Oh, Ubisoft! Toying around with game files let’s you play New Dawn early

[LowPolyOWG]

But you'd think they would at least have the main exe do a parity check or something to ensure it's running the assets it's meant to be running.

Yeah, it baffles me they didn't bother. Maybe forgot about it, or it's easier for them for testing. The DLC was developed in 1.5 years, so I guess that team probably started New Dawn after shipping Primal. Meanwhile, FC5 was worked on and some gamers felt it lackluster in some areas. News outlets even suggested FC ND's RPG features should have been in FC5 instead.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah the stuff that didn't make it in the main game gets shunted to the DLC.

I watched a live stream yesterday of the first hour or so of the game and it's pretty much what I expected. Looks really good, even the guy streaming said it looked awesome and he was playing at 1440p. But pretty much more of the same as I said above, and that's OK by me, I liked the game for the most part and enjoyed exploring the world. The one thing that disappointed me about the main game was that after the ending, you go back to the world the way it was as if the bombs never dropped. I was hoping to explore that world again as it's been changed. This will make that happen. Sure, there are some things I'd like to be different, but for the most part it looks like I'd be into it.

The new RPG-like elements might be one of those things. Seems everything has a level rating, so if you come up against a level 3 enemy like the guy did in the stream, and only have level one weapons, you're going to have a tough time of it. In other words, they become bullet sponges and no amount of tactics or skill on the player's part will change that. It's just how much lead you can inject them with and not die in the meantime. That part I'm not too keen on, but it is what it is.

Plus they had a promotion to watch a live stream for 30 minutes and unlock the ACP Vector so that was a bonus. Blatant commercialization and advertising? Maybe, sure, but I was going to watch some video first anyway, and I saw that link just as I was looking for information on the game and it worked out.

Bottom line, I ordered it and it pre-loaded, so I could try the trick to play early, but really, I can wait a day and play Astroneer in the meantime.

[nex]

One thing about GRW, the gatling gun is not very effective long distance,
It's more for closeup shooting, for that reason it gives the impression
the enemy are bullet sponges. The other problem, when you encounter enemies
they have a little red marker above the head indicating their location, firing at them
from a distance one tends to aim at the marker, not realizing the body is below
it. I think I'm not the only one making that mistake, when I concentrate I aim
below the marker and immediately you see a little red cross indicating a hit.

[Art Blade]

I came across an game tester's article and the first lines already mentioned "lamentable micro transactions."

[nex]

In some way I don't have a problem with that Art, but should only be applicable
to players who don't want to w0#k their way up in the game.
Take the sniper rifle I'm using, It took me a long time to have it unlocked.
Other sniper rifles won't take down a chopper or blow up an enemy vehicle 
with one shot, and that is vital when the heat is on.
A lot of players don't want to do that, so they just spend money to purchase it.

[Art Blade]

ok.. I can live with that, too, IF you can achieve those items by working rather than paying for them. GTAV is no different.

[LowPolyOWG]

Well, the singleplayer portion don't ask you to throw money at it in GTA. I will find an EAC bypass and cheat my way through New Dawn

[Art Blade]

 

[fragger]

I never liked games where all you do is just shoot to kill or be killed

Same here. Once upon a time those were the only games in town, until Valve came along with the original Half-Life in 1998 and showed just what FPS games could be. The genre was getting pretty stale up until then (run through the level looking for the exit to take you to the next level while blasting anything that moved along the way, rinse and repeat. That's all there was to FPS games before Half-Life came along). Valve elevated the genre and it never looked back. They later lifted the bar again with Half-Life 2 in terms of quality voice-acting, characters, storyline and cohesive game world. It looked a million bucks at the time and still actually holds up very well graphically (and it had the best explosion sounds ever). They were very linear games, but all FPS games were then - open-world shooters were yet to be.

I was an avid fan of all the Far Cries, from the very first one up to and including #4, but then I got into Fallout 4. When Far Cry 5 came out, that ageing approach seemed so bland and sparse compared to the richness and sheer sandboxiness I'd found in FO4 that I didn't even bother looking at FC5. My average playthough of a Far Cry game would last somewhere between 50-100 hours (at a rough guess). The four (I think it's four) complete 'thrus I have done in FO4 add up to 16 months and well over 3,000 hours, with the playthroughs being utterly different from one another by dint of the game's open-ended design. And I am still discovering new places/things/characters. I'm also still hearing dialogue that I've never heard before, even from main "companion" characters.

What Far Cry game has over 1,200 unique, named characters, 111,000 lines of recorded dialogue, and over 300 explorable locations in it (i.e. separate from the main map, which itself is enormously explorable)? Those are just the locations that are marked on the map - there are many more that aren't and can only be found by exploring (found a new unmarked location in the city just yesterday) - and that's not including the Far Harbor and Nuka-World expansions. Throw in the huge Perk catalogue, with skills that have notable effects and enhance a wide array of different play styles, plus the range of weapon and armour modifications and the versatile barter system, and the Far Cry games fairly pale in comparison, imo. Like a hotdog stand compared to a smorgasbord As an open-world experience, FO4 leaves any FC game for dead, no contest.

Also - limitless saves, and save anywhere, anytime. No limited save slots, which I dislike immensely, and no checkpointing, which I absolutely HATE. No time constraints either. The game doesn't care how long you take to do anything. Well, except if a settlement comes under attack, but it gives you more than enough time to respond. You're like, "Yeah, okay, duly noted, I'll get around to that in a bit, just need to finish this first, lah de dah".

I doubt I'll ever play another Far Cry game unless they do something spectacularly fresh and original with the series - and drop that trippy drug/mythology nonsense that plagued #3 and #4 (dunno about #5, never got interested enough to play it).

If I sound like a FO4 fanatic, it's because I am It's just so much fun. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't think any other game has engaged as many OWG members for as long a time since FC2 (just look at the size of the FO4 topic, and it has continued on from the old site where it was already sizable).

Fallout 5? That may never happen now that Bethesda didn't so much shoot themselves in the foot with 76 as blew the whole foot clean off. Unless another company acquires the rights and does something good with it, the series may well die with 76. Damn shame.

[nex]

Although I've completed all the challenges and missions in GRW I'm still playing it
virtually every day, you can replay any of the missions.
The whole map is blacked out when you start the game except where you and your squad
are at that moment. The game's story line sort of lead you in a direction but you can do
any of the missions in your own time, the country is split up into provinces with a
couple of rally points, they are not safe houses because you can and will
be attacked at these rally points.
You can "activate" all the Provinces by simply fast travel from one rally point to another.
I did exactly that when I started my second playthrough. You know where to find your choice
of weaponry which is available to you at that stage of the game.
Every now and then the devs introduces a "add on" mission, you don't have to take it on
if you don't like it, thus far they introduced four missions, and every week they have
different challenges, these challenges are game missions but with with a twist.
I got used to the third person concept, it changes to first person when you're shooting.
I suppose I will play this game until a similar/suitable game comes along.   
A few days ago I purchased a new game recording software via Steam, I've always used FRAPS
from FC2 days but it only records in avi format which takes up a lot of space and if the settings
are wrong it slows down the game while recording. This new software records in mp4 format
and now I can record and post some clips here, so just shout when the clips get too much. 

[Art Blade]

those two posts were really nice to read, like a friendly PR campaign that allows some comparison. Both games sound good like that

Which recording software have you got, nex? I am using OBS which is free but I'm interested in what you've got and how it pans out for you. Never mind publishing tons of vids, I like to watch what fellow OWG members upload, I've watched yours from start to end and I think the same goes for other OWG members' vids

It's particularly fun if you manage to record something special, as opposed to just talking about it I don't hold back with recording and uploading my vids, either

[nex]

Thanks Art,
Steam had or still have the special in D3DGear game software
it has no effect on the game while recording.
I have OBS but it looks too complicated, D3DGear is as simple and
straight forward as fraps, and so far it's done well, you can even record your
desktop with it

[Art Blade]

thank you, I'll take a look

[Art Blade]

Heh, I purchased it (€25 on sale) because I kept hitting the limits of OBS, as in, demanding games cause stutter. You're right, no performance loss with this one, also the recordings are without stutter. Just the file size on best quality.. SWEET JESUS. I have already changed from "best" (skipping "better") to "good" quality using NVidia Hardware H.264 codec so that's still acceptable but file sizes are still remarkable. Well, I am recording at 1920x1080 res but I want it like that. Takes a bit longer to upload, then, but as long as it's a video and not a slide show, I'm good.

Thanks for the info, nex, now I can choose between OBS and this one

[Art Blade]

OK, "downgrading" from 60 fps capturing to 30 fps reduces the file size by about 1/3. Now we're talking.