@shiftygism: I'm not sure about respawning enemies in the same exact areas (if an alarm is going off though, you'll almost always find freakers there). To me, it seems really random, and sometimes even buggy. One time I went into a cave, got myself one of the injectors, and then all of a sudden a horde appeared out of thin air all around me as I was heading out and I got killed. That happened once, but it was really stupid. Okay, I said there was only one glitch that happened in my previous post, but I guess that was the biggest one. That said, it only happened once. I feel like there are several 'behind the scenes' bugs that play out that aren't major, but you kind of get a feeling something is happening, especially pertaining to the enemy A.I.

I'm playing on hard and going up against any of the hordes just seem like suicide, so I'm really curious when the heck I'll be able to kill one of them, but I did best one horde, and that was because of a bug I believe. It was during an outpost side mission where I had to clear out some rippers. Luckily it was at night and some ripper propaganda was going off so everyone got killed as I hid in some brush as a horde came in, but after the horde killed everyone they ran right to the speaker, huddled up they just kept falling off the cliff next to the speaker, then running back to it. It just kept happening so all I had to do was throw a few grenades in and they died. I got real close to the horde too and they didn't do anything to me aside from the few that had to run back up.

Oh, and just to be clear, there are no parts in the game that'll have two nero injectors. There might be two trailers, but there is only one injector.

@awesomeusername: Yeah, A.I. is pretty dang bad. Most of the time if they're not looking at me, there is absolutely no harm in sprinting right up to them and sneak killing them. I didn't even need the upgrade to do it either. And at first I thought their dialogue was fine as they're trying to coax you out, but after a while, it becomes a bit repetitive. A lot of things like (and I'm paraphrasing) 'we have beer and hot food'. The one that was most unique was, and I think this is what she was implying, is that all the men in the group share her for having sex.

A female enemy says something like 'when was the last time you had some, a few of the men share, right boys?' And then yeah, the throwing of rocks and their responses. There are also missions where you have to sneak and listen in on conversations and when you're just sneaking around, the enemies say the same few things, like 'I wasn't even on the duty roster' and a guy says 'you complain too much'. Again, paraphrasing, but still it's a lot of repeats. It's not a huge issue though, but it'd be nice if they had a wider range of responses at least.

And yeah, you're still kind early in the story. As for the two camp leaders, they seem to be glorified quest givers rather than all that important. And their missions are dull. It's when you get to the third one that characters feel more important and it brought it characters that I like more. A lot of Deacon's dialogue comes off as murderous (but there seems to be a reason for it) and other times he sounds like he's out of breath or like he's trying to not breathe because the freakers stink, which I think sounds bad. I use range weaponry (although, not for the special, that's always the crossbow), but you have to use the slow down to get the most out of it.

@ntm: I just got off from playing a few hours after work and I’m really enjoying it more but like I said, lots of stuff hold it back. The AI are still dumb as hell. I got to the next area with the third camp and the new people are more interesting. I’m liking them more. I haven’t really paid attention to the random conversations but started to think I should before I got off because I wanna hear what people say about the freakers. I agree about The dialogue from the enemies that you have to sneak around are the same things over and over and it’s annoying, but yeah, it doesn’t really matter to me. Also, I agree with what you said to the other guy on your last post on the previous page. The weather is weird. It started snowing and literally a few moments later, it was sunny and all the snow just disappeared like it wasn’t there. Then I went to do the mission where you get meds from a place you shouldn’t be and it went from a full on snowstorm to pouring rain which made me say “what the fuck” out loud. The weather system is really cool but it’s so random. You could cycle from sunny to rainy to snow in less than a minute and it just takes me out. As for new bugs, in the town where you have to look for the girl again, the frame rate took a massive hit. It wasn’t to the point of unplayable but you could see the stutters. In that same town, I marked a freaker with my binoculars like 20 feet away, put them away and the freaker teleported right behind me. I ended up panic Melee killing it. Another thing was at the third camp when you join the chick to go get boozer, she was frozen in place when we were supposed to go get her bike so I had to reload the checkpoint. That second areas frame rate is just bad on all levels. Man, I REALLY wish they took another 3 months to polish the hell out of it because it would be a much more enjoyable game.

But on a positive note, as I said, I’m liking the people in the third camp better. I saw some new bike upgrades in that camp that I’m excited to get too. I got the third speed upgrade and now I’m just zooming down roads. It’s great. I also unlocked the third or fourth skill set for the focus(?) tree and it has a skill to carry more of everything so I’m going to grind for that ASAP. I also can’t wait to fight a big ass horde. I was clearing out a town of nests and had one more to go. Three were clumped together and I had a bit of a tough time taking out two because there were like 30 freakers on my ass. After I killed most of them, I started walking towards the last nest when I saw like 5 freakers running toward me and a horde of like 50 right behind them so I hauled ass back to my bike and left. It was terrifying! I can’t wait to have the power to kick their asses. Also, I read your post about how you said the HDR really changes how pretty the game is. I’ve thought the game looked pretty good but decided I’d turn the HDR to see what it’d look like. I don’t use HDR because it makes games look like an Amber or yellowish color so it’s weird. It’s also a pain to get it to turn on because I think only the first HDMI port supports it? I don’t know. But anyway, I got it to work, switched the output from automatic to 1080p, put rgb on full, loaded up my save real fast, and HOLY HELL. There was a HUGE difference with it on. I had saved in the third camp, loaded back in, and it was gorgeous. What was really weird though was that I started walking around and it looked like the game was running at a much higher frame rate which was baffling. It definitely wasn’t running like that before I turned the HDR on so I don’t know if maybe the game decided to run faster for some reason or if turning HDR on did something. I know I’m not going crazy and maybe the games frame rate will drop again when I play tomorrow night but who knows, I’ll update after I test it out.

@awesomeusername: HDR depends on TV as well. Yes, it only works with HDMI. How come you're using 1080p though (unless you're playing on the base PS4)? As for frame rate, HDR shouldn't affect it. I think the game is variable, so there's a good chance you'll not run into slowdown for a time, and then all of a sudden you'll get some slowdown after a while. The stutter is worse in the second half, but it's not terrible. It's just that people were reporting slowdown and I was pleasantly surprised to not get any of it early on, but then once you reach the new area (even after the latest patches) it was happening. It's not really hurting the experience in a huge way, though hopefully, they keep the patches coming. HDR is done well in the game I think, but what I was saying is that (despite not usually doing it in most games) if you turn HDR off, then using the brightness calibration in the options menu (which will show you a mongrel), you'll want to turn the brightness down or up until you care barely, or just see the mongrel.

After that, turn the HDR back on and I think it'll look more realistic. With the default, which is set to five, I thought areas looked much too bright. You wouldn't walk into a building in the middle of the night and see much, so the default didn't really work for me. As I've also said, I further calibrated my TV, so originally I had it set to three, but now it's at two. Again, I have to assume those that are better versed in HDR might push against doing what I did, but it's just what I prefer I guess. Lastly, I don't know what TV you have, but if you've never done it, check out RTINGS for TV calibrations. Maybe it'll help with your HDR. You might have your TV settings incorrect which make HDR not look good or natural. It could also just be the way your TV does HDR or even personal preference where you simply don't like it.

Oh, and it's worth noting that (and I'm not sure now considering there have been updates) the base PS4 runs a bit worse than the Pro, unfortunately. If you're using 1080p, I'm assuming you're on base PS4 as opposed to Pro. The base console has more frame rate stutter, dipping into the 20s while the Pro more or less runs at a steady 30fps, where there's just a bit of stuttering here and there. I'm on the Pro so that's why it's not a huge detractor.

Edit - About the dialogue from NPC's around camps, some of them are well voiced and heartfelt, but they're, like everything else, repeated again and again so after a while it's easy to roll your eyes at it. Also, it doesn't happen often, but sometimes radio conversations happen again which doesn't make any sense. Sometimes it'll happen if you die, or crash and get on the bike, which does make sense, but otherwise, it doesn't. Something else is that the areas of the map that have nests which you clear out, it doesn't matter if you've cleared them or not, if you're in the vicinity and leave that area at any point, Deacon will say something like 'ah, I'll come back to burn out the nests' which doesn't make sense. Then sometimes conversations mix in with things you're doing, so someone will radio you and Deacon will seem fine, but this is all the while you're killing enemies and all of a sudden after he stops talking to someone he sounds super angry as he retorts to the enemies. I feel like reiterating though because we're talking about a lot of the negatives the game has, but I am still enjoying it. If I were to rate the game with numbers, I probably put it somewhere in the high sevens or low eights. I also appreciate that even after hours upon hours of play there are still some surprises that occur. They're not big, and nothing really in terms of story, but surprises nonetheless.

@ntm: yeah I know it only works with HDMI. what I meant was I had it in hdmi 2 and it wouldn’t work so I had to switch to hdmi 1 so I think the first port only has HDR. It was more of a hassle to because I have my (brothers) PSVR connected so I had to fudge with the hdmi ports until i figured it out. I’ll try what you said with the brightness and stuff if I play it tonight and check out that site. I’m using a Samsung UN50MU6300 Ultra HD 4K tv and a base PS4. Doesn’t help that my PS4 is basically a launch model, got it 3 months after it launched so whenever I play a big game, it’s fans whirl up a tornado. I always thought about getting a Pro but I don’t play games enough anymore because I just don’t have the time so it would’ve been a waste of money.

The way dialogue plays is definitely something else. It repeats for me whenever I get into a fight. The overlap when you’re having a conversation and literally anything else happens is wild. I’ve had it happen when I’m talking over the radio and I spot a camp where he says the same “god damn thieves, rapists, and murderers huhhhhh, you’re gonna get it grrr” while the other person is talking and I get lost. Also the step 1 foot out of an infected area and his same dialogue about coming back to burn nests is tiresome. I do it by accident because I run around exploring and I’m just like I’m still burning dude shut up. A 7 out of 10 is the right number to put on it. Part of me wants to just stop playing and wait for more patches but I know if i do, I’ll end up just not playing it until the end of the year because I won’t be too interested in coming back.

I've played about 4 hours. It basically feels like a third person Dying Light The Following, with a motorcyle instead of a buggy. Quite a bit of Far Cry + Mad Max DNA in here as well for people who haven't played the Following. I like those types of games for the most part and definitely prefer third person games in general, so it's pretty decent? I'm really hoping the story elevates it though.

@awesomeusername: Alright, here's the link for your TV. It shows that your TV only has limited HDR capabilities and the effect isn't used the best it can be, unfortunately. You also can't get Dolby Vision (but that doesn't matter too much as not a lot of things use it). It's also interesting to note that whatever you're watching/playing, if you're doing DTS or Dolby passthrough, it won't automatically select it, so you have to manually set it. Do DTS if you're system takes it unless you're doing something else. Check out the settings tab.

I could be wrong, but I feel like I'm almost done with the game. I don't have a whole lot left to do in terms of stuff on its checklist, and the story keeps going in a direction that seems like it's wanting to tie up all loose ends. Oh, and while I won't speak to how challenging the hordes might still be (honestly, I don't think I'll kill any more of them), I decided to buy and just use a shotgun (one of the most powerful ones, though forget the name off the top of my head) and it makes the game super easy even on hard. I do very little sneaking, it's all about running up to enemies and dispatching them. The first thing I maxed out was stamina which was hours ago and I think I'm almost done maxing out the health. I'm level 20 I think; I didn't do any kind of farming or grinding.

@ntm: Thanks for the link! I’ll look into it but I took your advice and started messing with the settings. For some reason, one of the options it was on is warm which gives the tv this yellow tint so I put it on cool and it fixed. Also saw on that site that my TVs HDR isn’t great which is annoying because I bought it because it said it was 4K, had HDR, and was a Samsung. But I can’t be too mad. It’s still a really good looking tv. The first time my brother saw me playing a game on it, he said his tv looked nothing like mine so it obviously looks good. He just has a regular HD flatscreen. I’ll probably look into buying a better tv this year for Black Friday. On the subject of the game, I came into camp to turn a mission in so I have to speak to Rikki and it shows that she’s in her same spot but she’s invisible. So are all the vendors so I can’t even interact with anyone. I’m really starting to get annoyed at this point. Usually when games come out and are a mess, I never have the problems anyone else has. Examples being the fallout or any telltale games. Besides frame rate in games like those, it’s usually smooth sailing. This and AC Unity are the only two games to ever have so many bugs in it that actually ruins the experience for me.

Edit: even the person who opens the gate to the camp is invisible so I can’t even leave unless I exit to the other side! So I’m going to try to enter through the gate side. I wanna day I don’t know how Sony let them push this game out like this but I’m willing to bet my arm it was to have something out in the spring.

Edit 2: leaving from the side with no gate and entering from the side with the gate spawned everyone so I could turn in the mission and speak to vendors now. Wow.

@awesomeusername: Since money doesn't grow on trees for me (as it does for everyone else obviously, just kidding) I often try to go with the best budget stuff, so I went with the TCL 6 series. I like it a lot, it's just that the grey uniformity could be better, and while it's not a huge issue, the 'local contrast' could be a bit better. The TV produces what looks like almost pure blacks where the screen is meant to be black, but when you have a small icon on the screen, it produces more light than some of the better TV's out there can do. I think when you look to buy TV's, obviously look on Google and stuff, but the site I showed you, RTINGS is often reliable for what's best to purchase. If you have the money, go for the LG B8 as it's still currently the best TV. I didn't buy it because, well it costs more than I want to spend on a TV and I don't like the possibility of burn-in which the OLED has, even if it's a small chance. You can just check RTINGS for TV recommendations; I think they're trustworthy.

As for the warm, cool, normal setting on TV's, warm is generally the 'correct' one in that it's what movies are meant to be watched in, but you can change it if it's not what you prefer. Something that often changes the temperature of the TV is whether you have your TV set to the ideal 'movie' setting, which is also warmer than others. It wasn't until I bought the TCL 6 that I started using warm, and I like it a lot more now. It's an acquired taste if you will if you're used to other settings from previous TV's, but does produce a more realistic picture more often than not I think. 'Cool' is much too blue to me, so I would only do 'normal' or 'warm'. Anyways, sorry for going on about TV's so much here. I do recommend checking out their calibration page for your TV though and going from there. And I always say it when I mention RTINGS, but if you have a Facebook account, you can ask them questions about TV's and your TV's settings and they'll answer back within a day.

Finally to the game. Sorry that you're having that many bugs, I haven't had any real issues like that. I have seen a guy with no body though; his head was just floating in one place. I've also killed some dudes and it was as if one of the guys was a ghostly apparition. Again, it was only a head but it looked like a ghost basically. To be totally honest, a lot of the 'great' games this year I've been pretty disappointed in, and while this isn't a really great game in most ways, I'm kind of debating whether it's my favorite of the year so far. I've enjoyed it enough. That said, it does have the issues, so it's by no means the 'best' game and I'm already thinking that once I hit the credits, I'll have seen what I wanted to and just move on to something else. The thing sticking with me most is probably just some of the character moments. I like the characters. The game isn't as well presented as most Sony first party games and has issues aside from that, but again, I've enjoyed it. I hope they get a chance to make a sequel that's better in every way (maybe having it take place in my home state of WA as Deacon keeps saying 'we're heading north' and Deacon's wife is from Seattle).

Oh, fuck... I thought I was almost done with this game, but I just got to a point that pretty much seems to refute that. This game is bigger than I thought it was going to be and the map is big. I mean, it's weird though because, for many of the main story stuff, the percentage is the high 80s and mid-90s, while some are 100 percent. I thought I was halfway through the game hours ago, now I feel like I'm only about 55 to 65 percent the way through. It also does that Red Dead Redemption thing again.

It's like, 'Oh, you thought you were almost done? Nope, now you're in the third act.' Also, I haven't read/seen all the reviews for this game, but they all (as far as I've seen) did a really good job at keeping how big the game is a secret. I won't go into detail about it, but I am very surprised. That said, I just got to where I'm at so it could turn into one of those 'oh, never mind' moments where it's not actually that time consuming to reach the end from here.

I make it sound like it sucks that it's going on further, but no, not really, I'm just a bit shocked about it as I honestly expected to finish it this morning so I can move onto other things. I think it's kind of cool.

Edit - Okay, so I've put two hours into it now (though, not much progress made it feels mind you in terms of gameplay [a lot of story though I guess]) and yeah, the game definitely has more. And yet again, at least in my opinion, the game gets even better. The game has more varied environments which I like a lot, and it has a varied cast of characters. Dang, in thinking that I was nearing the end, as I tend to do with most games I pretty much hurry through it to finish it off, but now I feel like I need to 'rev' down and take it slower.

It's really making me wish that you could save anywhere as opposed to having to be near your bike to save it; that kind of stinks. I feel like, at the pace I'm going, I might finish it in the middle of the week? There is a point in this that I actually felt something, where I physically noticed it. Or, I was engrossed in it more than I have been. Brought more drama and more humor into it. I think some people will get the same reaction as me, but I can see some others just getting fed up with it.

I'm also enjoying the gameplay slightly more and feel like there's a bit more to work toward in terms of weaponry. As I've already said, the gameplay (and I'm on hard) is really easy for the most part. I am still lugging around the crowdbreaker shotgun and it's all up in the face shooting; not a whole lot of cover to cover or bush stealth gameplay necessary. The upgrades are helpful for sure.

Best mission I've done so far was clearing out the Rippers in town, finding the girl and trying to get her back to camp. Taking down that you-know-what was easy, but still pretty fun. Hate that they do away with fuel loss and durability during the escort part though.

@ntm: thanks a lot. I’m not a genius when it comes to tech settings but I tried what it said on the link but ultimately favored the settings I had it on so kept it that way. That LG B8 tv is gorgeous but I in no way have that much funds to drop on a tv.

Onto the game, I played for like 6-7 hours last night and have been playing today for like 5-6. Things really open up once you get a lot Of skills. I’m level 22 right now and unlocked most of the survival skills, and about half for the other two trees. I’ve been running around with the MWS, SMP9, and MG45 (picked off a ripper). I unlocked the crowdbreaker but haven’t found a use for it yet really. It doesn’t Carry much ammo so I’m sort of worried about fighting a horde with it. The SMP9 is basically an Uzi and it is really good. More accurate than the MWS honestly. I can fight the horde in the old saw mill but I’m terrified too. If the horde you see in the cutscene going in there is how much there will be (this is also the place from Days Gone’s announcement gameplay), then that’s gonna be tough as hell. I don’t think I’m ready for it!

As for your other post, I’ve read a few reviews that said there are two points in the game where you think the game is done but it opens up even more stuff so I’m ready for it.

Lastly, the only other game I played this year is RE2 Remake and that’s a really damn good game. If the bugs weren’t such a hassle in Days Gone, I’d say I like it more than RE2.

Lastly lastly, a couple more bugs I ran into (because I want to remember) are when I killed a bear and as soon As it hit the ground, it disappeared. Once I hit the cutscene from the church, every cutscene from than has had the dialogue at least 3 seconds behind. Or ahead?? I can’t tell and it’s annoying. Last one is rare but odd, sometimes I find a melee weapon on the ground and for some odd reason, it shows that it’s a gun but the info (name, percent, actual item on the ground) show that it’s a bat or steel leg pipe thing. It doesn’t affect the game but just another bug.

@awesomeusername: In exploring, I've been to the sawmill with the horde hours before. I thought that cutscene was a little weird because it was showing me things I already knew. At the point I'm at, I think I can take on a horde just fine, although I haven't really tried yet. There was only one time when I think I eliminated one other one, but I don't know. Once you can craft more items and get better weaponry as well as have ammo on the back of your bike, it seems like a much easier task.

Also, the crowdbreaker is pretty good because it has enough ammo that even if you're not killing them in one shot if you're at a distance you won't necessarily feel like you're wasting ammo. Well, I guess when you upgrade your ammo. I've never run out of ammo for it and unlike earlier in the game, I am not being conservative with it anymore. Now, a lot of the time I think 'hmm, should I easily run up behind this dude and sneak kill him, or not give a damn and shoot him in the head from behind?' It almost stops mattering.

I've had some of those bugs too. The wrong icon for the pick up has only happened once though. As for your TV settings, it's up to you, but if it was me in your position, I'd test out RTINGS settings with a handful of other games as well as movies. Again, it's probably something you have to get used to (especially color temperature), but when you do, you won't want to turn back. When it comes to calibrating, the most important thing to do is to turn off all the 'enhanced' features, as well as have sharpness set to 0.

I don't know how much you're willing to spend on a TV, but the one I got might be a good price if you're willing to spend about 600 dollars. It's the best budget TV you can buy from all the research I've gone into before buying it. That said, if you upgrade, maybe my TV isn't going to be a big enough of an improvement to justify the upgrade. I don't know. I'm very happy with it, but I get the feeling that in a couple of years I may already want to upgrade. Both the TV and sound system since I'm currently using (and have been since Christmas 2016) the S4251w-B4 Vizio soundbar.

@shiftygism: In all story missions when you have to do something with someone else, the fuel loss is eliminated so you're free to follow them without losing anything.

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Edit - Oh, the game is actually full of more surprises than I expected. Most are not huge things, but it adds up. I'm mainly talking about different enemy types and as said (kind of) environments that come into play, but there is also some story stuff. At this point, I think one way or another, stories in these kinds of games are predictable, but that said I was still surprised at how some things turn out, even if it's not really original.

I mean, in what I'll call the first act, you kind of just assume that you know pretty much all that needs to be seen, and while the gameplay doesn't change that drastically as it's still all about clearing out bases and what have you, the things around do change a bit. The way you might go about taking out enemies, or what kind of enemies are in the fight change. Again, not too drastically, and not all the time, but it's enough that it surprises me is all.

So is days gone this years Mad Max game (reviewers hating it for being to generic) but the game is actually decent? Both have vehicles you can upgrade :D.

@soulcake: Yeah, kind of, though I like this game more than Mad Max. I couldn't finish Mad Max; it got too boring and repetitive and the story nor characters were that interesting. There's a lot more to like in Days Gone despite it too pretty much being repetitive and having its fair share of bugs (though, nothing too major for me personally, and it's a really good looking game aside). I really wish I wanted to get through Mad Max, but any of the times I tried starting it back up, I soon quit because it just wasn't doing it for me. I uncovered a lot of the map and did quite a lot in it (though, to my surprise not quite as much as I had thought in terms of side activities when I last played it, from what I remember). I do like parts of it though for sure.

@ntm: I mean I’m sure I can take on a horde. I’m just not ready mentally for it. It’s terrifying. I turned on the Nero camp next to the sawmill and there was still one speaker (hiding between some trees) that I didn’t see and it woke up the horde. I was able to kill like 20-30 of them before they swarmed me and I died. I’ve killed some smaller hordes but not one with like 100+. I’ll try out the crowdbreaker since the SMP9 is better then the MWS IMO. I almost have the carry more ammo perk unlocked so that’ll help a lot. My bike is also tricked out at this point which is now wag more fun to ride and I have the second annoying bag unlocked although honestly I haven’t even really used it. I’m now at the next area and I wasn’t expecting it because you couldn’t even scroll down there. I didn’t think it’d be another huge open area but I’m excited to take out more nests and start fighting hordes. I also ran into two more bugs but they actually made me laugh this time. One was what you saw. I was at Lost Lake and right across from Rikki, there was just this floating head with a floating cigarette that this head was smoking. The next one, I was doing a bounty for Rikki and in between fighting the bounty and his minions, one marauder just said “hey how you doing” and deacon responded but I don’t remember what he said. This is the kind of jank I could live with.

I’ll check out the settings but I might just end up leaving my tv on the ones I set. I like the look and honestly, I don’t play my PS4 enough anymore to want to mess around with it. I spent $550 on this tv and I think the most I’d spend is like $800. Anymore than that is just too much money. But I’ll just wait for the PS5 to upgrade my TV. Doesn’t really make sense to get a new one when the PS5 is right around the corner.

@soulcake: like NTM said, I liked Mad Max too but after about 15-20 hours, I kind of just realized I played enough of it and didn’t care about finishing it. This happened halfway through a race. I liked the driving in Mad Max when you were doing anything other than racing. So that’s when I just closed the game and deleted it. I got what I wanted out of it and didn’t feel like I needed to finish it. I played it a while after it came out on PS Plus so I didn’t experience any bugs if it had any (it’s avalanche though so I’m sure it was buggy as hell). Days Gone is a much better game and I enjoy the gameplay loop, even if it’s very repetitive. I would like it a whole lot more if it was optimized better but as it is, it’s a fun game once you Pass what feels like a 10 hour tutorial.

@awesomeusername: No, you won't have to use the ammo on your bike too much. And now, I forget what the guns name is, but for the horde or horde-like swarms of enemies, I use an LMG gun as my special. It kind of looks like a Tommy gun (it's right above the .50 BFG). The horde is still the most challenging part of the game only because it wastes so much ammo and potentially items if you want to use them (there's a useful attractor bomb. That said, it's not that challenging. I don't remember the last time I hid in any bushes; it's a lot of running around and easily dispatching enemies. It's just weird to me how easy it is considering I'm on hard. I also ran into a small bug that made me chuckle and say 'that's awesome'. I was just getting back to my bike after exploring and another biker was coming around a corner, I pick up my bike and as I stand it up the biker comes rushing and hitting mine, the only thing that happens is he flies way into the sky to never to be seen again as his bike flips over my own. There was no damage to my bike so I was merrily on my way. There was also one bug that's far southeast on the map (around a college I will say) where all the trees were low detail. It was like walking into Minecraft if you will. That was probably the worst, most immersion breaking one I've seen. Not only that, but it seemed to have a few artificial walls so you couldn't walk to certain places despite no object being in your way. That was probably the most, seemingly unfinished place I've seen in the game.

The game has grown on me a lot after my first semi-negative impressions with a couple of bugs. At one point 30 or so freakers spawned directly in front of me during a mission... scared the hell out of me. I've killed one horde (not the massive E3 demo one) and that was pretty exhilarating.

I've reached the 3rd camp. The motorcycle is definitely the star of the show for me. Lotta fun to drive around... upgraded it as much as I could from the get-go at the expense of getting better weapons. But that hasn't really mattered. I've been using an AK that an enemy dropped for like 90% of the game when stealth fails.

The story, though. Mmm not feeling it so far. Some things are kind of perplexing. Like before you reach the 3rd camp Deacon keeps talking about how the guy hates you and will kill you. But you get there and he already knows you are there somehow and welcomes you with open arms. I feel like I missed something? Also, whenever you are riding on your motorcycle with someone it bugs me sooo much how Deacon's voice actor yells every line like he is trying to speak over the motorcycle engine but the passenger apparently didn't get the memo and they just talk normally. It comes off as if he is yelling at them. Nit-picky I suppose.

@handlas: Yeah, that happens rarely though, at least it's up to the player and it only was noticeably funny to me that Deacon was yelling. I say funny because you can choose to stop your bike so the engine isn't loud and yet he's still yelling. Otherwise, it's down to sound design and voice direction, not necessarily voice work itself. That's when I thought about how more developers should really take into account the actions of the player. Maybe I'm incorrect, but I'm pretty sure Spider-Man did this, where they made it sound like Peter Parker/Spider-Man sounded different depending on whether you're swinging or standing still. He sounds like he's using his body to swing through the city as he's talking, or normal when simply walking/standing. You didn't really miss anything, it's just a part of the character though. You'll soon learn if you haven't already that the leader of the third camp is a pacifist. He isn't some murderer that wants to get revenge on anyone. I found it a bit weird too because they seem to more or less welcome anyone with open arms as long as they're there to help. The question really just was 'did I really have to sneak into this place?'

You have a point about nit-picking; to me, there is a lot to nit-pick about with this game, and one can argue that it adds up, but to me, the issues are largely negligible. Whether it be bugs (which is the main issues with the game in my opinion) or gameplay and story, it's not that huge of a problem I find. It's also kind of weird because the bugs are varied, some of which had only happened to me once. One bug I got was when I got a new skill point, and the text that tells you that you got the skill point wouldn't go away so it was blocking a large part of my view. Luckily I was about to quit though, so it wasn't a major problem. I generally don't like bugs that make me have to quit the game to fix it or one that makes me lose progress, and by and large, this game doesn't have many of them. Or, in my case, none of them.

I hardly used the AK and early on it seemed like a weak weapon that would just be a waste of ammo. And yep, the 30 or so freakers spawning happened to me, but just once. Where you're at in the story now is where I started enjoying it more; it's really the characters that I started liking. I will say though, there's a bit too much of 'you're part of our family now' talk going on. It's not those exact words, but people say it a few too many times. The third time I heard it I was rolling my eyes and shaking my head. I think Deacon is unique in that most games will have a seemingly murderous, bloodthirsty protagonist, but not show it through the story or dialogue, but with Deacon, he clearly wants to kill his foes and revels in it, even at one point complaining that he has to capture and not kill some. I know there are people that will hate that about him, but I kind of like him as a character and there hasn't ever been a time when I was like 'come on dude, don't be like that, we can go about this peacefully'. He shows high enough morals where it counts and wants to kill foes that probably should be killed.

@ntm: I played a few hours last night and bought the RPD (LMG). Didn’t use it because I went to bed after but it’s nice to have my own now instead of relying on looting enemies for it. I tried the crowdbreaker and that gun isn’t for me. It’s terrible against hordes because he has to pump it every two shots. I ended up switching to a gun that’s probably the one you talked about. It’s brown and has a drum of ammo. Can’t wait to try those out. I’ve taken out some hordes but nothing like the ones in the second map. Those have like up to 200. I fought two. Beat the first one but I almost shit myself when I saw how many started pouring out the cave. The second one is holed up in a cave with an injector. I tossed some grenades not thinking it’d be even more than the first horde I fought there and I was wrong. That was horrifying too. I ran far enough to run into a rager and I let the horde fight it (the bear did not win). I killed about half the horde and went back for the others but died by stepping close to my own trip mine (nice). Another bug I thought was good was when I was riding down to the island with an injector. Saw a biker on top of some boulders. The map showed him dead but he was just sitting on his bike frozen on a wheelie on a big ass Boulder. It was pretty good. I went to the bottom part where the college is but didn’t really explore. I just tried looking for a way in (couldn’t find it) and just left to clear out some nests nearby.

I’m enjoying the game a whole lot more now that I can pretty much go Mano a mano with freakers and thinking back, the bugs I’ve experienced, while a ton, weren’t too bad. There were 3 that really annoyed me but at least it didn’t crash my PS4 or delete my save. The only truly bad thing that I can’t get over is the frame rate. Kind of wish I waited for PS5 to play this but what can you do. Either way, I’ve been playing marathons of it when I can so I really like the game now.

@awesomeusername: Yeah, I don't use the crowdbreaker anymore (and you're right about it not being good for the horde, though at that point [and still, aside from a handful of main missions] the horde isn't a main goal of mine to tackle), and it was the RPD I was using earlier which is the one I forgot the name of, but am now using the BFG. I use the Chicago Chopper as the main gun as it's the best for hordes, and for sidearm I use the Eliminator. Yeah, as we've already discussed, there are a crazy amount of bugs in this game, and actually too many to count, but none of it has really ruined the experience for me. I too am marathoning it when I can, so (albeit with breaks as I get up to eat, or use the bathroom, etc.) last night, I put in almost twelve hours I think. I haven't done any sort of grinding or anything, but right now I'm level 40 and any of the skills I can get are skills that do not matter to me so I just plop the point anywhere now. I've already found all the nero checkpoints and cleared out all infestations and stuff. I get the feeling I'm really close to finishing the game because all the encampment jobs are done so no more 'Deacon, are you there, come in, I HAVE ANOTHER SIDE MISSION FOR YOU!'.

The only side stuff I need to do is take out hordes and some of the collectibles which I'll just do once I finish the game probably if I feel up to it. As for the college, and as in any game that won't allow you to get in (as I found myself in the same situation) there's a reason for it. I personally thought it was because it was going to be another base, but no. Plus, you may not get the glitch. I've been back to that place a few times after that and the badly textured trees never came up again. I think right now, the biggest time sink if I went for it is the countless amounts of hordes to take on, and it's kind of crazy, but there becomes more it seems. And again, they're the most (if only) challenging part in the game because of the waste of ammo and supplies. I don't find them scary (the only ones that are creepy are the screamers in my opinion), but it's challenging enough that my palms start to sweat when trying to craft items as they're right on my heels. I do think, despite all its issues, because of the characters and story (which itself has issues) as well as setting, it's probably my favorite game of the year so far. All the other ones, The Division 2, RE2, Metro: Exodus, etc. disappointed me in some way. Days Gone just does enough right in the aspects that I love about games which makes it perhaps my favorite so far.

Edit - Okay, 52 minutes after this post, I just finished the game.

I just beat it. It's a pretty lengthy game and I'm not sure how many people that play it will actually finish it depending on how much the issues bother or persist for them. It's already been said a bunch of times, but the game has countless, yet mostly minor bugs (to a degree that I'm not sure how Bend could even figure out how to eliminate all of them). The shooting and melee combat isn't great in my opinion but is adequate. I liked the characters and the Oregon setting was good. As for the ending, I won't go into detail, but I think some peoples reactions will be like 'Wait, really? Oh, come on.' because there are those that might want more of a depressing ending that has higher stakes to this type of story. To me, it was totally fine and while it doesn't necessarily say 'there's more to come' with a cliffhanger, I hope there is a sequel. I can see where a sequel might go since obviously, this is a world with different human factions and zombies.

The game actually answers some questions in terms of how things work that I didn't think it would, like a simple thing of why the hell a wolf can run as fast as my bike, or why no one is driving cars (although, that last one doesn't really have a good answer in my opinion). If I were to give it a numbered score, it would pretty much hit right on 8.0. Maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower. Or from a star perspective, four out of five stars. Honestly, the thing that annoyed me most in this game was the picking up of items when you kill a guy. I have the guns I want, but sometimes it's not easy to situate yourself in the best way to quickly pick up items off bodies as opposed to picking up their weapon and dropping the one you have equipped. Not only that, but once I dropped my weapon as I was atop one of the nero trailers, and it was gone. A pesky glitch made my gun disappear so I had to go back and select it at a shop (although, that was a mistake because there are lockers in the nero trailers). I would have liked the ability to automatically pick up items off dead bodies just by walking over them.

At this point, I think I'll keep going with it to finish off some of the side stuff. I probably won't take on all the hordes. I'm only 18 percent the way through that 'storyline', and there about 27 hordes left I have to take out, which I am not really looking forward to. Otherwise, when it comes to progress, I have six story missions that are one or two missions away from being complete.

Edit - Alright, editing an hour and a half later from originally posting. I've been done playing for about 40 minutes now. I don't think Days Gone is the main game I'll focus on now. I might keep the ball rolling with post-apocalyptic open world games that didn't get such reviews with Far Cry New Dawn. I wasn't going to buy Far Cry 5 myself but my brother got my other brother it so they could go through it on co-op when it came out, so I decided to beat it, and it turned out to be one my favorite Far Cry games, just behind Blood Dragon and Far Cry Instincts. I really do want to finish off the story that five brought (although that was decidedly somewhat of a weak aspect in the game) and see how Hope County has changed.

@ntm: I don’t know any of those guns besides the RPD. Are those in the militia camp? Also, what’s the highest loyalty level you’ve gotten for a camp. I was a couple dozen points away from hitting level 3 at Lost Lake but I made the dumb move of advancing the story to the point where I can’t go back. The only time I put in 12 or so hours was Sunday and I was exhausted for work Monday so I’m trying to not play passed midnight now. I think I’m like level 28 right now. I’m basically still in the beginning of the second act so I have a ways to go. I figured the college is an area that’ll open up eventually which is why I gave up. I wish the game would show you on the map where the hordes are because I would run to those places ASAP. It’s the most fun thing about the game imo. I would have to wait to finish the game to decide if it tops RE2 or not for me. I’ll probably be finished with the story by Sunday night.

@awesomeusername: The game will, at some point, show you where all the hordes are. And I only reached level 3 loyalty for the crater lake camp; it's not necessary to do any of the others. I didn't actually try to reach that level for it, I just did because it's the place I went back to most because of story purposes, so selling stuff there and doing a lot of missions there added up to level 3 loyalty. Yeah, the guns are sold at that crater lake camp. I don't know if I'll go back to Days Gone any time soon, but I left it on my PS4 just in case I change my mind. Off-topic, but I'm playing Far Cry New Dawn now like I said I would. Good game so far.

Finished the main story. It was (mostly) servicable, but not really anything special and I probably would've dropped it, if it hadn't been for the fact that I just focused on progressing it and did the bare minimum of side questing. There's a handful of side-stories left, but I don't really have any interest to see how those'll turn out, so I think I might be done with Days Gone. Recommend waiting for a price drop if you decide to pick it up one day.

@glots: I kind of agree with everything you said. I didn't regret getting it day one at full price, but I would also recommend people getting when it's cheaper: maybe around $29.99.

So I'm generally enjoying the game but I do have one pretty major complaint:

Why doesn't the game ever shut the fuck up? Every other second someone is calling me to badger me about a new job. When someone is playing a 60 hour open world game, many people don't want to keep the volume on the entire time. Personally, I like to keep something on in the background -- a podcast, music, a GB show, something like that, but this game never stops bothering me with empty dialogue. Look, if I'm playing story missions, it makes sense that there would be dialogue. And even outside of missions, if it was substantively interesting dialogue, then fine but most of the CONSTATE ENDLESS dialogue in this game amounts to: "Hey Deacon, come back to this town halfway across the map to pick up another job." What if, instead, they just put a goddamn mark on the map that says theres a new mission available? Pretty sure I would get the point. The constant badgering drives me crazy on the level of people who call me in real life and then leave me a voicemail just asking for me to call them back. Dude, I fucking saw your missed call. I don't need you to tell me to call you back. Stop wasting my time with your voicemails.

Digging the shit out of the game despite single digit frame drops, the story has really picked up, just finished the big Carlos/Ripper section. Also killed my first horde as a smaller one snuck up on me while I was dealing with a pack of Runners.

Reached the point where you're warned you'll lose access to the northern territories, so I'm finishing up any loose ends while I still can before I can come back later, would be nice if I can reach level three with all camps before I proceed though so I can buy all the weapons, I think I'm like within 7k trust of each. Shame bounties don't give you more.

I just started playing it a few days ago and like it quite a bit. It feels like TLAU, Red Dead, State of Decay, and a couple other games all mixed in one. The shooting feels imprecise but I'm guessing that was done on purpose and some of the skill unlocks will help. Due to the story being nothing special and not being the most original game it's a couple steps behind the big Sony exclusives, but I don't think there's a big gap between this and Horizon Zero Dawn in terms of quality.

@shiftygism: Going to be honest, as I've said already, but getting to level three with any of the areas aside from one of the two last camp areas (the one with the guns) is pointless.

Yeah. I had that issue and I've unlocked the aiming precision (think there is 2 for ranged weapons) and focus helps with that a lot. I can pick off headshots from pretty far now.

I think I'm at the end of the 3rd camp. Game sure is long; maybe because I'm doing every mission that pops up... I have to be at least 15 hours in. I think the game gets better and better as you go along.

I'm pretty much went from rather indifferent to really enjoying the game. Especially as you upgrade your motorcycle, it feels way more fun to drive and the characters in the 3rd camp have been way more interesting than anyone in the first two camps. I keep waiting to go to the other 2 since I hear there are better weapons there but I haven't been able to beat the sawmill horde yet. I ended up purchasing my first weapon; the SWAT machine gun to see if that helps. Then I got sidetracked on a Skizzo mission, though.

@ntm: Yeah, the new camps offer better stuff, but at the time I was running around trying to unlock some trophies and wing it against some hordes in an underpowered state. I actually managed to take out a pretty big one near where Sarah used to work, but got no completion notice. I never checked to see if it respawned, I hope I didn't glitch anything. It'll be the first thing I check once I get back up north, especially now that I've got some extra firepower in my inventory!

@shiftygism: Sometimes there are a bunch of freakers that seem like a horde, but it's really just a bunch of freakers. I say sometimes, but actually, it's only happened to me once where I thought I killed a horde, but it was just a bunch of them, which I think may be similar to your situation. That said, sometimes I believe a few zombies in a horde break off so you have to wander about finding the last few.

No, you'd have to be farther in than 15 hours if you're near the end of the third camp and have done all the side quests. More like into the 30s. The first part of the map with only the two camps is about 20 hours. The game is around 40 to 50 hours if you're doing all the side quests and main missions (not including the many hordes). It is lengthy for sure and if you're someone that has little time to play games, it's not one you'll see the end of any time soon. I wish the game had an in-game clock. I recommend you not try to complete the hordes before you move onto the newer areas and simply come back later. Once you get far in, it becomes clear that the hordes are late game encounters. Unfortunately, for me at least, it's a too little too late kind of thing and there are many of them so I definitely didn't take out all of them. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that the sawmill one is part of the story, so you should probably just wait.

@ntm: finally found the time to play and ended up playing all day Saturday to finish the game. I ended up doing all the hordes that got pointed out on the map but there are still More. I wish there was a way to get everything shown on the map because I still have a bunch of camps, NERO stuff, hordes, etc. to do. I would like to play more of it but that frame rate is just so so so bad on the base PS4. So I’m just going to wait it out for patches to finish the rest of the stuff you can do after the credits roll. I ended up getting loyalty maxed out for all the camps but the first militia just by taking out camps and hordes toward the end of the game. Using the giantbomb rating system, I’d give it a 3 out of 5. So many weird design choices and the bugs/frame rate really hold it back. Hopefully with a sequel, they can learn from their mistakes and how other games do things because a lot of things this game does is just baffling.

Side note: I thought Far Cry 5 was so bad I didn’t even finish it so I wouldn’t touch New Dawn with a 10 foot pole.

@awesomeusername: I liked Far Cry 5 a lot due to its setting and music with gameplay that's tried and true Far Cry just with some improvements here and there. Story and shooting could have been better. New Dawn wasn't great; it was okay. Days Gone is a game that I liked fine going through it, but once the credits hit it was more or less out of my mind. It does nothing special. Now that I've played all the games I've wanted to play from this year, I'm not sure which I'd consider my favorite. I would probably now say The Division 2 even though I was pretty disappointed in it. I'm continuing on with the end game black tusk missions and I'm enjoying it. They also added in the neutral lighting that the first game had and I like that a lot as it produces what I think is a more realistic atmosphere where night time is extremely dark, and you can only tell who's a foe by their lights until you see their health bar appear. It really bums me out that end game content is better than everything that preceded it and one simple update helped me appreciate the atmosphere more.

It's probable that I've played longer. I'm at the part where Rippers invade the camp which is why I thought it may be the end of that part.

Reason I tried to do the sawmill horde a couple of times (and lost badly) was because it is a mission for me right now. It, briefly, was the only mission I had so I drove to it. But the I got radioed a couple of other missions so I left after I couldn't get the job done. If I can wait when I'm more leveled up and have better weapons... I'll just do that. I don't have the piercing bullet perk where you can shoot through a bunch of enemies to do more damage; seems like that would help.

Edit: Alright, I was wrong about being at the end of the 3rd camp. I just killed Carlos... am I close to going to the 2 last camps?

I'm on a base PS4 and thankfully have only experienced one bug I can remember since starting the game with version 1.07. I was doing that bounty mission where the dude is hiding in the sawmill and he runs off but his marker pops up a good ways away on the map, all I had to do was leave the place and return and the event respawned.

Other than that it's just been terrible framerate drops on the bike which have gotten better with the latest patch, but it's still there, and probably will be. This game is just the Shadow of the Colossus for this generation of consoles it seems.

The game keeps getting better and better, did the missions at the college and Cloverdale last night, good stuff. The Col. though, is a terrible character. Poorly voiced, poorly written, and ideals that clash. Easily the worst aspect of the game beyond the framerate. He's so fucking cartoonish next to everyone else, it probably would've worked better if he had a preacher lackey to handle the sermons.

@shiftygism: It's good that you're not experiencing any bugs (or major ones that are noteworthy). I experienced many, many, many bugs, but almost every single one was small so it didn't really matter. I wouldn't really compare Shadow of the Colossus' frame rate to Days Gone; it's not that bad. In Shadow, it'd dip into the teens for long stretches of playtime. In Days Gone it mostly sticks to 30fps throughout unless you're on your bike going fast. That said, I played on Pro, but if Digital Foundry is anything to go by there isn't much difference between base and Pro when it comes to frame rate.

@handlas: Oh, hey I may have misspoken. The sawmill one isn't 'story' now that I remember. It's a side quest you pick up from Rikki right? I remember I actually picked that quest up when I went back later in the game. When I was heading off to the third area I was in a hurry because I thought I was almost finished with the game so there were a couple of things I didn't do (like that one side quest, and one N.E.R.O. outpost with the injection). Sorry for the misinformation. That said, my point still stands when it comes to just waiting until after you're upgraded some and have better weaponry. Get to level three of the camp with weapons (which will be hours from now), but it'll be easier to take on hordes for sure. I say it'll take hours, but compared to upgrading other places it doesn't take quite as long as you're doing story mission after story mission so the weapon area will allow you to get to three 'fast'. And yes, you're probably already in the next area if you just killed him if you read this after you've played it again.

Yeah, I think it's just a side mission for Rikki. It's a brown icon (not the yellow main story missions). Good to know I'm about to go to the next area, though. I quit after that story part and talking to Iron Mike. So I must of quit right before that.

I should've kept quiet about glitches because just now on a beer bottle salvage run I lost textures and buildings across a sizable area of the map. Loading saves wouldn't fix it, but a reboot did. On start up I was greeted with a patch notice. Version 1.09 with a size of 12.8GB! Patch notes claim this is the big performance fix update we were hoping for. Fingers crossed.

I picked this up and i am pleasantly surprised (frame drops aside) i feel invested in the story wich is a hard thing for me to get to invest in. Most video game storys don't have to much affect on me, so yeah digging it so far. But yeah those frame drops are brutal on a OG PS4, this was something if i worked at Sony i wouldn't ship it it's just to constant at just too much i would have being okay with loading screens if that would fix the issue, but every time you get eaten by a horde cause your frames dropped to much and your bike then crashed into the nearest lamppost woof, it really sucks.

I also like the Rep system they build in per camp and every camp has it's ideology which is neat from a Agricultural communist state to Second amendment Tin foil hat wearing guys you know people who would survive a Apocalypse... :D.

Anyone picking this up, be aware you'll be downloading like 30GB worth of patches, hope you got decent internet.

Hope I'm not too late but Days Gone is really good. Just make sure you are in a mood for a stealth game. The difficulty is fairly easy if you are familiar with the genre. EX) When situations get sticky there are usually ways out of them and the materials that are vital for basic functions aren't difficult to find. I was a little taken back as to how much hate this game got. Yes it didn't re-invent the gaming industry but it's in no way bad.

So the framerate is even worse now, dipping into the teens constantly while on foot....though I had been playing for over five hours so it may have been a memory issue. Still though...that ain't good. Beat it last night, got the secret ending cutscene, one skill point from platting and hopefully getting the plat theme from Sony...though they never sent me the one for Horizon. Got tons of stuff left to do afterwards, gonna clear out the map but not bother with the last 59 collectibles outside of the roadside plaques.

The game has been running completely fine for me after a couple bugs at the start. But once I got to the 2nd region it started tanking a lot. Every time I leave the camp it starts stuttering really bad. But whatever... still enjoying the game. I found these camps to be far more interesting then those first two; didn't seem like much going on in those

@handlas: The first two camps, with Copeland and... Eh, I'm not going to search for it and I'll be honest, I already forgot the others name. The woman... Anyways, they're little more than glorified side quest givers. They don't add much to the story after you leave their area of the map. It's Iron Mike and the Col. that is more story focused. Now I'm trying to remember her name and I don't want to look it up, ha ha. Oh, Ada Walker. No, I wouldn't have remembered it; had to look it up.

@ntm: Ada Tucker. Addy Walker is the vet at Big Mike's Camp. Walker...Tucker...I guess Bend was a fan of Cliffhanger?

@shiftygism: Oh jeez, you're right! You know, it's weird because the information you can get on the wikis is wrong. Like, Rikki Patil has a totally different name on one site I checked. I'm kind of confused now since I just rechecked the wiki to see if her name was there, and it is which is clearly what I read the first time. I'm not sure why I said Ada Walker. I'm dumb, ha ha. And interesting. I haven't seen Cliffhanger in a long time so there's no way I could have remember those names either, but yeah seems like it's a possibility.