact same issue with it crashing and it fixed it for virually everyone, sot hat was a win for me and many others.

To get it out of the way I have to say I have alweays wanted a good game set in the colonial times with good rural settings. That "era" has largely been ignored by gaming and I always wondered why. I absolutely love it and films such as Last of the Mohicans are some of my favorites (thought that's the French and Indian wars). Anyways since I finally fixed It I could now play properly (and I REALLY wanted to play, this has been my most looked forward to game this year, hence why I spent so much time trying to find a fix lol). I have to say I am NOT disappointed int his game at all.

By far this is the best AC game to me. The frontier/rural area's are so well designed, it looks very "natural" and the developers did a remarkable job with the setting and weaving in historical things into the game that they could.

The gameplay is tight, combat is fun, and the animations are simply excellent. Conner is a lot more "brutal" with hsi fighting style then Ezio or Altair and it shows. I love the tomahawk and my war club. The war club I got from pre ordering looks similar to the club that Chingachgook (from Last of the Mohicans) uses in the movie and they even have a kill animation that us uses near the end of the movie, which was a nice easter egg.

The tree climbing works very well and once you get used to it you can "see" what branches you can/can't climb and get the hang of it fairly easily. It can be a pain to find a way "up" though as there are only certain trees that you can climb up into.

Naval Combat is the BIGGEST surprise though. It's so damn fun to play, it not only is very fun and works extremely well, but it looks AWESOME, especially when it's storming with lightning and big waves. Ubisoft would have to be fools not to take this technology and ship combat (which was actually done by Ubisoft Shanghai , apart from the main developers of AC3 which are in Montreal) and make it into a full game. Seriously I have seen this across so many forums/reviews of AC3 that people praise the naval combat and how good it is, they are sitting on a goldmine and if they can make a good full-fledged pirate/naval game set during the golden age of piracy it would be a huge hit, as long as the on-land aspects are as well done as AC3.

The missions have been good so far, characters are very well done and it's great how they have put in so many historical figures from the era of history into the game. People like Samuel Adams, Franklin, Paul Revere, Washington and many others you'll find throughout the story and the actually weave Conners story into many famous historical events, which I wouldn't want to spoil. Overall if you are a fan of history you'll find a lot to like in regards to missions and historical elements.

This really is one of the most "historical" games I've played. Apart from the missions that use a lot of historical elements (though not completely, obviosuly it's their own story with added elements here and there) but they also use the Animus database to actually provide you with more info. When you meet new people, pass by historical buildings, or when certain events happen, it will allow you to read about it in the database. It can actually teach you some things, like the whole Paul Revere thing, I know many people that might think he rode alone but he didn't, and they both show it in game as well as providing more info behind the two other people involved. If there wasn't so much blood and killing (lol) they could probably have a good historical teaching game for kids.

The only downsides to the game are some glitches here and there with frustrating AI (had to redo a mission to go aboard a ship and blow it up because the AI kept seeing me do things even though they shouldn't have) and Conner. Conner is an ok character, but he just isn't nearly as "fleshed out" as Ezio was. I know they had AC2/Brotherhood/Revelations but Conner's character just seems so "by the books" and you don't really get that attached to him or have a lot of development/arcs for him compared to Ezio.

Overall I had high expectations for this game and it lives up to most of them apart from Conner himself. Gameplay is a blast, setting is beautiful and very well done, story and missions are also great along with the dedication you can tell they put into the historical elements. If you like any of the AC games or history in general you'll likely love AC3.

edit - I didn't realize how much I had typed, sorry for the huge wall of text

What are you playing Fnord, and...what...are you flying? I can't figure out if it's an airplane or helicopter... It looks like an Apache?

Anyways, picked up Jurassic Park: The Game. Played it through, earned all silver and gold with the exception of one bronze (which i'm thoroughly frustrated about.) Honestly I rather enjoyed it. The poor reviews are a lot of garbage. If you treat this game as an interactive movie and not an action shooter you can see the fun in it, which is why most reviews hated on it.

Gameplay has light puzzle and adventure elements to it but most gameplay comes in the form of reaction time and button mashing daring escapes, dodges, and sprints. I haven't played thru a second time yet but it hints that there are multiple endings and outcomes to situations. It's most certainly worth a try if you're a fan of the series.

I've requested we try and throw this one and Back to the Future: The Game (which IS an adventure game) on JA, they would make a decent fit. Most of our higher ups agree but Telltale hasn't answered us back in a while

Originally Posted By markornikov (6 NOV 2012 4:46pm)

gosh, you've got to be really fast get that achievment without killing anyone 

 

...

 

I'm playing Far Cry 2 a bit, this is going to be a long November until FC3 comes out

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on the JA Forums... Hopefully I can start lurking less and be more active.

I saw Far Cry 2 & 3 get a mention, so I had no choice but to chime in 

Far Cry 2 is in my Top 10 of all time... loved it, loved it!  I can see why folks wouldn't, but it's a mix of everything I like about gaming.

Far Cry 3 is looking to be right on par, if not surpass, FC2.  I'm taking off of work the 3 days after it's launch to devote to playing it.  I don't do it for all games, of course, just the ones I'm stoked for! 

AH, Preloading has become available, i haven't been this stoked since Skyrim.

...

In the meantime i've been playing some really crappy games:

Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble: gameplay is so weird and at the same time boring and repetitve. Maybe i'm not the target player, but i wonder who is.

Adam's Venture Episode 1: Pretty game, but limited dialog, awful voice acting, limited gameplay, awkward camere views, puzzles just okay. Nothing memorable

Originally Posted By Support (27 NOV 2012 12:48pm)

What are you playing Fnord, and...what...are you flying? I can't figure out if it's an airplane or helicopter... It looks like an Apache?

 

It is a helicopter, a KA-50 Black Shark to be more precise. I don't know a whole lot about helicopters, but I guess it might be seen as the Russian counterpart to the Apache (though there are some obvious differences to the two, both seem to fill a similar role). I snapped this screenshot to show a friend who doubted me when i said that the game was really complex:

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921246653252428756/D3793EA494F439D5DB01D22B5C90A8C0D994E3AE/

Yes, all those buttons clickable, and that is just the lower right side of the cockpit.

(darn steam and not allowing hotlinking) 

Isn't Jurassic Park: The Game a steam only game? I've seen Back to the Future on another site, but never Jurassic Park.

Not sure exactly, I've seen it on Telltale, and they have it for sale. we have plenty of steam stuff here too like rochard and Spellforce 2.

Ha I've loved flying games, aircraft in general, all my life and i still just want to sit there and start flipping switches and pressing buttons while giggling like an idiot. Do they have flight manuals built into the game or do they just drop you in the cockpit and let you loose?

Yahtzee doesn't seem to like ACIII 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6516-Assassins-Creed-3

darn, Far Cry needs to do some additional downloading..

I intended to play for half an hour, , but i'm too tired now to wait for it any longer.

You lucky European/Aussies/Kiwi's get to finally get a new game before us Americans

Please give us some impressions when you can.

yes indeed, usually it's the other way around, you evil americans 

So I just played half an hour before leaving to work, played through the intro and unlocked the first radio tower.

First impressions so far are very very good.

Graphics are gorgeous, but not as pretty as The Witcher 2 as far as i can tell.

I'm running at 15-25 fps, which is a lot worse then TW2 which runs at 40 fps, but still playable

I get the feeling that the game isn't optimized for pc yet or that you need a very powerful machine to run it perfectly.

I'm probably going to have to tweak the settings a bit more, thankfully this isn't one of those bad ports where you can't change anything.

Anyhow everything else seems better compared to FC2.

Characters are much more fleshed out, action scenes more thrilling and towns are buzzing with life.

Wildlife is abundant and really adds to the jungle atmosphere.

There seems to be a lot to be found for explorers like me, as there are many places where you can find loot hidden away.

Various treasures can be sold in shops to buy more ammo, weapons, consumables and maps.

Every item has a description which makes the random loot more interestung

The inventory and shop screens are clearly made for consoles in mind, but thankfully you can navigate quickly through them with the mouse. Not like the clunky inventory we got in Skyrim.

If you are running an Nvidia card they just released a new beta driver today that's for Far cry 3 and is supposed to increase performance a lot.

Originally Posted By Stiler (29 NOV 2012 6:18pm)

If you are running an Nvidia card they just released a new beta driver today that's for Far cry 3 and is supposed to increase performance a lot.

Thanks a lot, it only yielded 3 fps extra, but the fps is much more stable now, which makes the game run fluent for me!

In my case the CPU is below the recommended settings, but i'm still able to play the game on high settings

This will probably be one of my favourite games, it has everything i love: an open world, gorgeous landscapes and a lot of action.

Compared to Skyrim the gameworld feels a lot more real, mostly thanks to the wildlife which is abundant.

In Skyrim you've got the occasional bear or deer, in FC3 there's wildlife everywhere. Their movements have been rendered with an incredible amount of detail. A shark swims like a shark and attacks like a shark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eNdSSa1dek 

Now 2 things that might turn away some players:

1. the game is incredibly brutal and not a stroll in the park. Killing and gutting animals is essential in this game, this includes harmless animals like pigs, goats or tapirs. Gutting is quite gruesome, but after a few times you'll get used to it.

2. This is a biggie, even for me. Far Cry 3 has only ONE save slot. And you can't save during missions, just like GTA.

Autosaves during missions are few and far between.

For an open world game this is unforgivable, i really hope they'll patch it, because this is just ridiculous console porting.

There are numerous ways to liberate enemy camps, but there's little room for experimentation with just one save.

The whole sandbox experience is thrown away because of this. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (30 NOV 2012 2:10am)

2. This is a biggie, even for me. Far Cry 3 has only ONE save slot. And you can't save during missions, just like GTA.

Autosaves during missions are few and far between.

For an open world game this is unforgivable, i really hope they'll patch it, because this is just ridiculous console porting.

There are numerous ways to liberate enemy camps, but there's little room for experimentation with just one save.

The whole sandbox experience is thrown away because of this. 

I've also heard that auto-save spots are not always where you expect them to be/it does not autosave when it would make sense for it to auto-save (like after liberating a camp). Is this true?

I'm done with the thieves guild in Skyrim, and I quite enjoyed their quest line. It was, as you might expect, a bit less straight forward than the quest chains for the Companions or the mages, though it did feel like the chain was meant to be completeable with any character, even those with no thieving skills what so ever, which did take a way a bit from the overall feel of it.

I wonder if I should start the Dawnguard quest soon, or just keep on doing the chains that I did not do during my first playthrough (I still have not beaten the dark brotherhood either).

Originally Posted By Fnord (2 DEC 2012 12:11pm)

 

I've also heard that auto-save spots are not always where you expect them to be/it does not autosave when it would make sense for it to auto-save (like after liberating a camp). Is this true?

 

yes that's true, the autosave is not reliable. It doesn't save at important points like after liberating a camp, but it does save when you make a purchase at a store .

So saving manually is essential, unless you're on a mission where you have to rely on the autosave.

I must say i've gotten used to it though, the map is so large that there's enough room for experimentation.

The first hour of the game you can't manually save though, so i've replayed that part a few times to do it right.

I've played the game for 36 hours this weekend, it's still a lot of fun. My only complaint so far is that the side quests are getting a bit too repetitive.

Originally Posted By XerNosam (27 NOV 2012 9:01pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (6 NOV 2012 4:46pm)

gosh, you've got to be really fast get that achievment without killing anyone 

 

...

 

I'm playing Far Cry 2 a bit, this is going to be a long November until FC3 comes out

 

Wow, it's been a while since I've been on the JA Forums... Hopefully I can start lurking less and be more active.

 

I saw Far Cry 2 & 3 get a mention, so I had no choice but to chime in 

 

Far Cry 2 is in my Top 10 of all time... loved it, loved it!  I can see why folks wouldn't, but it's a mix of everything I like about gaming.

 

Far Cry 3 is looking to be right on par, if not surpass, FC2.  I'm taking off of work the 3 days after it's launch to devote to playing it.  I don't do it for all games, of course, just the ones I'm stoked for! 

 

 

Xernosam!  Hello!   how absolutely lovely to see you again! I thought we'd lost you for good...  yes, absolutely, we should try and make things look more lively around here again...- the reg'lars are getting to know one another too well...- we need to bring back some good old memories and try to lure some of our old regulars back again as well...

Hope life is treating you well these days.

Have you played Deus Ex HR yet?  (silly me, of course you have! ?)  I can't drag myself away from Skyrim and my stratgies long enough to get to it, so any words of encouragement there?

I am just now working thru the third of the Assasins Creed games, the one just before the latest and it is set in Constantinple, and one has to ignore the glorifying of the disgustig Arab culture which was basically a slave facistic demonic state, but the setting is wonderful and the historicl detail again excellent. I look forward to seeing what they  were able to accomplish with the Colonial setting, i agree it is a very good era for a game setting and almost nothing has been done with it before.

the naval aspect sounds very interesting, i am just now studying Total War Empire which is set in roughly the same era and area, and the naval combat which taught the makers of the AC series a lot is also good on detail tho there is no land and no real overall reality to it, mostly just like a fancy arcade.

this new game sounds vey good.

I loved Far Cry 1 and still am working with that engine on a mod, but i do NOT like the overly violent aspect that they have taken and have no desire to be forced into that kind of battling. I play Skyrim on God Mode and ignore the fights totally. If i do look at Far Cry 3 it will be in the same vein. There is not reason for modern games to be so dependent on trivializing and mornalizing violence. But the settings and the amazing environments interest me a lot. so Thanks for sharing that info.

Thanks to markornikov and his help I am currently (about 4 years late) having a whale of a time playing Fallout 3. I was getting a bit bored of KoA (pretty but repetitive). Fallout is a great alternative.

Originally Posted By Maum (10 DEC 2012 4:47am)

Thanks to markornikov and his help I am currently (about 4 years late) having a whale of a time playing Fallout 3. I was getting a bit bored of KoA (pretty but repetitive). Fallout is a great alternative.

I'm having the same problem with KoA, I've put it on ice for now, but I might return to it. The game looked nice, and it played nice, but after a certain point, it failed to introduce anything new and interesting. I still think I got my moneys worth out of it though. 

Officially back into skyrim again. Playing on master w a nord that's mostly sword and board (actually axe/shield) but trying to keep skills rounded w some magic and archery/thieving. Made it to Riften after a brutal trek past helgen and east through the pass. Frustrating at first because most things literally killed me in a single hit but I did manage to beat a giant at lvl 1

Been playing a bit of Skyrim myself. I'm done with the mage's guild, the companions & the thieves guild. I plan to take on the dark broterhood soon as well.

I've also been playing a bit of Men of War: Condemned Heroes. Overall a solid entry in the series, and I don't understand why it got such poor review scores. It is a challenging game, and different enough from previous entries to feel like more than just a glorified expansion (even though it uses the same engine, models & sound effects). 

*edit* I suspect that Condemned Heroes is a game that Stiler would enjoy. You control a small force (most I've had at any given time is 16 soldiers), and need to beat missions with them. No base building, troop recruitment or anything of that nature. And the game also makes you feel like you are a part of something larger, as there are computer controlled units on both sides.