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 On 05/04/2015 at 01:12 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
I played two games, both number five in their respective series today: GTA V and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Most of the day was GTA V, but I got in a few hours with Skyrim before the day ended. I didn't thnk I'd stop playing GTA V either, but the issue that's bothered me in other games in this series reared it's ugly head again and that's the shooting.
Normally I'm pretty resistent to playing any GTA game. It's a story type I've never really taken to. I've never been a big fan of The Sopranos or Breaking Bad or any crime thrillers. It's just not my thing. But the GTA games are constantly on the top of both critics and sales charts in this industry and I've always wanted to give them a fair shake just to see what the fuss was about and discover whether this series is for me. Well, it's not for me, but not for the reasons of style or story but core gameplay.
When it comes to story, characters and a seemless, unbroken experience, GTA V cannot be beat. I've never been so engaged in a game as this one today. I mean, I've played Borderlands, and Diablo III all day long, but I seriously didn't want to eat or move from the TV today. The dialog in this game is so smart, funny and entertaining. Cut scenes blend seemlessly into gameplay and never last so long that you can put your controller down. The city and it's surroundings are so huge, I didn't even reveal half of it until I got to the Trevor missions.
But what really came back to annoy me over and over was the basic action gameplay. I must've restarted the mission where Franklin has to chuck a sleep gas grenade into a ventilation shaft a dozen times. I couldn't get him to hit the target because there are no guide lines at all. Not to mention that everytime I pulled LT to target, Franklin would shuffle several steps forward and walk off the precarious ledge he was on before I could get the throw off. Then, I discovered I didn't need to throw the grenade into the shaft but only next to it so the smoke would be pulled in by the suction. I guess I should've understood how ventilation systems work. Really?
Then, in the Trevor missions, where there is a lot of gunplay, I began to get really annoyed by the shooting mechanics. The targeting reticle is a tiny dot. Sure, your gun snaps to a target when you bring your gun up, but when you are being surrounded by targets, you have to keep your gun up and target quickly and, in that situation, you are at the mercy of the dreaded thumbstick with no aim assist. It's like they designed this game for PC because I would've been fine with keyboard and mouse, but a controller without aim assist unless you drop your gun for a moment first? It's a disaster. So on the mission where your are trying to shoot multiple targets from the wing of an airplane as it takes off, I just got too frustrated and had to stop. I had Skyrim up next though, so I was happy to switch.
I've finally experienced the opening everyone was talking about when it came out. It's one of the best openings of any game. I only got a few hours into the game today but I'm already wowed by the beauty of the enviornments. The U.I. is very streamlined and out of your way. I think it auto saves everytime you bring up your menu though, which makes it lag a bit, which is annoying. The action is just as awkward as in Oblivion, but I'm still enjoying it. I took what I thought was just a small side mission in the first town and found myself in a cave system with some interesting twists and a variety of monsters to slay. It was much more than I expected for a first mission.
I made myself an Orc and called him Vulcan because I want to focus on smithy work and build armor and weapons. I've always wished I could've been brought up in a trade like in days of old where a person might apprentice to a craftsman and work at that his/her whole life. I'd like that.
I'm looking forward to many hours more of Skyrim. I just hope I don't end up getting killed a lot like I did in Oblivion. I'd like to finish this game.
you just have to keep bringing your gun up, and it will auto target each enemy. I know... this shit is usually lame in GTA games, and a lot of people complain about it. Still, once you master it, it gets a little easier. I'm glad you're enjoying it though. I can't wait to play it.
My brother made an orc in Skyrim that he loved. Skyrim is a lot of fun, much better than Oblivion.
I did master the gun-up thing, but when you do that mission with Trevor going on a rampage, and you have to get a number of kills in a certain time frame, I don't know how you do it fast enough without keeping the gun up all the time. I restarted that mission a bunch of times before moving on. I put the game back in my pile though. I think I might go back to it and work on that stuff. It's such a ripping good game.
The only reason why I didn't play Skyrim today (the day after this blog) was that I thought I could finish Uncharted in one day. That didn't happen. Darn these games taking so long.
I've never been very interested in open world games but I've never really given one a chance. Sooner or later I'm going to get around to Red Dead Redemption though. And New Vegas. Sometime...
This first open world game I played was Crackdown. Then I played Just Cause. I love both those games. GTA V feels a little bit like both of those games only I couldn't super jump anywhere and I think the shooting controls were a little better in Just Cause. That being said though, GTA V has the most detailed and alive world I've ever played in.
Red Dead is high on my list to play soon.
What's good about open world games is you can follow the story missions and make it feel more like a linear experience or just explore and make your own fun. You can do what you want with it. I do both. I follow the story and then when I just see something I want to do, I go do that for a while.
I must have played a different version of Skyrim. The hud was fairly elegant, but the menu system was a disaster, the antithesis of streamlined, with information spread among several stacked windows when a couple would have sufficed (Morrowind did it on one screen. So much for the myth of interfaces improving over time), a lot of navigation required when there didn't need to be. There is a reason that UI mods were among the first and most popular.
The opening was ok, but it betrays what the series stands for, which is player control and freedom as soon as possible. All the previous games' introductory segments put you in control from the beginning. Can we have one old game series that doesn't fall prey to the Hollywood influence and other misguided tendencies of modern games?
But let me contradict myself on that Hollywood/modern stance and say that I really want to play GTA5. It's really interesting what they've done with the game in terms of releases. It's like an evolving creature, each form better and more interesting than the last. And still technically ahead of its time, and competition.
Great points. I haven't fiddled with the menu system that much yet. I guess what I meant was that there wasn't any screen clutter from menu options as you played.
I see what you mean about it taking some control away from you for the sake of presentation at the beginning. Morrowind just drops you off from a boat and Oblivion dumped you in a prison. I didn't really have total control in Skyrim until I got to that first town.
I was just mentally going over all the events I experienced in the first ten hours of GTA V the other night. It amazes me how vividly real they seem to me: little things like the way a guard reacts to seeing a downed comrade in the sniper mission with Trevor; the father-son interaction between Michael and Jimmy; and on and on. Every relationship and event in the game is handled with great detail and realism. GTA V is really knocking me out.
Oh that dot for aim is so bad. I still have problems with it, especially during one of Trevor's early missions. It's a pain. The auto lock on part is what saves me but I had to get used to letting go and then hitting the button over and over.
The Franklin missions are my favorite out of the bunch. Have you tried the phone app that goes along with the game? I used it a little bit during the PS3 version but haven't reinstalled it for the PS4 version.
That mission where you are on the wing of the plane and can't do that gun trick is what made me quit for the time being. The game has been haunting me this week, so I think I'll probably go back to it.
I don't have a smart phone yet, so couldn't use that. Is it the same as that social thing you send you in-game photos to? I wanted to save my photos but I have to sign in to that. Maybe I'll do that but I don't really want to sign in to anything more.
I've tried to play a GTA series game but could never get into them. The cop AI was too aggressive and not realisitic for me. I know I know that seems an ironic statement to say now given what's going on but I stand by what I said.
still need to play skyrim, just haven't found that legendary version cheap enough. Plus I should play the prior games of the series just to see what it's like
I was surprised I couldn't just pull a Crackdown and yank people out of their cars and take off. You have to really work to shake those cops off you.
The Elder Scrolls games take place in the same world, but in different areas of that world, and there's really very little that connects them story wise that I've noticed. I've played Morrowind and Oblivion, and Skyrim seems very different. I think there's been one reference to Cyrodill in Oblivion so far but not a very important one. They all very much stand alone.
Also, Skyrim seems like the most accessibe of the series to me. I'm not really sure why yet, but I've been able to progress in this game a little easier than in Oblivion. Maybe the quests are more clear.
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