CptPanda29

In terms of Hype I knew I was buying it the second it was announced, matter of factly. It's a done deal in my head so nothing else will get any attention unless it's delayed or something.

Representation wise Brit here - heritage and history of "my people" means nothing to me and much less in games. I've no idea what my genetic history is. My hometown alone has changed names a dozen times through history depending on if it was the Romans, Norse or Normans who was conquering it that week. I've zero cultural identity and that's absolutely fine with me.

In RDR for example I'm playing as John Marston, and through my uncle's love of westerns I've an idea of romanticised cowboys and gunslingers - but also a completely detached and objective view of the undeniable genocide of the native population. It's an interesting story with *slightly* more real life depictions of these characters as people, the Native friends of Dutch and the Professor seemed like ordinary people just doing a job without the lens of stereotype - in fact the only cliches I can remember were the Snake-oil salesman, Grave-robber and the few dozen Hicks you massacre all white but they're American stereotypes, white southern Americans. As a white Northerner from England (Winterfell from GoT pretty much) it means zero to me that some random whites are made to look slimy, scummy or stupid while some cowboy murderer is painted as a hero cause he's pretty quiet and polite normally and just wants to live quietly away from his crimes. I have no connection to any side. I'm just playing the story.

I played the first two reboot games to completion when new and got all their extras and everything, really enjoyed them.

I'm just bored playing Shadow. Currently sneaking through a camp of soldiers in Mexico (super early in the game) and there's a cascade of little things that are pulling me out of the game and draining any fun from it.

This stealthing is so dull now, and again I've not played the first two since new. How am I burned out on the first sequence? Small annoyances like not a single guard has made a sound after taking a pickaxe to the chest? Is it because they're trying to make it "realistic" when the kick the shit out of Lara with the environment, and then she just deletes soldiers like the Predator? Even still Lara herself is such a bore, her miserable line reads are flat as a fart. Maybe it's because I'm English myself I can hear how weirdly stage school (kids in early Potter movies) she is, but it's the same actress from the previous two right?

I have been playing the older ones knowing very well they're a totally different style of game, so in Legend she's quipping and talking to her support guys back in the mansion and in Anniversary she's on her own and happily platforms in silence - fighting the occasional dinosaur. The most glaring difference really is how you can actually see what you're doing - the stages are in daylight (so you don't rely on Survivor vision to ping everything as it's all blotted out in shadow) and while Legend is very linear, I was surprised at how open and prone to back tracking Anniversary was! It does really annoy me in Shadow when in the first stage you see "Requires Re-enforced Knife" when Lara is carrying two pickaxes a shotgun and an assault rifle and can't get through some boards without a special knife.

It's just now I've lost "immersion" I can't get back in. Everything has something that's a totally petty nitpick but they're constant and immediate.

It's an odd game cause I can't say I enjoyed it that much but I played it exclusivley all week until I finished it?

It's gorgeous to look at and Kratos seems like an actual person with emotions, but the game peaks super early with the Stranger fight and I was just waiting to get to the next part that good.

Totally agree with everyone on teasing Thor and Odin all game and seeing absolutley nothing of them. The whole reason Kratos hurries to leave the house is because Baldur was looking for info on Jotunheim. The final boss being Baldur round 2 (because I don't count the dragon QTE) is a real downer too.

It starts interesting ideas like different pantheons of gods interacting and being aware of / not liking each other, but like Odin and Thor - goes nowhere.

It looks real pretty and it's real nice to see Kratos as a potential human with associated feelings, but I found the combat to be a drag the whole way through. I bumped it down to easy for general fights and put it back to hard for bosses - you just can't reasonably fight for as long as hard takes and not get tagged by ranged attacks that warn you way too early or enemies to the left of you.

It peaks early with it's first real boss encounter (no spoils) a tightly made 1v1 against an interesting enemy. Once it goes back to regular enemies it's never that good again - having finished it hoping it would.

Checking back in after (REDACTED FIRST REAL BOSS ENCOUNTER) and I enjoyed the hell out of that fight. Still on the same difficulty as before and there was a lot more back-and-forth between me and the enemy.

Then back to regular enemies and it's almost unbearable. I'm sick of this stupid axe already and when these monsters start throwing projectiles the camera is nowhere near equiped for this.

Combining it behing halfway up Kratos' arse at all time, only giving direction indicators when they're fully offscreen and the indicators*-to-action time being way longer than it should (especially with how slow moving the projectiles are).

I've died to projectiles exclusivley. The strategy is to drop everything and rush them before they can get one out. Sidestepping didn't work as they turn on a dime and you have to watch them like a hawk as you can't see them casting for the enemies in your face - again with no indicators as the camera is pointing that way.


From seeing how awesome this combat can be on a tightly made one on one encounter with a enemy with character it's really bumming me out going back to these boring grey zombies. How much of the hours spent on this game is going to be grinding these power ranger puttys until the next boss? At the very least the old GoWs would swarm you with guys and you'd carve through them with fluid combos. The new combat DOES WORK for the personal encounters but I'm dying a slow death waiting for the next one churning through the rest of the game.

*near pink purple indicators for range with red for melee are you f*cking serious?

If the OP doesn't spoil anything and specifies (no spoliers) can we keep that going in the replies please?

I'm just up to the first Troll (I think, giant thing with a pillar) and I'm considering bumping the diff down (on 2nd highest) just because combat is taking ages.

I know it's a different direction and all that, but the parry is really generous and getting swarmed by enemies just means backing up until they're all in my FoV and waiting for a parry - getting everything in a juggle and pushing them into a wall.

My hits with this magic axe feel like they do nothing, I'm fishing for juggles on the fodder guys and I genuinley got bored fighting the Troll it took so long. I do wish I could move the camera back too, Kratos takes a step forward with every attack and this giant enemy's torso and arms are obscured. That means get a few hits, back up, wait to dodge it's swings and get a few more hits in.

I can be more agressive on the smaller guys but I can't react to something I can't see. This backing up playstyle and the pitiful chipping away at health will have me dropping the difficulty just to get through it before tedium sets in.

Please.

PLEASE.

Jeff's seat close-up on UPFs, Ranking of Fighters and the like is so god damn close. Please push this out a little, especially if cutting from the ultra wide and spaced out wideshot with heaps of headroom to the ultra tight close up on the chair it's so gosh dang claustrophobic. It's the opening shot of most streams and so intense.

Pausing every 5 or so seconds for half a second at least in what looks like buffering - on every video mode / quality setting (old player handled top quality flawlessly). Lowest quality on progressive left to think about it while making a sandwich to let it load has the exact same problem immediately and constantly. Premium videos totally unwatchable as they're only on this site with that player and have to rely on YouTube for content from the GB channel there.

Win 7, using Chrome.

*all adblockers disabled just in case