Hearing Jeff and Brad talk about comparisons with Blood Dragon and then seeing it again here, I wonder if Jeff has just straight up forgotten the Shangri-la missions from Far Cry 4. I wouldn't blame him as those were pretty damn forgettable, overall, but that seems to be more of the inspiration behind Primal than anything in Blood Dragon. The primitive weapons, the animal companions, etc. all originated there.
Also one of the biggest problems with those missions was the total lack of healing items, which combined with the number of enemies that had fast firing, hyper accurate bows, meant you were constantly dying if you didn't stay close to cover. Here they seem to have directly responded to that by letting you carry a ton of meat which lets you heal almost instantly, and none of the enemies seem to be able to shoot a bow worth a damn.
@pistol_palin: Yeah, as someone who never quite completely burned out on Witcher 3 and finished all the side quests (that I could find, anyways), even I've cooled on the game quite a bit since it came out. I keep meaning to go back and play through NG+, but every time I think about it I immediately lose all desire to do so.
The "core loop" as Brad likes to put it is just not that engaging, and especially people like Jeff who's played games his whole life, if that critical part of the equation doesn't click, it doesn't matter how many of the bells and whistles attached are amazing.
I'm a little disappointed that a lot of the gang hadn't played many on the games that were nominated. It made the arguments less pointed and more about convincing the others how much fun they had with a certain game, than hashing out their differences about the same game.
Not that it can be helped, I'm sure. It's been a busy year for most of them, especially Vinny, Jason, etc.
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