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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 21:59 
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Grim... wrote:
I request that the jury recalls Batman:Arkham Asylum, which had some hideous conditions for review, using screenshots, mag covers, etc.

And, of course, was one of the best games of that generation.


The entire 360/PS3/Wii generation? Nah.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:03 
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Bamba wrote:
Saturnalian wrote:
Ubisoft says "We're being totally open with you about this. Everyone in the gaming press has non-disclosure orders that don't lapse until sometime after the game has released to the public."

So there you go, no reviews until the game has been released because they're scared of negative press and negative press is probably what they're going to get because it looks shit.


I'm confused, that's not what that article says and the bit you quoted isn't even in there any where? What it does say is, "reviewers will start playing the game along with everyone else when it’s released on March 8" which, to me, says simply that no one will be given a final copy of the game for review purposes before the public get their hands on it as is the norm. It's not an embargo, they can presumably post their reviews whenever they want, it's just that they'll need to spend some time actually playing the game before any worthwhile conclusions can be drawn. I mean obviously it's not great if you wanted to buy the game day one but wanted to know what it's like before plonking down the cash but I can kind of sort of understand it from Ubisoft's point of view if you assume the gameplay does genuinely rely on having a fully populated world to work with.

Unless you've got some other source of info about their reasons aside from that link?


Nah. Speculation, init. But, come on, the amount of pages it's been getting in magazines, the gaming press going off to events to play it and so on? What is so different to this and, say, Destiny, which managed to get reviewed on release without some developer saying "You can't review our game because you just won't get the experience, man." And how has it been playable at these events and during the beta? They couldn't provide a single server for press to play it online or something (Bear in mind I know nothing about servers and stuff)? There's no single player mode? You can't ever, ever, EVER play it offline? I mean, really? EVER? Is that what's so great about it?

I can't remember anyone anywhere saying the campaign was online only? Is it? Genuine question.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:07 
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Bamba wrote:
I'm confused, that's not what that article says and the bit you quoted isn't even in there any where? What it does say is, "reviewers will start playing the game along with everyone else when it’s released on March 8" which, to me, says simply that no one will be given a final copy of the game for review purposes before the public get their hands on it as is the norm.

That definitely means Ubisoft think it's shit, though. Otherwise why do this?


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:10 
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Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Bamba wrote:
I'm confused, that's not what that article says and the bit you quoted isn't even in there any where? What it does say is, "reviewers will start playing the game along with everyone else when it’s released on March 8" which, to me, says simply that no one will be given a final copy of the game for review purposes before the public get their hands on it as is the norm.

That definitely means Ubisoft think it's shit, though. Otherwise why do this?


Well the other possible option is that they do think you'll need fully populated servers to really see the game at it's best so are essentially forcing reviewers to comment from that point of view. I'm not saying that's actually the case and have honestly no idea if it's any cop or not, I'm just offering up an option. Really I was just reacting to Sat's post which said some stuff that wasn't actually backed up by the link he provided. It might well actually be shit. :shrug:


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:15 
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The timing couldn't be worse given the impending release date. I'd suggest that this is a measure by Ubisoft to get the most sales from a game that has largely had a tepid response from the gaming press.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:17 
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It does sound dodgy but on the other hand if they thought it really was utter dogshit that everyone was going to hate I can't imagine that they would have run an open beta for a weekend. To me it just seemed a bit dull but it's not really my sort of thing anyway so I had no strong feelings one way or the other.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:20 
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Saturnalian wrote:
Nah. Speculation, init. But, come on, the amount of pages it's been getting in magazines, the gaming press going off to events to play it and so on? What is so different to this and, say, Destiny, which managed to get reviewed on release without some developer saying "You can't review our game because you just won't get the experience, man." And how has it been playable at these events and during the beta? They couldn't provide a single server for press to play it online or something (Bear in mind I know nothing about servers and stuff)? There's no single player mode? You can't ever, ever, EVER play it offline? I mean, really? EVER? Is that what's so great about it?

I can't remember anyone anywhere saying the campaign was online only? Is it? Genuine question.


It's a MMORPG, of course it's online only. Your pretty relevant comparison there of Destiny is also online only, I'm not sure why you expected any different here? That's the reason I've been paying very little attention to it from pretty much right after the initial reveal videos because it's basically not for me.

As to the rest of your chat there, I doubt anyone's claiming that it couldn't be played on smaller press-only servers or anything (I certainly haven't said that) but obviously they don't want those to be the review conditions. Which could obviously be because it's pish and they want to delay that message getting out, but I don't think we can claim that as a fact at this point. Certainly your claims of a review embargo are untrue; you can't(/don't need to) put an embargo on a review of something which isn't actually available.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:23 
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markg wrote:
It does sound dodgy but on the other hand if they thought it really was utter dogshit that everyone was going to hate I can't imagine that they would have run an open beta for a weekend. To me it just seemed a bit dull but it's not really my sort of thing anyway so I had no strong feelings one way or the other.


Nah, running a beta is pretty much a requirement for any massively online game these days. If you don't run one all you're really inviting is that your game gets a savaging when it collapses under the weight of the full player base right at the start. If that happens you're in trouble no matter how good your game is and if it's already potentially a bit crap then you're pretty much totally fucked at that point.

tl;dr: running a beta of an MMO game is an indication of nothing except your desire for your game not to instantly fall over.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:28 
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It couldn't care less if it pretends to be a MightMorphinewhatevs, it apparently has a campaign and can be played single player.

Magnus Jenson, the creative Director said in January 2016

Quote:
It’s a great single-player game, period.


So if it's that great, let the reviewers review.

Sauce: http://wccftech.com/division-gameplay-s ... solo-play/


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:34 
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Single player doesn't mean offline in this case. And even if it did it would be like reviewing Cod by playing only the campaign.

http://www.onlysp.com/the-division-can- ... -seamless/


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:42 
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Quote:
While The Division may be more of a multiplayer centric title, it seems that Ubisoft Massive are taking into account players who want to play the game alone, or may not have the option to play the game online.


Funny, because that last sentence of your article certainly suggests offline.

And you're talking like the multiplayer will be a completely different aspect of the game, like CoD, whereas the multiplayer is integrated into the campaign experience, like Destiny.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 22:49 
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“there won’t be any offline support” seems pretty unambiguous to me but whatever. And if the multiplayer is integrated then how is the single player even really a single player at all? And wasn't I the one that said it's like Destiny so aren't you agreeing with me by also making the comparison yourself? And doesn't that mean having a fully populated world could genuinely be considered a necessity for a fair appraisal of the game? And do you actually know what we're arguing about any more? And why do I have a massive feeling of deva vu as I tap these sentences out?


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 23:05 
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Bamba wrote:
“there won’t be any offline support” seems pretty unambiguous to me but whatever. And if the multiplayer is integrated then how is the single player even really a single player at all? And wasn't I the one that said it's like Destiny so aren't you agreeing with me by also making the comparison yourself? And doesn't that mean having a fully populated world could genuinely be considered a necessity for a fair appraisal of the game? And do you actually know what we're arguing about any more? And why do I have a massive feeling of deva vu as I tap these sentences out?


Weird I completely missed the headline of that article and then missed the same sentence only three paragraphs down. That article was from 2014 anyway, so, it wasn't exactly up to date. Anyway, I'm watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine so I'm not exactly concentrating. Pimento is great and his flirting with Diaz was fan-tastic.

In reply to your questions:

1) as I understand it, there's two facets to the game - playing the campaign and the Dark Zone. The campaign has a linear mission structure, do missions, go here, go there and, if you want, take your mates along - co-op multiplayer. So you could do without the co-op and you're playing the campaign. So is that aspect truly a single player? Yes it is. Next the Dark Zone where you have the high loot and is basically you fighting for the best loot against humans - competitive shooter part. Is it truly single player when it's against actual people? Probably not. So why not add bots. Anyhoo.

2) No. I used Destiny as an example since the mechanics are similar.

3) No. Destiny was similar and they still managed to push out their reviews and give reviewers enough time to get through it. But, sure, you could say the same of any game with multiplayer content. So why don't the CoD's of the world and every other game with multiplayer content (eg most console games) hold back review copies until after release?

4) Something to do with Amiga Power not being given copies of Alien Breed 3D?

5) Something to do with Amiga Power not being given copies of Alien Breed 3D?


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 18:14 
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Queuing Simulator 2016

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:25 
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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:21 
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Lonewolves wrote:


i keep laughing about this... epople queing up in video game..

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 14:50 
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A friend of mine played this last night but he barged to the front.

Shameless.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 14:53 
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They apparently patched it out pretty quickly

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 13:08 
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Fastest selling Ubisoft game in history:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/0 ... Shotgun%29

Rock Paper Shotgun wrote:
Why did Tom Clancy graduate with honours from business school? Because his Division was good.

Which is both a terrible maths joke and a topical maths joke, because Tom Clancy’s The Division has sold more in its first 24 hours than any other Ubisoft game in history, according to the Ubisoft Blog.

The post also reports that “Total digital full game sales of The Division also set new, single-day company records across PC, Xbox One, PS4.”


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 13:10 
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I will probably pick this up when I've wrung everything out of Destiny. They seem too similar to play both concurrently.

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 16:42 
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Jim Sterling's review makes this sound pretty miserable, even more so if you try to play it on your own:

http://www.thejimquisition.com/2016/03/ ... on-review/


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:11 
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Nothing about the reviews has persuaded me on this one, and having watched a fair few gameplay videos my overarching impression is that the whole affair seems rather dull.

For starters it's missing one of the main appeals of MMO style games which is different classes, (melee, ranged, caster, pet class etc), in this everyone has a gun and you shoot at baddies with it. (Appalling bullet sponge enemies at that, at least with a mage lobbing fireballs at baddies there are no real-world metrics as to how many it should take to kill a Rumbling Elemental, so four or five seems quite reasonable. But with assault rifles and SMGs against human opponents all our instincts tell us that it shouldn't take two clips to take down one enemy with nothing more in the way of armour than a bag on his head.)

The XBox guys at work have been getting into it but it hasn't got an unequivocal thumbs-up from them yet, and the reaction from my PC owning chums has been less positive than that.

Also seems to be desperately lacking an endgame or any sort of 'dungeon equivalent' content, or raids, or different paths through the game, large zones to explore, and so on.

So yeah, deffo not persuaded with how it is at the moment. Oh yes, and many bugs and glitches, of course - because UbiSoft.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:42 
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The bullet sponge-y enemies is actually the part that puts me off the most. Just from watching videos the combat in general reminds me of Uncharted, especially the first game where the combat didn't really have a lot of 'weight' to it, and playing a whole game where that's like 90% of the experience would be horrible.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:26 
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Bamba wrote:
Just from watching videos the combat in general reminds me of Uncharted, especially the first game where the combat didn't really have a lot of 'weight' to it.


*perks up* ooh, does this get better in later Uncharteds then? Because I must say I got around halfway through the first one in the HD re-release and couldn't be bothered continuing for that exact reason (given there's so much emphasis on gun play)


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:49 
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Findus Fop wrote:
Bamba wrote:
Just from watching videos the combat in general reminds me of Uncharted, especially the first game where the combat didn't really have a lot of 'weight' to it.


*perks up* ooh, does this get better in later Uncharteds then? Because I must say I got around halfway through the first one in the HD re-release and couldn't be bothered continuing for that exact reason (given there's so much emphasis on gun play)


Yeah, it definitely gets better in the second game. I mean there are still issues with that aspect of the game to my mind, but with the improvements to the shooting and the generally higher production values for the sequels I enjoyed them both much more than the first game. It's certainly worth trying the second one to see what you think.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 13:31 
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Bamba wrote:
Findus Fop wrote:
Bamba wrote:
Just from watching videos the combat in general reminds me of Uncharted, especially the first game where the combat didn't really have a lot of 'weight' to it.


*perks up* ooh, does this get better in later Uncharteds then? Because I must say I got around halfway through the first one in the HD re-release and couldn't be bothered continuing for that exact reason (given there's so much emphasis on gun play)


Yeah, it definitely gets better in the second game. I mean there are still issues with that aspect of the game to my mind, but with the improvements to the shooting and the generally higher production values for the sequels I enjoyed them both much more than the first game. It's certainly worth trying the second one to see what you think.


Nice, cheers. Will persevere once I've finished Xcom and Talos Principle.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 13:34 
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I played Uncharted 1 after 2 and wondered why I bothered. The original felt tired compared to the awesome of the sequel.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 13:39 
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Anyway, regarding that review posted above, it is feels like the only negative review out there at the moment.

I did want to pick up on the comments about the kit you pick up, which does seem like all brown trousers, grey trousers, black trousers, brown trousers with a pocket and so on. I was never the type of person in, say, CoD to dress my character as a bleeding muppet in the skin of a multicoloured hedgehog but I appreciated that there was a wide selection of outfits to keep people interested in loot drops so it seems like a large misstep that TD's outfits seem so ... bland. I'd have thought that there would be a huge selection in a MMO-lite game so people could cosplay and all that junk people do.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 18:10 
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This has got itself a RECOMMENDED at Eurogamer, so falling short of ESSENTIAL but still, well, recommended.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016- ... ion-review

There are RUMBLINGS that we might give it a test-drive with our Saturday night crew, although it's quite a lot of cash to spend if it turns out to be a bit crap.

Also, uplay, shudder.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 18:17 
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I'm fancying this myself. The reviews are positive, and the stuff the reviews say are good appeals to me, and the stuff the reviews don't seem so positive about don't trouble me (e.g. it gets grindy after 40+ hours; I'm unlikely to play anything like that much.)

I might wait for some bug fixes to land, though. Seen some bad things.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:01 
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I'm firmly in the camp that while this looks excellent, it's not for me.

Tom Clancey is continuing in the tradition of putting his name on games that don't interest me.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:42 
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As he's been dead for almost three years I don't suppose he minds much.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:45 
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Good job he won't notice that I spelt his name wrong either.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:49 
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In that case I call shenanigans on this being called Tom Clancy's The Division.

It's like how you can still buy Bernard Matthews turkey escalopes, I saw them in Shoprite before, and yet he's dead so he clearly isn't making them so it's all LIES.

As for The Division, one of my PC spod chums who's bought the game is currently online and playing WoW (according to the sinister spying battle.net client), which doesn't exactly strike me as a ringing endorsement for the brand new MMO/RPG/SHOOTER thing he's just bought, considering he's had his WoW account for over ten years and it's at the arse end of its current expansion, and that's the game he's choosing to play, instead of The Division.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:51 
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TheVision wrote:
Good job he won't notice that I spelt his name wrong either.


I noticed and found it quite upsetting on Tom's behalf and that of his bereaved family.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:53 
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Hearthly wrote:
As for The Division, one of my PC spod chums who's bought the game is currently online and playing WoW (according to the sinister spying battle.net client), which doesn't exactly strike me as a ringing endorsement for the brand new MMO/RPG/SHOOTER thing he's just bought, considering he's had his WoW account for over ten years and it's at the arse end of its current expansion, and that's the game he's choosing to play, instead of The Division.

I've seen some breathtaking substitutions of anecdote for data in my time, but that really is something quite magical.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 20:57 
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I'm just working with what I've got, which isn't much.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 22:34 
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Hearthly wrote:
I'm just working with what I've got, which isn't much.

We know mate, we know.

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 22:35 
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Lonewolves wrote:
Hearthly wrote:
I'm just working with what I've got, which isn't much.

We know mate, we know.


:luv:


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:26 
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And somehow we've all just gone and bought the £69.99 GOLD EDITION off Steam with a view to enjoying multiplayer hijinks on Saturday.

Not sure what's happened there then....

Currently 62% though the 36GB download.

I shall report back as to it being GOOD or BAD or SOMEWHERE INBETWEEN.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:52 
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Hearthly wrote:
£69.99 GOLD EDITION


Man, you just never learn a lesson do you? If you turn up later on moaning about the DLC we should just ban you.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 16:41 
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EARLY IMPRESSIONS:

It looks fantastic and plays nicely enough, I'd call it a 'competent cover based shooter', but the gunplay is rather unsatisfying as the enemies are indeed dreadful bullet sponges, at the minute I'm running to an SMG clip per baddy which feels plain wrong. (Ammo is generous but I ran out of primary ammo at one point and had to switch to sidearm, at which point it became plain daft, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG am I even hitting them? Oh yes their health bars are going down a little bit.)

Mission structure is fairly standard stuff, run somewhere, kill the baddies, collect something, or mark some crates for extraction, run to the next objective, then go back to the safe house to turn the 'quests' in. Loot is dropping with decent regularity and it automatically puts it into the right 'slot' in your inventory screen, so just compare the numbers and put the thing on with bigger numbers.

Obviously I'm not far into the skill trees but you can see how it'll pan out with different character builds that should synergise nicely in multiplayer.

Audio design is fine but nothing is making my ears dance with delight either.

I must stress it is mega-pretty, definitely a 'next-gen' looking game rather than last gen with a few extra shinies.

Controls are intuitive enough, I'm playing with K+M but I'd imagine it all translates pretty well to a gamepad.

Thusfar it's been very po-faced, it seems to take itself dreadfully seriously and the dialogue is somewhat tedious, maybe it'll get more interesting.

Overall it feels like exactly what it is, a big-budget ZOMG TRIPLE AAAAAAAA GAME that's going to do everything competently and by the numbers to give it as broad an appeal as possible and tick as many boxes as it can to keep everyone pleasantly content but not exactly ecstatic either.

I should note that up to now I've been doing it all solo and not been struggling, the real point of us getting the game is for multiplayer shenanigans on Saturday, and maybe the game will shine more in that scenario.

So yeah, it's fine, I'm having fun with it - but it's not come out swinging and made me think 'WOAH THIS IS AWESOME!' like Borderlands 2 did, for example.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 16:44 
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I have a level of concern that I wouldn't be able to crash my way into a firefight in a bus. That's a feature that I tend to require in order for shenanigans.

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 17:09 
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Cras wrote:
I have a level of concern that I wouldn't be able to crash my way into a firefight in a bus. That's a feature that I tend to require in order for shenanigans.


I assume you can still steal a Titan, yes?

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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 22:12 
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Decent chunk more playtime and I'm rather starting to like this now.

Turns out that the trick with the BULLET SPONGE BADDIES is to get close to them, like, as close as you dare doing the 'cover hop' moves, and then opening up at close range, which affords you something approaching a reasonable kill-rate with your primary weapon.

I've also now heard a couple of attempts at humorous dialogue (which weren't very funny but at least represented an effort), been customising my character a little bit more, getting into the flow of the game and working the cover mechanics - it's not bad at all.

The nicest thing I can say about the UI is that it works and you can get to everything alright, but it's far from elegant or intuitive in many regards.

Me and the chaps are co-ordinating Saturday night's upcoming play via our WhatsApp group so I've already created an alt and played through to the first main hub which opens up a load of missions, you can do that in about 40 minutes if you crack on a bit - and it's there that we'll start our group play on Saturday. (I've already pressed on ahead with my other character, but as per back in the WoW days we'll always have varying numbers of characters that we play through the game with at our own rate and in our own time mostly solo, but we'll keep a set of characters all at the same level for our group play sessions.)

But yes, overall, not too shabby.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 0:12 
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Just put a three hour session in on this with the chaps, it's a really good multiplayer game.

Everything scales perfectly - more enemies, different tactics, they try and flank you, they use a greater variety of offensive abilities, you really need to work together as a team, talk about who's doing what, focus enemies, all that good stuff - and some of the bastards hit really hard.

We didn't have one outright death the whole session, but we did have to get a few revives in and quickly discuss tactics on the fly (we've been playing online as a group forever so we're pretty well tuned in to each other and are 'fairly good' at this sort of thing, so we genuinely welcome a game that's prepared to kick us about a bit if we get too gung ho, which this game does).

The instancing is very transparent, so when you go into your 'Base Of Operations' for example you can't see anyone else in your group, and even out in the alleged 'open world' it's just you and your group, so it's really not a traditional MMO in that sense. (There are a few proper 'group hubs' where you'll see all other players, but they're basically safe neutral zones unless you go out into the PvP Dark Zone, which we haven't done yet.)

Overall though, a really good game session, we didn't encounter any bugs or lag or any other gremlins, and the loot seems to work on a 'personal basis' so you can all loot the same things and get whatever was in there for you so no need to worry about pinching loot from your mates.

The only issue is maybe the standard MMO 'admin and busywork' that's required to sort through the haul from a mission, pick the best weapons/armour/mods/etc, junk/sell everything else, pick your talents and skills, and progress the story campaign with all the waffle and cutscenes, when all we really wanted to was to get out and start shooting the baddies up again - but that's more down to the genre than anything wrong with this game in particular.

We reached a natural cut-off point (completing the three main Base Of Operations missions and anything else we encountered on the way), and we'll just do all the admin stuff between now and our next session playing together. We've all got other chars on the go as well so we can get into the nitty-gritty of the skills and talents and what-not with them and then bring that experience back to our multiplayer sessions.

But yeah, overall, really good. Not a bad option at all for you folks who do BEEX gaming sessions IMO.

Decent single player game, great multiplayer game.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:40 
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Whilst this game isn't fantastic it is keeping me playing, it's very easy to log in and end up playing for a couple of hours, just working your way around the map mopping up the (very similar) missions.

The 'admin' side of things, constantly rifling through your backpack to compare stats on items and equip the best gear is a lot clunkier than how, for example, Borderlands 2 handled a similar system.

Plus you've got all the various vendors (weapons, gear, mods), and the crafting system as well which requires collecting bits of tat from around the world, or disassembling redundant weapons, gear and mods into bits of tat to make slightly better weapons, gear and mods.

You need to keep on top of this shit as well, if you're using a loadout that's a bit behind the curve for your level and the baddies you're facing, the bullet spongey-ness gets tiresome.

On the flip side of this, I crafted myself a nice marksman rifle and modded it out with complimentary additions, and I can reliably one-shot standard baddies with a headshot, which are easy to get thanks to the nifty scope I have on it.

The gunplay is fine, and as I'm unlocking more of my base the talent/skill system is coming more into play, lending each encounter a pleasant tactical edge. The various audio diaries and 'echo' things around the map are an interesting addition which I'm enjoying finding and listening to.

The writing in the game is generally fine but also wildly inconsistent, as Zero Punctuation makes reference to in his video.

Overall, it's fine, although I suspect it'll probably be better in a year after all the road-mapped DLC is in place. We've got another multiplayer session coming up tomorrow which I'm looking forward to.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... ion-Review


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:12 
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Hearthly wrote:
isn't fantastic...The gunplay is fine...The writing in the game is generally fine...Overall, it's fine


AAA gaming there ladies and gentlemen.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 18:19 
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Well I don't want to oversell it as it really isn't a ZOMG AWESOME game IMO, I think the reviewers who are pegging it as a solid 7/10 or 8/10 territory are calling it about right.

I don't think anyone would be horribly disappointed by it either, as long as you know it's very much a 'genre piece' and aside from the graphics doesn't really break any new ground.

Definitely gets a chunk better if you're teaming up with friends to take it on though.


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 Post subject: Re: Tom Clancy's The Division (PS4/XB1)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 18:21 
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Hearthly wrote:

Definitely gets a chunk better if you're teaming up with friends to take it on though.

So does basically very game, to be fair.


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