Kevin's Watch

I've been looking at Far Cry Primeval. It's not recognised as one of the great games of the franchise, but I have it on good authority that there are elements in there deserving of attention. I'm impressed that they took the trouble to make the language spoken entirely unintelligible to the player who must read the subtitles for understanding what is being said. The world is said to be impressive and I just like the idea of immersion in a tribal kind of culture for a while. It's relatively cheap to buy, and while I'm loving rdr2 I'm realising that it's going to be a long, long time before I nail it down. For all I'm enjoying it greatly (as a sandbox it is out in front of any other game I have played) I don't get the immersion levels I achieved in say Kingdom Come Deliverance. I'm thinking I just need a break (or will shortly) for a while.

I went off Far Cry after 3. (2 was good, but it's set in Africa so some bias there probably.) I'd probably prefer it in 3rd person, but not enamoured enough with them to make the sacrifice that playing in 1st-person requires of me.

--A

Primal was so much fun.

Shorter than the others, but so. much. fun.

I liked FC3, skipped 4, and tried 5 - quit halfway through. It wasn't fun at all, and the story didn't interest me either. Plus, they'd randomly stop whatever open-world activity you're doing and force you into a shooter-on-rails segment with limited equipment that you might not have touched the entire game. It's like if they randomly interrupted you in Red Dead Redemption to play a mission from Call of Duty. That part really irked me.

But yeah, play Primal. You get to ride on the back of a sabre toothed tiger.

Excellent news Rigel as I sprung for it a couple of days ago and it's now sitting there waiting to be loaded. I'm going to finish the rdr2 chapter I'm on and then take a break. My work colleague who's son has played it told me he loves it so much he replays it over and again.

Back to Red Dead meanwhile, I have just completed the rock carvings side quest and without giving too much away loved the foray into the unknown it involved. The nature of the carvings you had to find were ......odd...... for the time period and told you something strange was afoot. The culmination, where you saw the fruits of your labour and received the 'explanation' of the conundrum were very satisfying. You will never understand how he did it, but that he did it at all is suprise enough!

Purchased this a month or so back. I'm somewhere in chapter three I think.

I understand there's a market for Scorcese-style "Angry man hurts people" storytelling, but that market is not me. Having missions you go on where they give you options of how to treat people, but then force you into "hit them again" four or five times kind of ruins the point of supposedly having options in the game.

Plus, Arthur and Dutch deserve to hang for their crimes. All the talking Dutch does about starting new and whatnot rings hollow after the murders he so casually commits. These are not redeemable men, and they are not engaged in some noble enterprise, no matter how the writers try to dress up their intentions.

But the worst sin of all is that the game is boring.

The game is certainly slower paced than many I've played - but I can deal with this. The moral vacuum that the gang live in is more difficult and I agree that the character of Morgan himself is deplorable with very little scope for you to play him as other than a complete bastard.

The slowness can be mitigated somewhat if desired, once the fast travel from campsite facility is achieved - the latter problem you are stuck with (though without spoiling, the end is atypical, if you can get that far. NB I haven't - I just work with a bloke who doesn't get the idea of spoilering, and tells you the endings of everything he talks about, be they films, games, books, whatever - a true menace to the art of storytelling! )

Rigel wrote:These are not redeemable men, and they are not engaged in some noble enterprise, no matter how the writers try to dress up their intentions.

Says a man writing on a forum dedicated to books about a leperous rapist and a matricide...

Anyway, I think part of it is his recognition of the dichotomy and indeed, as you near the end, the irony of the consequences.

--A

Avatar wrote: Says a man writing on a forum dedicated to books about a leperous rapist and a matricide...

Yeah ok, you got me there.