Now is not the time to be so… chicken
I am so sorry, I just had to do it.
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I’ve heard so many people say they’re scared of Prey but as someone who is usually terrible with horror games, I actually never felt that way. I’m aware there are jumpscares in the game but I’m not unnerved by any of them on Prey specifically, for some reason.
Anyway, I’m extremely biased and love the game, but I think the disclaimer should be given that the real draw of it is essentially the exploration. Unlike Dishonored there’s not much to the combat or stealth mechanics.
What is there is a batshit lore conspiracy I could drone on about for hours and an intricately crafted, lived in environment with tons of layers to its interaction. I don’t think the gameplay fully comes together with it but just devouring the exploration on its own is a really satisfying experience.
however, I have to say that idk how the pedestrian traffic works on Talos 1, because the Crew Quarters, which has the bedrooms AND CANTEEN, are on the highest floor of the station, and the overwhelming majority of Talos 1 staff members work in other parts of the station on the lower floors. However, without using zero G which you need specialised equipment to traverse, the only way between those floors is one elevator which, while bigger than normal, can only hold maybe 20 people max, and Talos 1 is nearly a kilometer in height so the elevator must be going at least half a kilometer up and down this station! There are like hundreds of staff members on this station too, the elevator queues would be RIDICULOUS! Arkane fix this it’s literally unplayable >:(
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There is a time for me, and that’s… all the time. 
I kind of got drawn to Prey a bit because I heard of its awesome Roguelike DLC mode. Sounds like a really cool time.
This demo though, wow, I did not expect this game to be creepy and scary at times, so that’s probably why I’m taken off guard so much.
People say you can get an ability to sense them, and the more you play the game, the more numb to the scares you get, but I don’t know if I can do that. I tried to replay Alien Isolation last year for fun, but made it halfway before I quit. Too much tension all the time. Beat it once already, I’m good.
I’m guessing the main basic enemies are these Mimics that can turn into any object in the environment to hide when you’re not looking. Already spooky a bit.
But the sound design – the music that happens when you bump into one or get too close – HOOOLY smokes. It’s super loud, super frenetic. Catches me off-guard nearly every single time and I haaate it 
It does not have to be as sudden as it is, but… I can’t change that.
First time I even came across one in the tutorial-type “Backstage” area, I hadn’t even known! I get this terrifying sting, fast-paced music, so I think something’s chasing me, but nothing! It’s only until I run around the entire room I bump into it in a dark corner. Too freaking unprepared for that.
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I am still playing Valhalla. I have at least a hundred hours on it by now and I am close to the ending. I still have the DLCs to do as well.
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Then you’re nowhere close to done.
they become easier to detect as the game goes on, be it from experience or upgrading the psychoscope thingy. you also become a lot less squishy, so it makes them (generally) less threatening… till they get buffed.
i love me some prey, but ive yet to finish it. i get easily distrac—-
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Finally got around to finish Far Cry 3 the other week (having started playing it maybe 2 years ago). Gotta say it was one of the most tedious games I´ve ever played. Vaas was great, but the rest of the game was lackluster as hell. About the most entertaining thing about it was the manual (here´s one for @TheChicken):
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That’s from the game manual? Awesome. 10/10 waste of a manual page, that’s funny. Also kinda cute. 
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Got myself an invite to test the latest beta of Tom Francis’ (he of Gunpoint and Heat Signature fame) forthcoming game Tactical Breach Wizards, which is a small-scale turn-based-tactics game along the lines of XCOM: Chimera Squad, featuring wizards who use tactical SWAT-style gear to breach rooms and clear out baddies. Character names like Navy Seer and The Traffic Warlock etc 
Not allowed to share any screenshots or info about the game this time round (unlike an earlier beta I played last year), but I can’t wait to get started on this and hopefully Tom and the team have the end in sight for TBW getting a full release.
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Bought Sniper Elite 5 at the launch and I’m not disappointed. I see that some people seem to be and I somewhat get why, but at the moment it’s on par with SE4 for me, it does some things better and some things worse. I’ve never really played the multiplayer in SE4 and probably won’t do that in this one either (except Axis Invasion) so I can only comment on the single player mode. More specifically the main missions, I’ve yet to play the survival but it seems to have only three maps, hoping to see some more in the future. I have to admit I’ve never beaten any survival map in SE4, holy shit those final waves (on sniper elite difficulty, I won’t play on the lower difficulties). This will be a long post so let’s go.
Pros
- The maps are as great as in SE4, you can always find multiple routes and do the objectives in the order you want. Now we also have ziplines and I love them. This time, however, many objectives have at least two ways to tackle them too. For example, in the mission Secret Weapons, you can neutralize the radio tower by either sabotaging some cables or the generator. Door and safes can also be opened with either keys or satchel charges that have to be found, you don’t have unlimited satchels anymore.
- Weapon customization is a much better feature than the weapon mastery in SE4 and there are many new gadgets and items, even poison. You can also carry several different types of ammo. Even though the pistols are nerfed, this makes up for it. I kinda miss the different traps but now we have the non-lethal traps. I don’t really care about them but hey, there’s the option. Speaking of different playstyles…
- The new mission rating system is a good addition and I’ll have to try them more stealthily now that I know them better.
- I really enjoy the Axis Invasion. I’ve seen it being bashed and yeah, the invaders should be nerfed to a certain degree. I still managed to kill them several times. Axis Invasion basically allows other players to invade your game as an enemy soldier. Should you win, you’ll gain some XP, full health (I think) and at times some unlocks. The invader is at an advantage, but they can get some unlocks as well. You can always disable the invasion mode, but you will gain less XP overall. Not a huge deal, I maxed out the skills during just one playthrough with invasions on.
- The combat feels better than before imo. Not only we got bullet cams for all weapons but injuring the enemies is much better. Now explosions can also injure them so that the other enemies might come to try rescue them and some injuries don’t even knock them down, just make them walk in an injured manner. Just something that makes the game more immersive.
- Several unlockable starting locations! A good way to boost replayability, probably inspired by Hitman.
- Well, the game looks very good as should be expected. Not surprised that the facial animations are still laughable, but I don’t really care about the plot or the cutscenes.
Cons
- Axis Invasion heavily discourages camping. Should you stay in one place for too long, you will outright lose to the invader. Come on, you’re playing as a sniper and are expected to stay put. The traps should always be instakill as well, at least once I’ve got the invader with a trap and Karl just said “Damn, I just clipped them”.
- If you’re not the stealthiest player the options in the missions might not matter that much if you just massacre everyone in the nearby area anyway since almost every time these options are quite close together. On the first playthrough I had no chance to get a stealthy rating without savescumming especially since the enemies are not automatically shown on the minimap anymore (on sniper elite difficulty). Oh yeah, almost forgot about “focus”, this game’s instinct. I never used that but it can make your life easier.
- Crouch running doesn’t exit anymore. This might not sound like a huge deal but it’s actually one of my biggest problems with the game. I don’t understand the decision and never will. Give it back, please.
- Where is authentic plus? That was the most fun challenge in SE4! Instead we have some new super easy difficulty for game journalists.
- Weird invisible walls. Why can’t Karl just go through some bushes? In many places even jumping over low fences didn’t work.
- Some maps have framerate issues at times and there are of course bugs, though apparently rather minor. Hopefully the devs will fix these things.
- This is a nitpick, but tanks can’t be blown up with just a trap and a tnt. Instead you can destroy them by shooting at the engine from behind several times. The tnt:s just feel useless against them overall, I prefer SE4’s way.
Debatable
- No unlimited throwable rocks. Instead there’s a limited amount of bottles that can be refilled should you find more. I kinda find this a welcome change but I understand why it has been controversial.
- You can’t swap your weapons to ones you find in missions. Instead you can carry one additional weapon but you’ll drop it right when you equip anything else. Still not sure what to feel about this.
Here are also some opinions about the main missions. I decided to rank them from best to worst and give some thoughts. Loose Ends doesn’t count and I’ve yet to play Wolf Mountain, the bonus.
Mission ranking
- Secret Weapons - I love the soothing rainy forest and the several bases around it. Looks brilliant and nails the gameplay, just enough challenge with no bullshit either.
- Occupied Residence - Many ways to go in and around the chateau, SE4 never had this many climbing options. The missions with a big mansion or a castle and an interesting garden around it just work. Along with Spy Academy, this is one of the ultimate spy missions in the series.
- Festung Guernsey - An interesting setting and good gameplay seem to go hand in hand. Again a comfy rainy location with many different areas to explore and good objectives. Not much to complain about.
- Libération - The tank section is a bit clumsy but there’s still a lot of fun things to do and objectives almost everywhere. Most areas look kinda similar with the same kind of buildings but it’s much better than the last mission.
- The Atlantic Wall - A good opening. Not packed with soldiers, except the small locations of importance within the map. Solid objectives and does fine job introducing what the game is about.
- Spy Academy - What a gorgeous-looking mission and definitely the most vertical one in the game. Maybe a bit too vertical even, I just felt totally lost sometimes. Maybe it’ll get a better rank once I’ll learn it better. I want to enjoy this one more.
- War Factory - Industrial locations have never really been my thing in video games. Reminds me of going to work! Seriously though, it’s mostly the setting that makes this one unappealing but it also doesn’t work as well as the others somehow. I can’t say it’s bad though.
- Rubble and Ruin - Not a big fan of this finale. Even though I don’t care that much about the story, this just feels very anticlimactic. The setting also reminds me of SE2, which I didn’t enjoy. Disappointing is all I can say.
I can say that the series has definitely come closer to Hitman and Splinter Cell, which is only a good thing. Even though there are some dumb decisions and downgrades in gameplay, I can recommend this to every stealth game fan and if you enjoy SE4 it’s a no-brainer.
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I bet the French didn’t.
Camping was grounds for Cat 6 dismissal in WWII this was because Hitler was a notorious camper and the Allied Forces wanted to show off their relative skill and mobility.
Actually a sniper is supposed to shoot a limited amount of targets of opportunity, force multipliers and high-priority mission objects then immediately move from the area. The game would be really easy if all you had to do was stand in one place and shoot.
Ha, even the latest Assassin’s Creed allows you to crouch run.
I always think it is unfair to say that easier difficulties are for game journalists, most ones I know always say they play on normal I know there are outliers though. It seems to ignore that people might not want the game to be hard, a lot of people I know play Sniper Elite because they want to do testicle shots to relieve stress. Aside from your average Gamer’s hard-on for graphics their obsession with difficulty will be our hobby’s undoing.
This is an aside though. I am going to be going back to wry remarks now.
I think you mean highly advanced Axis light wave technology also called outdated game design.
Allergies of course that and shrubbery clashes with his cameo fatigues
You would be the first person to not complain about Guernsey in the history of the Channel Islands.
Also does this have the old “Exploding Hitler’s Balls DLC” these games usually come with?
EDIT: Looked it up, it does. They give out a trophy for doing it now.
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They (and the Allies) got the last laugh though.
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True, true. I bet they enjoyed that.
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Your post (and SE5’s release in general) made me finally give the series a try. I have all the four previous games and originally wanted to start with the first one, but instead booted up SE3 today. Passed the first two missions. Pretty fun, so hopefully it’ll get even better.
Isn’t it just one ball? 
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Lol.
No real point in moving until you take a shot if you’re just trying to spot the enemy and stay hidden.
Every SE game has to have that one. In this one it’s the Wolf Mountain mission I mentioned. All the Hitlers seem to have been fake though, in SE3 he can even be found out to be a double.
Glad to hear! I’ve never played the original and SE2 is kinda boring. SE3 is pretty good, I’ve played through it twice. The missions I especially like are Fort Rifugio and Ratte Factory. SE4 has a completely new level of freedom though.
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Come to think of it he did.
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Finished Resident Evil VIII Village. I enjoyed it, had fun with it. I like the gothic atmosphere of it all. I guess really I’m not that interested in something being super scary, but rather just a nice bit of creepy this to it. So I can understand why alot of people perhaps were disappointed it went a bit more action focused rather than survival horror. I actually found the game, at least on standard difficulty, a little easy. Only died 3 times, 2 of them due to not being quick enough in an instant kill scenario and the third to the final boss. Inventory management is a bit of a joke, I never ran out of space. But yeah, I had fun. I’m interested to see where RE IX goes, I do have some interested in the Resident Evil mythos and interested to see what happens next. Might quickly try out New Game Plus, see what that is like.
Think the RE2 Remake is my favourite so far still. I actually got a copy of RE4 for the PS4 back at Christmas, might be a good time to give that a shot now that the RE4 Remake is on the way.
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You should definitely play RE4. 4 Remake, though I believe it will be good, has a real uphill battle comparing itself to what I personally believe to be the best third person shooter ever made. Definitely beaten out in survival horror by many other RE games but as far as third person shooting goes it is unrivaled IMO.
Village is pretty good IMO. My comparison to 7 always goes along the lines that 7 has higher highs, but also lower lows than Village, which by comparison is a fairly consistent 7 or 8 out of 10.
I think as far as an RE4 homage game it unfortunately missed some elements of that gameplay formula, (combat still works on the “get headshots against unpredictable enemies” formula instead of RE4’s formula of shooting enemies and getting different reactions you could either capitalise on or which put you in more danger, and the infinite crafting ingredient storage kinda ruined the inventory) and I’m still peeved that Capcom keep introducing invincible stalker characters everybody loves only for them to stop existing in the second/third acts, BUT as a kind of haunted house thrill ride it’s very solid.
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Started up Red Dead Redemption on my PS3, ehhh, not really liking it.
I’m not too familiar with Rockstar Games’ games, though I do know they’re hell bent on attention to detail and plagued with obtuse controls and gameplay.
RDR is just too slow and clunky for me. Finished quite a few introductory missions but it’s just not hooking me, probably due to its pace and me not getting a good hang on controls. (I use the lock-on aiming nearly all the time too and that feels cheap, but free aiming is way too hard anyhow.)
Still, I do want a fix for another open-world type game at the moment, and the frontier-basic-civilization vibes in this interest me, so… I think I’ll switch over to Horizon Zero Dawn?
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this bland and boring open world game that got loads of praise be reviewers for some reason isnt doing it for me, why not switch over to another bland and boring open world game. in all seriousness though, despite me absolutely despising everything horizon stands for and not liking what i played, ive heard from friends that its one of the better generic open world games to play if you want that fix.
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