Video Games [ARCHIVED] Video Game • Page 536

I generally enjoy Sony's exclusives Uncharted/Persona/The Last of Us much more than Microsoft's.. but both have solid lineups.

so if you have to pick one, go to where your friends are.

 

I thought that game [steep] might get bad reviews because the Before You Buy fellow didn't seem to like it very much and he loves everything. I played the beta and it was fun, though I think I like more ridiculous physics in my snowboarding games.

 

I hope Ubi are still allowed to make games like this after Vivendi purchases them.

 

Steep looks okay, but I'm not sure what there is exactly there to make more than a few hours of playtime enjoyable.

Says something that Ubisoft snuck it out there with little promotion.

 

So far Bloodborne alone would have me personally pick PS4, add in Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian, Until Dawn, Ratchet and Clank, The Last of Us 2, God of War, Horizon, Persona 5 and the Crash remaster and it's not even close. I care about all of those games more than any Xbox exclusive. I'm probably forgetting more as well.

 

why do you do this me

 

Own both and my PS4 is literally a glorified blu-ray player. Until Persona 5 comes out that is... honestly I only touch it for exclusives. Playstation Network doesn't appeal to me in the least. I do 99.9 of my multiplayer on XBox Live.

 

I played probably half of Watch Dogs 2 and I honestly couldn't tell you much about the story. I was only playing it a few weeks ago and it's completely forgettable to me. The only good thing I have to say about it is how diverse the characters are. In terms of social commentary, GTA V is problematic, but WD 2 is as well, as explained in this article (warning: spoilers).

In terms of gameplay, it's night and day for me. The driving in WD 2 should be much better. I can't think of another recent open world game where it's so poor. I didn't like Mafia 3 but even the driving there is better than WD 2. I'm not sure why Ubisoft are incapable of incorporating decent driving mechanics into Watch Dogs, it's completely unforgivable since you spend so much of the game in a car. The shooting mechanics are passable in WD 2, tbh they don't seem all that different from the original, but I still prefer the gunplay in GTA V. I always felt weird shooting enemies in WD 2, Marcus just doesn't seem like the type of guy who would kill so many people without flinching. I felt forced into playing the game a particular way because of that.

I haven't played either game online, so I don't care about that side of things haha.

 

so hypedddd

 

Not like Ubisoft have never made a great driving game, only have to look at Driver: San Francisco to see they can make a game with great driving. So why they are struggling lately is baffling, the driving was the main thing I hated in Watch Dogs.

 

Austin Walker is absolutely one of the best writers in the game industry. Great article.

 

Exactly. The driving is slightly better in Watch Dogs 2, but not considerably so. If you didn't like it in the first game, I imagine it would still bug you in WD 2.

 

Hoping I can finish BF1 and Telltale's Batman before Christmas, then I go on vacation and can clean up some backlog games. Will be awesome

 

And I could counter the commentary with this: The game you didn’t know you wanted – Watch_Dogs 2

GTA as a SERIES is way beyond problematic in comparison to WD2, it's not even close. WD1 was awful with women and POC for sure, but for the most part did a very, very good job for WD2 in those regards. And it's funny so much criticism is talked about with the stories of Watch Dogs, and yet they're still compared to GTA of which nobody can come to the defense to when it comes to that part (storytelling, representation).

WD1 was awful with driving. WD2 literally depends on the type of car that is being driven. It's not great, but I see the improvements. I don't disagree that the actual gunplay and driving of GTA is better, but I'm trying to speak to the series comparisons overall here.

I'm not sure why you, or literally anyone, felt "forced" into playing a particular way with Marcus? There wasn't much talk among the cast about killing either way, but I think that's about perception as well. It may mean different things to different people and how they perceive the cast/characters and what they're trying to do and why. Regardless though, that's why he has the stun gun and the thunderball, two non lethal weapons.

The Kotaku review of WD2 has two factually incorrect statements - that Marcus doesn't have a non-lethal melee weapon (a major part of marketing him was his thunderball) and that you can't finish the game without killing people (also not true). He's got his own non-lethal melee weapon (thunderball), as well as the stun gun. The "revenge" missions after a character's death - I took the targets down with stuns/shocks, and I passed the missions. You have a drone, a quadcopter, and so many different ways of hacking that you literally do not need to kill anyone. The mass comm disrupt let me run through a bunch of people without even having to touch them.

I don't disagree with the criticism in regards to how WD2 handled a particular POC character. But it was so blatantly obvious with the way the game was marketed in regards to that particular character - they were rarely, if ever, shown (see trailers, wallpapers, other marketing and media), that it seemed obvious they had a minor role or wouldn't last long. I'm not sure as to why this was the case, why they didn't mention the character much after their death, as if it never happened. Especially in regards to Marcus' closeness to them. It's a flaw, and it still bothers me. It was the main flaw of the story - that part felt rushed, like there was no time to complete it. I'm not sure what went on with the studio or development or anything of course, but something just felt like there was some weird editing going on. It sucks cause of the way the character was so close to Marcus as well. Besides Ded Sec obviously being targeted eventually, and Ubi's innate need to kill off main characters in their games, there was no extended clarification or conversation beyond the missions regarding their death.

 

I mean doesn't Marcus spawn in with guns on specific missions? That would clarify why some would felt forced to do so. The irony in tone is still there with 3D printing weapons and whatnot.

I mean GTA V is the watermark in the genre so of course WD2 is going to get compared to it in terms of gameplay, narrative disparity aside, people want to know if the gameplay itself is good (Which WD2 looks more than competent in).

Still want to pick it up eventually. Just might wait till spring/summer when game slate is less hectic.

 

I don't personally remember Marcus being spawned in with guns, no. Even so, you're not ever asked to kill anyone, and whenever you are asked to "target" anyone, you can pass the mission with non lethal methods. This was not the case with Aiden in WD1.

Yea GTA V has much better driving and gunplay, but it's not a drastic 180 difference if you want to compare it to WD2 specifically.

 

relevant to me rn, don't take it personally, just thought it was funny:

 

Nobody defends or champions for games like Lighting13.

 

I can't argue with this. I just don't think WD 2 can be held up as being particularly great with social commentary, when it treats one of its POC characters in such a disappointing way.

The driving is slightly better, although the vehicles still don't feel particularly distinctive from one another. They still feel really light, there's no weight to them and you can still pretty much smash through any obstacles (streetlights, bins, etc) without slowing down at all.

I think you've misunderstood, I'm saying that I felt forced to use the stun gun, to be stealthy, etc rather than just going in shooting everyone. I would've liked to do a mix of both, but because of the way Marcus is, it just never felt right to do so. One of the selling points of the game is that you can choose how you approach missions, but it's fairly obvious that with this game they want you to play it stealthy and hack everything. This wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason they still decided to give you a huge arsenal of shotguns, assault rifles, etc. It's almost like they were too scared to do away with that stuff, but honestly they should have. It would make the game feel less conflicted about what it wants to be and would convince me that Ubisoft don't just want to make another GTA clone.

Also, while I would say the stealth in this game is decent and a great improvement over the first, it's still fairly simplistic in comparison to something like MGS V. I don't think WD 2 does anything that another game doesn't do better and that's a problem.

Just because it was "blatantly obvious", that doesn't mean it's okay for them to handle POC characters so poorly. I agree with the rest of what you said though.

It is a drastic difference. GTA V has great shooting and driving mechanics and WD 2 has passable shooting and terrible driving mechanics. For example, the driving mechanics in Dead Rising 4 are similarly terrible, but you're only in a vehicle for like 4% of the game so it doesn't matter as much. In WD 2 you must be in a car at least 40%, if not 50%, of the time so it's much more of an issue. The driving mechanics should be much better than they are, especially after all the negative feedback they received about the driving in the original game and the time they've had to improve on it.

 

trevor is quite literally the worst lol

 

I always thought that GTA had "passable" shooting tbh.

 

Steven Ogg's performance as trevor is super endearing, despite everything about the character being utterly reprehensible (as intended of course)

 

Only exclusives this generation that I feel like I'm missing out on are Bloodborne and The Last Guardian