Watch Dogs 2

[Baddar]

To be honest I'm not expecting the characters to be great in the new game either. As long as the gameplay is fun, I'll be satisfied. From the trailers I've seen already, I've decided I won't like the main character so I hope he proves me wrong.

I think part of the originals charm was the amount of stuff you could do aside from the main story. It's one of Ubisoft's traits and while they aren't for everyone, I enjoy all the side stuff in games like Far Cry. I'm not completely against collectibles either, providing they actually reward you, and aren't there for a trophy.

[Just Joe]

21 hours ago, Hellraiser said:

That's what I do. Not intentionally do. I trie to using stealth but at some point I make a mistake, get detected, say to myslef "Fuck it, I'm not re-starting this level/mission" and then go in all guns blazing.

[Chris2K]

Apparently I'm getting this tomorrow after all as Amazon didn't cancel my order. Oh well, guess it'll be sat on the shelf until I'm done with AC Syndicate.

[Baddar]

I'll grab it from Tesco. I imagine it'll be around £40, and I've got a £7 voucher to make a bit of a dent in that. 

[Lint]

On 11/13/2016 at 17:42, ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster said:

AC2, Brotherhood and 4 were all better than the first, but seriously, I totally bought into the original Assassin's Creed. The setting was brilliant, the sight of the first city asyou crested the hill on the horse was breathtaking and a number of the assassins were very nicely done. Also a lot of the concepts were amazing. That said, future games did of course improve pretty much everything, but then I DO love a flawed, but "different" game (eg Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Remember Me, Mirror's Edge).

As for Watch Dogs, I totally bought into that too and although it started wel I agree that it lacked some of the promise that was originally set out for it. After a while I found myself thinking "I wish I was playing GTAV instead" and at that point I switched back to GTAV and didn't play it again.

That is actually how I felt.  THe game initially seemed like it would focus on stealth and hacking.  Instead, you played a hacker who also excelled at hand to hand combat and firearms.  Some of the early "a look at" articles I've read said they fixed a lot of the issues with WD1, so once more reviews roll out, I'll read them and think about giving the game a shot

[Baddar]

They did say you could complete the WD2 story without killing anyone, didn't they? Interesting, but where's the fun in that? 

[Ace]

Got this a few hours ago. Similar to WD1 in some ways. Characters are better. I actually feel sorry for Marcus. Looking forward to seeing what the game has coming.

The fact my first mission has a talking car is definitely a high point.

[Hellraiser]

Bought it as well b mainly based on the glowing review by Jim Sterling. Haven't played for that long and I already enjoy it much more than part 1. Marcus is so much bette than Aiden "Iconic Hat" Pierce was as a protagonist. 

[Baddar]

I still haven't made a start on this as I've only just finished Mafia. Any good?

[Hellraiser]

It's fun. Hacking works much better in this and you can actually finish this game without killing somone whereas in the first game hacking was something cool to have but in the end it was always more convenient to just Rambo your way through every mission. The characters (lead and supporting characters) are all likeable and it's fun listening to the back and forth. And most importantly the game doesn't take itself so damn serious like it's predecessor did.

Minor side-mission spoilers:

Spoiler

After doing a lot of side missions I finally finished the mission where you steel the Knight Rider-knockoff car from the film set, pimp it out and drive it through town while being chased by cops while Judas Priest's "Turbo Lover" plays in the background. That was sooooo awesome! I'm just miffed because they don't add that song to your songlist after the mission. Why can't I do costume soundtracks anyway? Is it really so hard to program?

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by Hellraiser

[Baddar]

I've only just done the first mission and I have to be honest, I hated it.

I'm not one for total hand holding but fuck me, I had no idea what I was doing at times in that first one, and considering you're meant to be this whizz kid hacker, you'd think they'd at least teach you the basics. 

But that aside, the combat seemed really clunky and shooting felt off. We'll see how it holds up during the rest of the game.

[Hellraiser]

Final mission spoilers:
 

Spoiler

Are you fucking kidding me? That is it? That is the best they could come up with? In the first part of it you control Sitara but all you do is some roof top jumping and hacking like you already did a million times before. You also don't have any of your gadgedts for some reason. It's really lame.

In the second part of it the game basically forces you to play lethal. You are Wrench (the dude with the mask), you're given a shitload of weapons with infinite ammo and you need to clear a base to destroy some blume servers. I suppose you could try to do stealth but there are too many bad guys and as Baddar pointed out you can't hide bodies so the security guys are bound to stumble across the guys you knocked out and raise the alarm after which the police shows up so you have to deal with even more guys. So that approach doesn't work. Again you don't have your gadgets so you can't sneak in with those either. So what you end up doing is Rambo your way through it.

In the last part of the mission you control Marcus again and you have to sneak into Blume headquarters to leak the surveillance plans and all the other illegal doings by the weird hipster CEO who is the main antagonist. You have to sneak through the building, avoid guards, hack 2 terminals to activate the elevator to the server control room, get to the control panel to leak the data, sneak past the guards to leave the place and that is it. Game Over. You get a cut scene in which Marcus and Kenney visit the bloom CEO just before he is arrested so you can gloat, another cutscene where the gang celebrates and after that the credits roll. No big action set-piece or anything else spectacular or unique. Just shit you've already done a million times before. Fucking hell.

 

[Baddar]

So I finally put some time into the game, with more of the side activities opening up, and I'm enjoying it. The Driver SF side game is fun, but I feel like police should be disabled during this, as they're just a hindrance to what is a fun mode.

Tried a few of the point to point races as well as completing one or two story missions. Still don't know how to do half of the hacking stuff, or effectively use the RC thing without getting spotted, but I'll get the hang of it.

[Baddar]

Played 4 or 5 hours this afternoon. Been powering through some of the trophies. I did the 25 scout X pics, kart races, 140 metre jump, sailboat race, hacked a robot, hijacked a bus, drove a unique vehicle, drove 4km in a certain car, 30 stealth kills (not all kills today), 200 metres on top of a car + a few story progression ones. I've got loads of the story to do, but it should take me to around 75% or so once I finish it. Next time I play, which will likely be next Tuesday now if I'm honest, I'll focus on getting more of the story done.

[JasonM]

Finally got around to starting up WD2 after I got it cheap last week. And I love that the game is just so much more light-hearted than WD1 was, and it shows immediately with a cool intro mission and then having to run around the beach in your skivvies as everyone is having a good laugh at you.

Immediately I care more for Marcus than I ever did for Aiden Pierce.

Also, the San Francisco world looks so much more inviting than a bleak desaturated Chicago.

Finally got around to starting up WD2 after I got it cheap last week. And I love that the game is just so much more light-hearted than WD1 was, and it shows immediately with a cool intro mission and then having to run around the beach in your skivvies as everyone is having a good laugh at you.

Immediately I care more for Marcus than I ever did for Aiden Pierce.

Also, the San Francisco world looks so much more inviting than a bleak desaturated Chicago.

[Baddar]

You on ps4 or xbox @Jasonmufc?

[JasonM]

2 minutes ago, Baddar said:

You on ps4 or xbox @Jasonmufc?

Neither, i'm on PC. Sorry Baddar.

[DavidMarrio]

Completed this yesterday. This one is more fun than the first with a good level of light heartedness and customisation.  The characters you could get behind more and enjoy. Some missions were better than others with some being a bit boring and others really enjoyable. 

Final mission was a bit of a let down but overall a solid fun game.  

[apsham]

Holy fucking shit. This game is painful - it could be fun, the mechanics are ten times better than they were before... but HURR HURR HACKING RIGHT is painful in this damn thing, with forced mentions to other stuff and just.. ack.

[Chris2K]

I've just completed it, it was a bit hit and miss but overall I enjoyed it, mostly for the same reason as I enjoy Ubisoft games (side missions, collecting stuff, at least an attempt to make a good story. I can understand why people might not like it, but for me it's the sort of thing I'll always play. I'll spoiler stuff about the plot:

 

Spoiler

- I also thought the end mission was an anti-climax. They mentioned that Marcus had been flagged on the NSA, why not make a pre-cursor mission where you have to get back to the HQ whilst every police officer in the bay area is hunting you down?

- Regarding the whole plot I was expected some kind of swerve or major event that never happened. Horatio's death was so meaningless, probably because they had to keep him out of all the side-missions that are non-linear. The team's complete lack of emotion regarding his death was particular frustrating, I was ready to go out and get some revenge whilst they just sat back and did very little.

- As far as the others I expected either Ray or Sitara to turn heel but their issues just fizzled out. I liked Wrench a lot but his behaviour made so little sense after his unmasking and re-masking, surely nobody would go back to being exactly the same after what he went through? Josh was just kinda there.

- I loved the Aiden Pearce easter egg, I know a lot of people didn't like him but I always appreciate some kind of call back to previous games.