I've used free-aim in every Rockstar game and it's been a lot more fun than auto-aiming on to everything. Is there something different this time?
Why does Jeff recommend not using free-aim?
After watching the quicklook, the aim assistance looks like it assists a little too much and removes a lot of the difficulty from the game. Jeff was able to do the rampage by essentially holding down the left trigger and letting the game aim for him. I haven't played the game yet, but hopefully there's a slider to adjust how much assistance there is.
In the review he said it doesn't make much sense to use it. The shooting skill matters when free-aiming, but if you just auto target you don't have to worry because you'll be able to kill everything with little trouble.
I would guess that since you liked free-aim in the previous games you will like it here as well.
The only difference is that the weapon handling is really good and satisfying this time around, better than RDR and I really liked it there. Free aiming was pretty tough on horseback but Dead Eye made it manageable. Each to his own, I still like some interactive and skill based systems in games.
Also I'm calling shotgun of the year, that default thing is a beast. Imps and cacodemons beware.
Does anyone know if free aim will be required for online play? I remember this was the case with Max Payne 3, the soft-target lock was no an option. If the aim assist is not allowed it may be a good idea to use the free aim for single player to get used to it.
I think you could choose between both in Max Payne 3. You'd end up being matched with people who chose the same setting.
It takes a while to adjust because it's accelerated. I think more people would like it if it was static, like most games, instead.
Does anyone know if free aim will be required for online play? I remember this was the case with Max Payne 3, the soft-target lock was no an option. If the aim assist is not allowed it may be a good idea to use the free aim for single player to get used to it.
The online mode in red dead had an auto aim lobby and a manual aim lobby. Everyone went into the manual aim lobby because you could do some serious damage if you were good at shooting and dodging. I'm hoping the same system will be used for GTA5 or least make it manual aiming all the time.
The aiming has always been a point of concern for many in the GTA franchise. While some get used to it or, like you, can use free aiming to make up for the design the upgraded lock-in makes what has been kind of the weak point of the series in the past into a much more enjoyable task.
The lock on, for me personally, makes some of the shootouts or heavy combat sections much easier and less stressful.
The game will have been balanced with the lock-on targeting in mind. Playing with free aim is probably going to be prohibitively difficult because the number/type of enemies is designed for auto-aim.
On PC it would work because a mouse is so much more accurate, but on console, using an analogue stick to free-aim when the game is balanced for lock on targeting - that's just going to be frustrating.
Jeff enjoys playing in the optimal manner, that's why he recommends it. I think he has expressed such an option on several occasions.
Is there any sort of HUD-based indicator of where you're being shot in GTAV? I don't recall seeing one in the Quick Look. That would explain why the lock-on is so ridiculous, since it's the only quick manner to figure out where you're being shot.
Lock-on gunfighting may be the optimal manner to play, but man, it makes gunfights look sovery boring. That mayhem mission was a joke.
It still blows my mind that people play a shooter with aim assist. I just can't fathom the fun factor in almost absolutely removing the element of aiming your gun, and replacing it with directing the camera in an enemy's general direction and having the game lock on them.
I spent a full hour training and exercising my free aim in the shooting range as Franklin because I'm used to M+KB, and now I'm good enough at aiming in free aim. Feels really good to ace this rubber stick aiming, I feel I've accomplished something today.
So yeah free aim is pretty good, and this is coming from a controller hater :P
Because Jeff loves to streamline and automate as much of the gameplay experience as possible in most games.
I personally turn off auto-aim in these R* games cause it feels too cheap otherwise.
(A) He doesn't like the feel of the free aiming.
(B) He feels the character's low durability makes the inaccuracy/slow response of free aiming with a controller more of a hindrance and reduces his enjoyment of the game.
(C) Jeff hates fun.
(D) All of the above
Pick your favorite answer.
@dexterkid: Yeah, Jeff seems to take the path of least resistance (especially for review), as long as it isn't a difficulty level choice (he won't choose casual difficulty or anything). I feel like there have been countless times he's said something like "lots of variety in weapons, but I went with [the most OP one] for the back 50% of the game".
Well, I come to games for the stories and atmosphere as much as anything else, particularly third person games. It probably wouldn't come as a surprise to hear me say I thought GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption were the two best third person shooters of this generation prior to GTA5 because the settings for all their gunfights and the way the world reacted to those gunfights was just incredible, and remains so even outside of tightly controlled story missions during spontaneous rampages.
If the aiming is like Red Dead's, free-aim only adds a kind of challenge I don't care for. I want things to be hard because they're hard, not because I'm fighting touchy controls.
Beyond that, I don't particularly come to these kinds of games for their combat anyway. Ask me about a Tales game, on the other hand? Hard's the only way to go, you monster.
I'm going with free-aim for the first time on this game and to me it definitely feels better than on previous Rockstar games, maybe comparable to Uncharted or something. But yeah you do go down pretty fast, so it'll be interesting to see how the late-game goes, considering my novice shooting skills
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I've been switching between the 3 options they give you and I can't notice a difference between aim assist and standard GTA (or whatever it's called). I think the next time I get on I'm going to just turn auto assist off all together. The problem I have with it is it sticks to the wrong person and I end up having to drag over the crosshair anyways.
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I had no problem with free aim in Max Payne 3, and I was even using a controller. Not a mouse.
I hate auto-aiming. It's no fun. I also really hate that the camera centers behind the character automatically in the game. I feel like I always have to fight the controls to look around my character. It sucks and it should be an option to disable auto centering.
Since I "grew up" with M+K and have never really adjusted (or liked) aiming with a controller I'm all about the aim assist. When GTA V comes out on PC I'll play my "honorable criminal" playthru (no stealing, killing, etc. that isn't required by a mission - you wind up riding in a lot of cabs) without assist and use the controller when driving and M+K when on foot.
It seems to me, every time I watch a reviewer play a game, any game on consoles, they have auto-aim on, as if "the consoles have it, it's there to be used because... controllers aren't mouse an keyboard." I personally hate auto-aim, and very rarely have I used it, only to get through certain sections in a game I felt it may make it easier. I don't really ever think about auto-aim, the only thing is if it's there in the options menu, I'll turn it off. The last time I wanted to use auto-aim was in Red Dead Redemption when I was on a horse trying to shoot guys since it was easier to just snap to guys when aiming in, since you don't get an infinite amount of slow down to take aim.
If the game changed or the missions changed by failing them then I could see aiming mattering. But the shootout in this games are MEANINGLESS.
When I am dying in bed I won't look back and think, "I should have used free aim on GTA games...[gasp] {flatline}".
Lock-on makes the game feel too easy and it's already pretty easy.
It makes the game pretty boring in my opinion. Shootouts aren't fun at all when you just instantly lock on to everybody.
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I had no problem with free aim in Max Payne 3, and I was even using a controller. Not a mouse.
I did play Max Payne 3 with a mouse on the normal difficulty and it was pretty hard.
If there's any one thing that I really dislike about GTA V, it's the radio stations (no metal? Like, at all? What the fuck?). If there's one thing I dislike that actually matters, it's the aiming. I'm trying to decide if I'd rather get used to the super-touchy free aim controls or if I'd rather go the easy, unsatisfying route and stick with one of the tremendously overpowered lock on options.
Tomb Raider got aiming with a controller perfect. So did Sleeping Dogs. And Dead Space. All of them have third person shooting segments, like this one. And all of them nail the aiming with a controller. Why does Rockstar have to implement this floaty, weird bullcrap?
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I had no problem with free aim in Max Payne 3, and I was even using a controller. Not a mouse.
I did play Max Payne 3 with a mouse on the normal difficulty and it was pretty hard.
Really? I was playing on normal with a controller in free aim and didn't have any problems. Is the difficulty different on the console and PC versions?
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I had no problem with free aim in Max Payne 3, and I was even using a controller. Not a mouse.
I did play Max Payne 3 with a mouse on the normal difficulty and it was pretty hard.
Really? I was playing on normal with a controller in free aim and didn't have any problems. Is the difficulty different on the console and PC versions?
I don't know.
I think it has something to do with MP3 being the first Max Payne game I had ever played. I made liberal use of cover and hitting guys in the head from far away and little use of bullet time. When I mentioned this in a thread a long time ago, a lot of people told me that there were many opportunities to use bullet time effectively. I didn't really see them - to me, it seemed like most of these opportunities involved me landing on my ass in the middle of a bunch of angry bad guys.
This is what really bugged me about Max Payne 3. With aim-assist on, the game was a cake walk on normal difficulty. With free-aim on, it became apparent that the game was designed with aim-assist in mind and so I got slaughtered, and slaughtered and slaughtered to the point of total frustration.
I do find the aim assist in GTA V to be WAY too accurate, and it snaps way too quickly, but I think this is balanced by the super sharp AI and much more restrained health bar. Aiming might not be tough, but in general I find the shootouts to be satisfying and just-right in terms of difficulty. I might try free-aim tonight and see what it's like, but I imagine it will make things needlessly difficult
I had no problem with free aim in Max Payne 3, and I was even using a controller. Not a mouse.
I did play Max Payne 3 with a mouse on the normal difficulty and it was pretty hard.
Really? I was playing on normal with a controller in free aim and didn't have any problems. Is the difficulty different on the console and PC versions?
I don't know.
I think it has something to do with MP3 being the first Max Payne game I had ever played. I made liberal use of cover and hitting guys in the head from far away and little use of bullet time. When I mentioned this in a thread a long time ago, a lot of people told me that there were many opportunities to use bullet time effectively. I didn't really see them - to me, it seemed like most of these opportunities involved me landing on my ass in the middle of a bunch of angry bad guys.
All you needed to do was judge your jumps and land behind something, such as desk, a wall, trashcans, whatever. Do your shoot dodge and land behind cover.
I recently replayed it on hard with free aim and had a blast. Easily one of the best third person shooters ever.
Played through this, Red Dead, Max Payne and IV with free aim. It feels fine, or as fine as you'd expect with a controller. Rockstar really improved the gunplay this time around so it's hardly ever frustrating.
Free Aim is fantastic in this game. I almost always meet the headshot minimum for medaling on missions, and don't have too much trouble with it. The first mission that made me rethink my strategy in firefights was Trevor's first shootout, and now because of that I'm a much better player. I'm not the sort of person that is amazing with controllers, usually (any first person shooter I will much rather play on PC), so I'm not sitting here as an exceptionally talented person saying "I don't know why you all suck".
My only complaint is that the reticle, even on Complex, is really hard to track. I wish I could change its color or make it bolder.
I think the question is whether or not you like to lose.
Personally, I'm not having fun unless the threat of losing is.
Jeff said to keep free aiming on, and then later said he never lost a mission.That wouldn't be fun for me, but I think losing wouldn't have been fun for him. So, whatever. I'm just glad they include the option.
Real men use free aim.
As long as you ignore the fact all the lame ass mission check bronze/silver/gold bullshit is catered to the speed of it. Having checkboxes for you to try and speedrun missions in a linear way goes completely against the nature of how a GTA game should be played anyway.
I switched to free aim after reading this thread, and it's made the game even better. It almost adds an extra layer of gameplay and makes me feel so much more badass
Auto aim is absolutely devastating, with that right stick flick you can destroy dozens of duders in a horrifically short amount of time.
I use a mix of the two, depending on what I'm doing.
However...
The most important feature that they added to GTA this time around is that you can now have a slightly higher 'behind the car' camera view. Thanks Rockstar.
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