Ghost Recon Wildlands... Not Just Cause 3.

So i did participate in the Wildlands open beta this last weekend. The game ran well and apart from the usual issues one get with Ubisofts take on P2P servers. In short.. The solution does not really like stress tests. At all... 

Now the game it self is for all intents a more serious (but still as unrealistic) challenger to Just Cause and sadly it falls short. The game has a gorgeous open world and you really feel like you are in a fairly exotic (for a northerner like me) location. The world is open in as so far that you have a big chunk of map to faff about on and a scatter of missions for you to take on in any order you like. In short it is the usual bits and bolts. It is worth to say that the Co-Op functions... When they work.. Are really good and offer a nice group experience. 

So the story pretty much boils down to you and your group of ghosts taking down a drug cartel because they beat up a friend of your friend. There is no real grander picture in this, just some seriously black book shit. I am sure it gets deeper at the later point of the game but i would not expect a games version of Schindler's List. 

You are given a decent amount of customization of your character, from stern military man to something more akin to Jay and Silent Bob, together with a decent slew of weapons and drive-able vehicles both on land, sea and air. So you will be able to play the game pretty much the way you want... .. . As long as that includes shooting members of a drug cartel... No pacifist option here. Now with that said you can not just engage in some casual genocide... Each shot civilian does count and it can end your game. 

Now i did bring up Just Cause before and that is mostly because beyond gun physics the game has a similar wacky and often wonky grasp on how reality works. Cars act like drunk go-carts and the helicopters move like they are drones (most likely because they use the same system for both.) This is not a Battlefield game... Not do i think it strives for it. But in my mind it does the open world worse than Just Cause and if you can stand the silliness of JC3.. Get that and leave this to the crows. 

Oh by the way... The banter in this game is... It is something for it self.. The exact stereotypical  military bullshit steeped in hypermasculinity that one would expect from this sort of fantasy. The word cringe did cross my mind at times. 

In short.. This is not a bad game but there are better games than this in every category it can enter. But if you want a more serious Just Cause 3 with solid Co-Op. Pick this up. 

But i am going to give this a pass. 

Calling all units on the Crew

So I was planning to talk about this earlier but my driving  game of choice is getting a expansion. Last time it was crazy car meets, this time it is centered around the blue lightning, the fuzz, the 5-0, the bear... Yeah.. The cops are getting some well needed reinforcement from the players. Take to the road as one of the boys and girls in blue, busting racerns and issuing fines like there is no tomorrow.  I am not going to rehash the info we have so far, just read up about it on the homepage for the Crew. 

I am sort of underwhelmed, it is not the expansion i was hoping for, not is it really one I feel the game needs, But then again in know it is a popular feature with many other players and it is fairly optional so I guess I will live with it. Also it give mes a chance to turn my Nissan Fairlady Z in to Prowl, expanding my lineup of Transformers inspired cars. 

With this expansion we will also get the Nissan GTR, the lovely computer on four wheels. That will make a bunch of people happy, but since it is a expansion exclusive car... it will make people angry. Ubisoft gives and Ubisoft takes away I guess. 

Beyond that i am waiting for the next Overwatch hero and looking towards Blizzcon. I think Blizzcon is the closest i get get to actually having a annual event that I watch. My Superbowl experience so to speak. Not as much that I feel I have to go to it but to sit down and watch it. This year is a odd one and i look forward to see what they will show off. 

Short post this week. 

But take care and be safe. 

Dividing the Division

So I had the opportunity to take a look at Ubisofts now shooter franchise called the Division as they did a stress test this weekend. The game is a third person shooter, which is to say that the camera in the game is placed slightly above and behind the player character. So you will always see the world as a little drone flying behind your in-game avatar. Beyond that you pretty much just use a variety of guns and shoot at a variety of humans that for some reason seem to have a disagreement with you. You find new stuff and level up in classic role-playing fashion as you follow a set story. That is the short of it.

Now if one where to flesh things out a bit more one would start with talking about the story, what little we know about it. Basically some form of bio weapon goes off in New York on black Friday in a not too far future. As panic and pandemonium rise “the Division” springs in to action. A covert agency with sleeper agents formed in to small cells their mission is to secure the city and restore order by any means possible. You are one such agent. This is about all we know right now but as we get closer to the release I guess more info will be made available.

So you start out as a newly activated agent, given some basic equipment and told to secure a foothold on Manhattan. The stress test was limited to a small section around Chelsea Pier and up to Madison Square Garden. But the full game will include a slightly scaled down version of the island of Manhattan. Once you get the HQ up and running it will be your hub for missions, upgrades and all the cozy home improvement an agent could need. The game more or less have two modes. The first you encounter is a single player instance that let you and some of your friends work through the story. This thing is instanced and no random players will show up. The other part are what is called the Dark Zones. These areas have much higher levels of contamination and act as player against player areas as well as regular computer controlled opposition. Going in here ill-prepared will lead to a quick and merciless death. But this is also the place to get the best gear and other rewards.

Now as I mentioned the game takes place in Manhattan for now (no word on when or if other parts of New York will be added.) and this is not some random jumble of buildings with a few landmarks thrown in to sell the illusion. No this is sometimes an eerily close recreation of the areas in the beta. Sure we still see most work go I to the landmark areas and they are a picture perfect recreation. But the rest of the map seem to be close enough that you could use visual confirmation and google street view to navigate. The rest of the visuals are as impressive. The weather look good from the sunny days to the full on snowstorms that set your vision to about a few meters. Now my computer does not have the power needed to render this in it´s full glory but i´l provide a small clip here to show you what it might look like.

The game also has some really impressive AI that act much like a player would, trying to avoid your attacks and flank you. They also tend to look for better cover when you move on them and should you overpower them sometimes they turn tail and run. Another really impressive thing I how your bullet interacts with the many cars that are spread over the maps. I did at one point manage ti line up a shot through three cars and in to the tire of a truck, not only did the tire pop but I could trace the patch of the bullet through the windows of the cars. These small details does a lot to immerse you in the environment

Now it is hard to tell if the game will become repetitive and how well the story pans out but so far I have seen a good variety of side missions ranging from repairing antennas to tracking down a missing person. As far as gar goes the game so far have done a good job at making the guns and equipment not only feel useful hut also unique. There is a distinct difference between the m-4 and the ak-47 beyond the visuals. Same goes for the skills and gadgets you pick up along the way, they all have their use and promote one type of gameplay or another. This way your character plays different and customization goes more than skin deep.

Now that bring me to the skin you inhabit in the game. I did not play around very much with the physical editor to much as I was short on time but once in-game there is a slew of modern clothing to make your avatar stand out from all the other backpack tooting gun nuts trying to retake the city. These are cosmetic and have no impact on your stats so you never have to give up that awesome beanie you just found because that headband had +2 killing on it.

So to sum it up, the Division seems to be a solid game and while some cuts had to be done since the first reveal such as tablet controlled drone strikes and the slight downscaling of Manhattan it is massive step forward for games published by Ubisoft. So I simply tip my hat to Ubisoft Massive and wish them the best. 

Running Wild

This is the second in a series of posts that will happen in rapid succession before i settle back in to a more regular posting pattern. I hope you enjoy.

Today we will talk about a subject near and dear to me, namely the Crew. Back in November the game got it´s first major content injections with the Wild Run expansion. With this came three so called extreme specs in the form of Drag, Drift and Monster truck. It also featured a new event called the Summit. This is a set of PvP and PvE challenges themed around things such as a place on the map, a car brand or a nationality. The idea is to compete on a server wide leaderboard and win parts, extreme car kits crew credits or exclusive cars. It is set up in such a way that there are a series of qualifying events throughout the month leading up to each summit. Score at least an overall bronze medal in three qualifiers and you get to enter the summit. This is not hard any anyone one want to can get their medals.

The event has a set list of game modes but the tracks change from event to event. But there will always be one event each for the new extreme specs and two time attack races.  One is open to any car of the corresponding spec and the other is locked to a specific brand of car or bike. Yes bikes have come to the Crew and they use the regular specs such a street or dirt. Each event also have a crew and a regular PvP event. And don´t worry if you do not have a garage rivaling Jay Leno, the game lends you a car for any event that you lack a car for and the PvP event put all players in equally good cars to make things even.

So all in all the Wild Run have given the Crew players something to do once they reach max level. It is still the same game but now at least there is that element of competition that the old PvP system did not deliver. They have also made it easier to connect to a PvP game, something I complained about in my original review.

But all is not sunshine and puppies, a fair number of players who bought the gold edition or the season pass felt that the Wild Run expansion should have been included in the season pass and that the fact that there is now content locked behind a paywall is something unsightly in this day and age. There has also been complaints that the bikes and the drag spec make the game pay to win since a good player can use these to gain an advantage in some races(bikes) and decimate some skills challenges (drag and bike). While this does have merit there is no actual reward beyond recognition topping these things. The final thing that get under peoples skin is the ever current presence of cheaters, previously easy to avoid and with very little impact in the game at large. The new addition of a competitive leaderboard in combination with actual prices for to top players have had them coming out of the woodwork. Ubisoft claims to be working on the issue but only time will tell. For most people the impact is minimal and only the very top percent will ever really run the risk of losing anything from these “players”.

So to cap things off the Wild Run have injected a much needed purpose in to the Crew and with the promise of more varied qualifier tracks and challenges in combination with the continued effort to introduce more cars and ways to customize them the future looks really bright for this game. 

I run with The Crew again.

So as some people know the Crew from Ubisoft have been released and despite losing out on some sweet pre-order loot (who can say no to free cars in a car game) I did not do the whole dance and song of buying a game sight unseen. Especially as my experience during the beta was less than stellar in the driving department and lacked some serious online presence… Not very good thing for an online racing game… Add to that the whole embargo on reviews until the game was released and it was pretty much impossible for me to dip before.

But at its core the game was still fun and the PC beta was some good months before release. Much did happen. Especially the improvements to the early cars and how they handle. So I picked it up as my early Christmas gift to myself (ain´t being adult grand) and have sunk a few hours, getting myself up to level ten and finding my first hidden car. Now the game still lack a bunch in the online department and calling it a MMO is using the widest definition of the term as it is very limited in the amount of people you can see and interact with. It also have bugs… But what the fuck does not these days so I am not going to bother with that. If they are not fixed in a month I might consider climbing the barricade.

 

still very much carporn

Now most of what I said in my preview post  about The Crew still stands, the game is still very nice looking and the relaxed feeling of taking your favorite car on a cross country trip with no other goal then to drive is... relaxing and well perhaps not fun in the traditional sense but it give you a sense of freedom that few other racing games do. It is also very fun in its blatant disregard for realism and well often laws of physics. Taking your car and parking it at the top of Pikes Peak… Taking in the scenery… And then put the pedal to the medal down the Cliffside with no other goal then to see how fast you get to the bottom if liberating. The music range from great to passable depending on your taste in music buuut on does miss the talk shows from the GTA series. A minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things.

Now the game is not without flaws, the controls are still a bit squirrely and it is easy to overcorrect. Also this game is a console port… Do not event think of trying to play the game without at least a controller. It is simply not doable in my opinion. The content is also a problem, as varied as it is both in task and difficulty… It gets old fast. Now this is not much the games fault, it is a competent arcade racer and had it not tried to be something more I would not even bring it up here. But with the overarching goal of being a MMO of some type it would have needed something more, maybe some more wacky or instanced “cinematic“ sets?

Then it is the “story”… The legacy the games carry from more traditional racers. Not only are we hard locked in to the whitest dude since sliced toast. Thik what would happen if Freeman from Half-Life had a lovechild with Walter White from Breaking Bad… Now feed that child a steady diet of the Fast n Furious… Presto… It is so predictable I expect Michelle Rodrigues to pop up and try to screw me over. But I guess it does a passable to job to explain what could have been done with a normal tutorial. This does sort of lead me to the in my mind biggest flaw.

Customization.

Not only can you not change who you “are”… Because no matter how muc I like to I am not going to see myself as a car… I leave the up to Pixar.  But the car itself seriously lack in the customization department. Certain looks are tied to the games “class” system and other are simply not there for one arbitrary reason or other such as some paints and decals. For a game that says the car will be a reflection of me… They lock a good amount behind weird walls, I can understand that my dune racer need beefier suspension and wheels… but why not let me go a bit crazy with what I put on it...? The cynic in me say that it is because they need to put something in the cash shop.

Now one nice thing was that if one have 100 UPlay points you get a free Dodge Viper... that unlike 99% of Dodge Vipers in games do not suck. It is actually really fun. But the down side is ofc that you need UPlay to play the game. Ubisofts own little game platform still need some love and is not the most efficient snippet of code. But it is getting better.

So to sum things up. Ubisoft do have a really good core with The Crew but now it is up to task if they manages to keep the game updated on a regular basis and can keep the content flowing. If not this will be a very sad and short-lived attempt by Ubisoft to muscle in on the online scene.

What makes a good villain?

A asthmatic body-builder.

The Joker, Bane, Ra´s Al Ghul, Vaas and Pagan Min. What indeed make a good villain? That is a question that I guess has as many answers as it has people asking it, and while I do not claim to speak for everyone I am going to give my thoughts upon the subject. This is of course linked to the current crop of super hero tv series and movies that we have been graced with lately. Especially as a good villain can save a bad story and wise versa… Nolan-Bane… I am looking at you…

Actually let us start there. In the comics Bane is the perfect specimen intelligent, loyal, and with a strong moral code. But unhindered by conventional morals and without any real ties to other people. Add to this a most of the time hyper stimulated body with enough power to punch through brick walls.  It is easy to see why Bane is a serious threat for most of the DC hero gallery. So how this man-monster keep getting casted as a fairly stupid henchman I do not know. Now I will admit that Nolan-Bane fair better than the Batman and Robin version… That one was… Special…

Would the real Bane please stand up...

But that is the way I like my villains, smart and ruthless. Preferably with a slight sprinkle of crazy. Nothing in my mind is as scary as a villain that you do not know what he or she will do. The Joker from DC or to a lesser degree Norman Osborne Green Goblin really well capsulate this. Especially the Joker is a brilliant but very deranged mind. Completely unbound by the rules and laws of modern society he is more akin to a force of nature. Now the Joker unlike poor Bane have had two really good live action representations and a down right brilliant for the most time representation by the way of Bruce Timm´s Batman and Justice League cartoons.

Anyway, as I said I need my villains smart, but that of course poses a problem, the story for most part dictates that they do something really stupid in order for the hero to win. Monologueing, overly elaborate deathtraps, refusing to flat out kill the hero and so on and so forth. Now things like that works for the more crazy villains that take some pleasure from torturing their nemesis… Or in the case of the Joker have a very strange love/hate relationship with the object of his obsession. But for someone like Lex Luthor or Wilson Fisk to not kill the hero when they have the chance just make no god dam sense. Now as I noted I understand from a narrative standpoint why this has to be but from an in universe it simply does not work. And it annoys me greatly.

Another great villain is of course Ra's al Ghul. Another Batman villain and a definite power behind

the throne player. Obsessed with ridding the world of evil, but going about it in the most pants on head stupid way one can imagine… By ninjas and long enough political plays to make a VtM elder impatient. Ra´s is granted immortality by a magical well called the Lazarus pit. Being a super-genius he has taught himself… Well… everything. Having tactical and reasoning skills on the level of Batman and the added bonus of a few hundred years of experience. Being a zealot he see his work as being the very definition of good and thus is completely immune to normal logic. Now what makes Ra´s so great in my mind is the combination of being a constant threat and not only having the mental upper hand on most heroes in the DC universe but through his organization he has the means to force pretty much any hero to follow his designs, at least initially without it feeling all that forced. Now the fundamental problem with Ra´s is of course that he is at the mercy of the people writing him… hence how a super level intellect sometimes act in a way that can at best be described as stupid beyond belief. Such as trying to make Batman his heir, you would think that one zealot would recognize another.

Reaching outside of the realm of comic’s I have to admit being a little bit in love with the Moriarty as portrayed in BBC´s Sherlock. Again smart, insane and very very unpredictable. I feel this version borrows a lot from the modern day Joker both in his almost loving dedication to Sherlock but also the sort of carefree and almost jolly disposition combined with a hair-trigger bestial rage. A perfect adversary for the cold and controlled Sherlock.

Now I recently come across a new trailer for the next FarCry game and it´s poster boy Pagan Min. Now if you have not seen it, take a few seconds and have a look…

… And welcome back, now tell me how you cannot love that guy.  As a villain of course. He is insane but unlike Vaas he has an element of refinement. Not as much a force of nature but rather a personification of modern society with all its polish on the surface and some really ugly bits under that very polished surface. Now I do not know how he will turn out in the game itself but so far it is looking very promising.

So why am I attracted to this kind of villain, I guess that I do see a small bit of myself in them, in the way that one tend to do. While not a genius by any stretch of the imagination nor a sociopathic monster. I take some pride in having at least above average intelligence and I have always had some problems with relating to strangers so in a way these kind of villains become an image of what I could become if I just let all the constructs of society fall away. By the same token I prefer heroes that are in some way flawed. Now it does sound very pompous and arrogant to speak about the constructs of society, I have never seen war and true suffering up close and to be honest I have no bloody intention of ever doing so. But that is not to say that there have been many times in my life that I felt powerless and while most in a time like that would turn to a hero for their power fantasy. I turned to the darker and more sinister side for mine. I am sure that there are some brain-blenders out there that would have things to say about that but in honesty when the choice was between someone who is active to one that is reactive… I´d go with the active one.

So… Who is your favourite villain?

 Now that October have kicked off properly I will be building up towards All hallows eve at what point I intend to have a give-away of some stuff including but not limited to some digital comics and other nice digital goodies. So keep an eye on the blog and follow me on twitter @TWiddesgard to make sure that you do not miss the announcement or any other tidbits.