MGS5. Surprisingly enjoyable. I like messing around.
I tried Dragon's Dogma Online. The guides I found on Reddit were full of incorrect or vague information.
In actuality, the JP region/timecode thing isn't needed, just a VPN for launcher (and possibly for downloading the installer).
Once the launcher starts loading the update images/text, you can turn off the VPN.
Same goes for patching, you can disable the VPN as soon as it starts updating.
IIRC the game won't boot unless you have 4-6 gigs free space on its install drive at all times. Weirdness.
So... DDO is a lot more underwhelming that I imagined. It's basically a typical boring MMO now.
Makes me want to go play the original Dragon's Dogma.
Character creation is somewhat lacking here and there. Faces all end up looking similar.
There's a weird jaggy bump issue on the contours of the cheeks when viewed from 45 degree angle. No way to fix it.
For some reason, player names must be in English, but everything else is in JP. NPCs are in Katakana. Super bizarre.
Some of the hairstyles look like they were ported straight out of the PS3/XBox original game.
NPC lip sync is super bad, with gums flapping for a long while after audio ends.
There are weird clipping issues that I wouldn't expect from a current game.
For example, starting cloak clipping through legs, shield constantly clipping through hand, body, etc.
Weird animation here and there. NPCs in cutscenes kinda turn around like the first Biohazard/Resident Evil on PSX.
Oh, and there are tons and tons of cutscenes.
Get ready for lots and lots of enemy-stand-there-growling-at-screen and NPCs flapping gums. Zzz.
With GTX 970, game runs at 60fps most of the time, even at maximum? settings. Seems like there's still object fade in at average distance, even at maximum settings.
When out in the field looking far off into the distance, frame rate drops to 40 (maximum settings). Not bad, I guess.
Vegetation seems to be blowing heavily in the wind all the time. Dunno if that ever varies or not.
City is gigantic and always devoid of people. It's one of those games where the city is so pointlessly big that it has its own teleport system.
Lots of running back and forth. As the JP review on 4gamer states, it doesn't feel like the free exploration adventure that the first one was.
Dunno if I'm playing properly but flying enemies are a nightmare as melee.
Priest spells don't feel satisfying. Dunno about Sorcerer spells, because apparently that class needs to be unlocked later on.
They removed the ability to climb onto livestock and crawl all over them like a cockroach. I am disappoint.
I already don't want to play it anymore.
Edit: More reviews in. Even the higher scores are complaining about the same issues.
http://www.4gamer.net/games/289/G028...l#review_25571
http://www.4gamer.net/games/289/G028...l#review_25596
I didn't pay attention to the positives, but here's a quick list of general negative complaints:
- Pawn AI sucks
- GUI is a pain; designed for console
- Scratch rate is shit (5% rare)
- Craft not implemented, but materials fill bags/storage and cannot be sorted
- Stressful economics?
- Bag will get full in 30 minutes
- Very difficult to make a cute female
- Gradually becomes very monotonous repetition
- Real money cost is way too high
- Scenario sucks
- Huge environments, long distance to walk, big pain
- Boring compared to original game
- Graphics are a little outdated
- Enemies are always in the same place, game has almost no random
- No community or player search options, very difficult to register friends
- Quick PT system always ends up taking 10-20 minutes to match players
- Only 100 people in the entire huge world at once?
- Trash mobs boring
- Bosses are downed using the same pattern every time.
- Dungeons have no random, loot is exactly the same, dungeon patterns are always the same.
- Bosses just drop gold and mats, and crafting is boring so it's not satisfying at all.
It's true that the visuals somehow look worse than the previous game.
They also don't look as nice as TERA or BnS.
Edit2: Wow. Played it a little more and it's a lot worse than I imagined.
Granted, I didn't bother reading most of the tutorials (they're really obnoxious and jump in front of the screen all the time).
I'm not a fan of games that need to explain every single little mechanic to you in great detail.
I just want to jump into the game and figure it out for myself. GUI should be mostly self explanatory, not require a lecture. I think most people would agree with this.
I've tried Swordsman, Priest and Archer (Hunter) briefly. Archer seemed the most fun, but the controls are still kinda counterintuitive.
When you want to cast a specific arrow attack, you hit a combination of buttons to put you in that attack state, and you need to cancel it to use other arrow attacks.
For example, if I use charged arrow shot, it will just keep charging arrow shots one after another until I cancel out of charged arrow shot state.
Bow uses gunshot sounds for some reason. I'm not kidding. It literally uses a gunshot sound.
Hunter can use this weird jumpkick and standing kick that either pushes enemies back or makes the hunter bounce away. Feels very floaty and ridiculous.
Stamina is a pain up the ass and not fun at all. Yes, I get the concept of stamina is supposed to stop people spamming, but it's never fun for me.
I hated it in Skyward Sword, I hated it in Dragon's Dogma.
Archer reload bows is interesting, though. A bar appears and you must hit the key at the right time to replenish more arrows.
If you miss the timing, you get punished by a "duhhhhhhhh?" animation that leaves you vulnerable. Weird.
When you die, you get a weakened debuff that lasts for about 15 minutes. On top of being teleported all the way back into town. How archaic.
It seems everyone's storage is kept in a small box in the middle of town square. I don't think I've ever experienced that in a game before.
The music in general is boring and forgettable, and the battle music is especially annoying.
The town is really gigantic and there's almost never anybody in it. You have to run for about 1-3 minutes to get anywhere.
It's even more annoying because the areas in town are broken up into small sections - you enter gateways that fade out and load into other sections.
They are disjointed too. For example, you exit an area at the bottom of a giant stairway. When it loads, you're in the building at the end of that stairway..
Modern MMOs tend to be seamless. DDO is not. Even the original Dragon's Dogma didn't have broken-up town sections, although some small areas are separate.
There is a teleport, fairly deep inside town (you have to run through about 3 huge rooms from the exit).
Using it allows you to pick various areas to teleport to. Except, you have to pick them by name from a list. You can't pick them from the map.
And the map isn't full screen, it's a tiny map that slides too fast when you try to scroll through it.
That's not all. When you teleport within the hometown/castle, there is no effect. It fades in and out instantly. And you can't teleport back, you have to run all the way back.
If you want to teleport to nearby towns, it costs quite a bit of cash. Basically my entire savings up until that point. There's a fancy effect if you teleport between towns.
I hear that you have a limited number of revives unless you pay real money.
After the prologue and first NPC introduction quest, cutscenes do not have voices.
Super ultra lazy. Lighting in general is very generic and poor, like PSO2. But at least the textures are better.
Except, when you're running across the ridiculously huge and barren countryside, you can see tiled grass textures covering large areas.
It's obvious, too. Somewhat visible jaggies on the floor terrain.
At one point, I entered a building and the game took over my camera to show off an NPC. But I could still move. Never encountered that in this kind of game before.
Never have I seen so many horrible design issues in an MMO. The original game had some stupid issues, but this is far worse.
I expected Capcom to screw it up, but not this badly. It's vastly inferior to Dragon's Dogma, and maybe any other online MMO.
Of course, this is all just my opinion and personal experience. Well, except for stuff like the reviews all complaining about the same issues.
You're free to try the game yourself, so by all means please do so if you wish.
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