Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands

[fragger]

True, it is a UBI*bleep* title. There may be a spanner poised to fall into the works at some point

[LowPolyOWG]

I really hope UBI*bleep* have some variations in the formula, the RGP like skill system might get boring at some point. Having the world open from the start is a welcome change at least. I hope we get some games that doesn't require the use of a drone/camera to tag enemies

[PZ]

I'll probably get the PC edition one of these days and let you know how it goes - I read somewhere that there were more issues with the PC edition. 

I'm really pleased with the console version - not a single glitch or failure so far. About the only thing I still do not like is the 3 save game maximum started way back in the AC series. It still remains the same in this game.

I personally love the drone tagging system, and the potential to tag up to 4 people for sync kills, but the good thing is that one need not use the drone system at all.  The biggest advantage of this UBI*bleep* title over the others more recently released is the open nature of the game - do whatever you like is exactly what I want in a game.

[PZ]

Although FC2 is still on of my favorite games of all time, it did have characteristics that were a bit of an annoyance, for example going over rocks or trying to climb just about anything. I still recall JRD complaining in FC2 about not being able to go over a small rock that was in his path 

When playing FC2, I recall having to subconsciously avoid certain rock fields because the programming was primitive enough so that you mostly had to have a smooth relatively flat environment to be able to continue along your path.  You were lucky to find grass because that usually meant that you could go up the incline.

In this game I am constantly delighted that you can go up and down almost everything that would be reasonable for a human to do. Most of the time you do not even need to press the "climb" button - going up even relatively steep inclines is easy.

[Art Blade]

you make it sound so tempting that I might even reconsider my UBI*bleep* policy.

[PZ]

Well, I'm excited that they were finally able to create a game that has nearly all of the aspects of a shooter that I like. Other than lacking unlimited game slots, there is nothing so far that I find lacking - still waiting for the hammer to fall though because I have been excited and then disappointed so many times 

Maybe this title will be better because it is produced by Ubisoft: Paris instead of Ubisoft: Montreal 

I was in a fire fight with the elite soldiers the other day, and they had two helicopters and numerous ground patrols that were devastating my position, and team mates - one actually died.  I did not know how to get out of the danger zone, but my son told me that of you can sneak out of the building where they last saw you, it is possible to evade both the helicopters and ground patrols. 

Evidently I got myself into a hot spot without knowing it, just like you would in real life.

Another interesting thing: there is no tutorial mission like I have come to expect in all video games - in this one, you are given a relatively easy first mission, but you are basically on your own.  You start the game as an operator with 3 team mates, and you get to make all the decisions, good, bad, or indifferent.

[Art Blade]

one day video games will be so real that you can play your own life. Like, all those "what if" situations. What if I beat the living daylights out of my boss? Go play it.

[LowPolyOWG]

New DLC coming

@Art

[PZ]

I heard this was coming, but in watching the video, it looks like there might be timed events.  I certainly hope not. The intro video of the vanilla game also shows frantic action, but nothing like that so far. However, I understand that you can do what you like - slow and stealthy or fast and loud 

[LowPolyOWG]

PZ, is there anby sort of "silly" camos in the game? If there's a gold paint/camo option, I might get the game on sale one day

[PZ]

I've not seen anything that appears to be strange - many of the backpacks and other accessories appear to be quite realistic.

The camo schemes for desert and forest appear to be authentic - I recognize several patterns. However, I do not see the more recent digital versions in the game. In fact I chose a backpack and some clothing that I actually have in real life 

[LowPolyOWG]

Cool I just found out that there's cosmetic skin packs just like WD2. And indeed, gold camo is available through the doorkicker pack...

Haven't bought the game, but if I can get it dirt cheap + DLC and PC performance have been fixed in the long run, I might buy this.

[PZ]

Yesterday I was not online here because I spent nearly the entire thing playing Wildlands with m son.  When he joined me in an online session, my 3 AI friends disappeared to be replaced by him. The cool thing is that I was able to just continue my SP game but with him as my buddy. By the way, they brought back the FC2 buddy system except that your friends (or AI) can revive you once during a fire fight. 

I found a weapons case on a part of the map I'd detailed, but it looked like it was underground - I had to go down a cliff with my drone to find an open cavern mouth on the water line. Down we went and into the cavern, which was a cocaine processing site - this is very much like some of the areas in JC3 which I found very entertaining. He got me to the weapons case where I was able to get the MSR, which is one of the best sniper weapons in the game - because I already had suppressor, scope, and other upgrades, I could now use them on this weapon. We went to most of the regions just to do something, and man, the map is huge - it will take me a long, long time to complete the game if I can hold interest long enough. If the game continues to be this good, I can see additional plays through.

In some of the harder map areas the SAMs are quite deadly but if you want to go in planning to use a chopper, you can always disable them.

Interesting detail: when I was wearing military garb, the locals would withdraw and cower - if cartel passed, they would be suspicious. I changed to a wife beater tank top and jeans, and the locals went about their business normally, and the cartel were quite a bit less likely to notice you. In fact, my son said that if you go into even a military installation at night, driving a regional vehicle, and wearing civilian clothes, the guards would sometimes open the gates for you and you can go in to stealthily steal the documents of whatever you needed to do.

I did run across a timed side mission - one to disable a communications tower, and you had 2 minutes to do it, which I easily accomplished within the first 30 seconds. However, the timer continued to go down so I noticed another tower across the bay, but there was a handy Zodiac nearby which made it an easy win.

Shooting the opposition has excellent animations, and even the heavies (like the ones in FC3/4) drop "properly"

My son has already completed the game, and in one part he told me to deploy my drone and watch a circle of cartel members - they and their nearby vehicles exploded in fireballs - evidently you can get a drone upgrade to be explosive, or another one which fries electronics with EMR.

Before I knew it, the day was nearly gone, and I needed to go into town to attend to business. So far this has been the most engaging game I have played in a long time, made particularly good because of the great variation in environment (desert to mountains like in JC), and being able to become easily familiar with how to approach a mission.

While Wildlands is likely not for all gamers, because this is so reminiscent of FC2 for me, I can't wait to be able to go in again, which I can't recall feeling so strongly since FC2.

[LowPolyOWG]

I might buy this, it seems UBI*bleep* have redeemed themselves somewhat 

[Art Blade]

yep.. maybe, if it's on offer..