|
I borrowed a friend's copy of Armored Core For Answer (as well as dusted off the ole PS3) to try and get a feel for the series as I've never played any of these games before. The movement options are strange. You can remap the controls to whatever you want but you can't setup the control scheme to both have auto-boost enabled AND retain the ability to strafe. Gotta pick one or the other. It's a very strange system. The result of this seems to be that any good player is going to choose strafing, which means always having to keep the boost button held down at all times. What that means is that ultimately you have to get creative with keybinds to make the game feel modern. What finger and button do you choose to effectively negate by assigning it to boost? Also, if you make it a face button, you won't be able to look around (right stick) and boost at the same time, so that's out, which leaves boosting to a trigger or bumper. Having a bumper depressed all the time and clicking the trigger behind it seems weird, so it should probably be a trigger. The right trigger seems like it would be great for shooting, but also for behaving like an accelerator if you play racing games, and driving a big mech doesn't exactly not feel like a racing game in some kind of Twisted Metal sense. So then... right trigger for shooting, left trigger for boost? Or, right trigger for boost, and bottom and left face buttons for right and left hand guns, while the right face button is dodge, Souls style? Or should the Left trigger be dodge so you can shoot and dodge at the same time? Or you could do left trigger for boost and right trigger and bumper for primary/secondary weapons? So many choices. All of them seem like compromises. Armored Core 6 will give you Auto Boost AND strafing at the same time, which seems like a strange thing to celebrate. But after messing around with Armored Core For Answer, AC6 can't come soon enough. GreatGreen fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Aug 1, 2023 |
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 06:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 06:06 |
|
|
That's like a big thing in game design (sometimes called "intuitive mapping") - do you make your game input scheme to meet the expectations of your players? As an example, most people have played an FPS, so they expect the controls to be WASD and mouselook. If you're making an FPS, are you going to meet their expectations and make onboarding new players easy, or are you gonna change it up to fit in your unique gameplay experience and risk alienating players due to their preconceived notions of what FPS controls are? With games like AC, they existed before there was a widely accepted "default" (for mech games at least) and so they can kind of mess around with that until they've established enough of a baseline. Then it gets riskier to mess with the new "default".
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 06:49
|
|
|
The funny thing about that is if they'd have allowed auto boosting and strafing to be enabled at the same time, you could setup the keybinds to behave almost exactly like the upcoming game and it would have felt completely modern. ACFA doesn't allow players to fire all four weapons at once, but you could map triggers to right/left hand shooting and bumpers to hand/shoulder weapon swapping, boost to the bottom face button, etc, and it would be close enough to pretty much directly translate to AC6's controls. It's cool that game design has a term for the relationship between control schemes players expect and the ones actually presented to them though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 07:01
|
|
|
Yeah it's a big field with a lot of nerds researching it, there's a word for pretty much everything.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 07:20
|
|
|
GreatGreen posted:Also, if you make it a face button, you won't be able to look around (right stick) and boost at the same time 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 07:27
|
|
|
What is that gamer doing to his hand!? 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 08:15
|
|
|
I miss the debt system. I could see how it was extra punishing if you fail a lot but I like the idea of adding additional pressure to your next mission to try and pull yourself out of the red. Plus it encouraged you to do the arena for another source of income for a reward beyond just climbing the ladder.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 08:24
|
|
|
it was probably starting as a human+ that did it, most likely this isn't like warframe where they could repo your brain if you got too indebted
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 08:33
|
|
|
Donnerberg posted:What is that gamer doing to his hand!? the real human+ project starts here
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 08:45
|
|
|
I found control type B was fine. The only face buttons were stuff like weapon swapping and your turbo boost. Tbf I think shoulder weapon was O but I always ditched those for weight so I barely pressed any face buttons except at the start of the mission to swap to my OP back missiles or to occasionally turbo
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 09:48
|
|
|
imagine any armored core game on PS4. impossible!
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 09:56
|
|
|
Every morning I wake up groaning because this isn't out yet
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 11:51
|
|
|
BeanpolePeckerwood posted:imagine any armored core game on PS4. impossible! Speaking of: do we know anything about the PS4 version?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 12:07
|
|
|
This game looks like it will make perfect use of an elite controllers extra back buttons, negating the need for hand mangling.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 12:49
|
|
|
I just grabbed a dualsense edge and the first thing I’m going to do is map jump and quick boost to the back buttons
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 13:35
|
|
|
Eat My Ghastly rear end posted:I just grabbed a dualsense edge and the first thing I’m going to do is map jump and quick boost to the back buttons uh what everyone in the thread is playing on one of these 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 13:51
|
|
|
Aipsh posted:uh what everyone in the thread is playing on one of these If those circles on the pedals aren't buttons they are wasting a ton of space that could be used for more buttons.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 14:05
|
|
|
They’re unfortunately just little grippy bits
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 14:08
|
|
|
Did you get billed for ammo and repairs on a mission failure in AC3 / Silent Line, or did the story simply treat that mission as attempted, remove it from the mission list, and progress the story? I'm curious as debt is something conceptually sad to see go but I've never landed in debt in any AC game. Even blowing a ton of ammo and missiles in 4A right now you still make a pretty decent profit on most missions.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 15:11
|
|
|
Just re-watched the announcement trailer, just now noticed this, but the junked AC scavenging parts is one of Handler Walter's Hounds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 15:21
|
|
|
Zodack posted:Did you get billed for ammo and repairs on a mission failure in AC3 / Silent Line, or did the story simply treat that mission as attempted, remove it from the mission list, and progress the story? I'm curious as debt is something conceptually sad to see go but I've never landed in debt in any AC game. Even blowing a ton of ammo and missiles in 4A right now you still make a pretty decent profit on most missions. you got billed. early gen 3 had the combo of poo poo mission rewards and everything being expensive and the missions being difficult for newbies so it is really easy to get yourself debt trapped. also you couldn't H+ through debt. do not gently caress with debt
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 15:29
|
|
|
I've seen videos where they show that resupply caches can be found in the game, which I'm glad to see. Not sure if they're only found in scripted story missions, before boss fights, or what, but they're in there in some capacity. After watching a few videos of full start-to-finish missions, it seems like your health and ammo reserves are kind of built around only being able to go hard for a very, very short time. Like under 5-7 minutes of action short. But knowing they've built in ways to give the player some prolonged field time is great. I know it's not supposed to be an open world game but it would be kinda nice to just be able to hang around and blow stuff up in big open areas for a little longer than just a few minutes a pop. GreatGreen fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Aug 1, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 16:52
|
|
|
One video shows that if you expend all your L and R ammo and can't resupply you get a dinky mech punch. It does deal significant ACS damage they're saying.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 17:31
|
|
|
I really hope you can end up making an unarmed build that kicks rear end. Go full G Gundam.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 18:13
|
|
|
people dunk on Verdict Day, sometimes justly, sometimes not, but it's the one that gave me me robot arms that were just solid swords and man those things were fun kinda terrible, but fun.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 18:25
|
|
|
Eat My Ghastly rear end posted:I just grabbed a dualsense edge and the first thing I’m going to do is map jump and quick boost to the back buttons Same.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 19:28
|
|
|
Eat My Ghastly rear end posted:I just grabbed a dualsense edge and the first thing I’m going to do is map jump and quick boost to the back buttons Yep. Needing to hold jump to boost means I'm taking that off the face buttons. I'm resigned to clicking a stick for assault boost
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 19:37
|
|
|
If KB+M support is good, meaning hardware mouse support with no acceleration and good sensitivity settings (it's a From game so it's almost guaranteed to be terrible but let me have this), I'm thinking of going that route. It's a shooter after all and I've always preferred mouse aiming to stick aiming in shooters anyway, even 3rd person shooters. Left arm = right click Right arm = left click Left shoulder = secondary thumb button Right shoulder = primary thumb button Toggle boost movement = I dunno, it's a press-once-and-forget control, so how about the "C" key Jump / Ascend = space Dodge = shift Assault Boost = left alt Targeting mode = left ctrl Simple enough and you don't have to choose between "looking and dodging" or "looking and shooting." GreatGreen fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Aug 1, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 20:09
|
|
|
Having to hold in both mouse buttons and both thumb buttons and still move the mouse around to aim when you want to fire all four weapons at once seems pretty uncomfortable
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 20:25
|
|
|
RPATDO_LAMD posted:Having to hold in both mouse buttons and both thumb buttons and still move the mouse around to aim when you want to fire all four weapons at once seems pretty uncomfortable Maybe, but when you play shooters, you're already holding down both regular mouse buttons and moving at once most of the time. Personally I'm also using a mouse that lets me hit two thumb buttons at the same time, and I always bind the main and secondary thumb buttons to melee and grenade, or whatever those equivalents are in shooters so it's nothing I'm not used to. Hopefully it will be alright but I'll know for sure if it will work out after about two minutes of trying it though. GreatGreen fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Aug 1, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 21:16
|
|
|
GreatGreen posted:Maybe, but when you play shooters, you're already holding down both regular mouse buttons and moving at once most of the time. What shooters are you playing?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 21:29
|
|
|
I mean, a lot of modern ones? RMB to aim down sights, LMB to actually shoot, moving to aim and not get shot yourself... it's the thumb buttons that can potentially throw this idea off, but using those for shoulder weapons shouldn't be too impractical because those are usually weapons you only hit semi-frequently depending on what exactly you're using. Edit: i feel like this tangent is primarily caused by a misunderstanding somewhere. The only detail that struck me as odd on the mouse example was using the thumb buttons simultaneously, bit that depends on mouse ergonomics and whatnot more than anything. IthilionTheBrave fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Aug 1, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 21:46
|
|
|
Cactrot posted:What shooters are you playing? Any shooter with ADS. IthilionTheBrave posted:I mean, a lot of modern ones? RMB to aim down sights, LMB to actually shoot, moving to aim and not get shot yourself... it's the thumb buttons that can potentially throw this idea off, but using those for shoulder weapons shouldn't be too impractical because those are usually weapons you only hit semi-frequently depending on what exactly you're using. Yeah that's the one hangup that depends on the mouse. I'm using a logitech G502 which despite looking gamery as hell it's actually super ergonomic and has thumb buttons placed and arranged close enough that it's doable.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 21:54
|
|
|
I'm expecting autohotkey to save my rear end. But if I end up with a build where back weapons have a significant refire delay like big cannons or missiles, then momentarily taking a finger off WASD might be fine and I could map them to Q and E.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 01:54
|
|
|
To get ready for AC6, I decided to go back and play through as much of the series as I could. I had rented (and beat!) Armored Core 1 as a kid, and I owned (and beat!) Armored Core 2 when it originally came out, and then proceeded to play none of the other games before. And so, starting in May, I decided to go and change all that, and play through every single AC game that I could (save for Ninebreaker and Formula Front. They were more just their own weird spinoffs, as far as I could tell, and they just didn't seem too worth messing with). And I guess I'd like to share my thoughts about the whole ordeal, so sorry about the huge incoming wall of text: First off, Armored Core 1. I've played this one before, but it's been years. I went in expecting to be somewhat disappointed on the replay, because it's really just the first entry in a brand new series. You might expect a fair chunk of wonkiness and growing pains as they try to find their footing and then later games would come out with the lessons learned from the first game, and be way better. But no! They actually nailed it in one on the first go around, and AC1 genuinely holds up surprisingly well. The story and gameplay are both really drat good overall, and it's really fun to mess around in the shop/garage, trying to pour over the various statistics of the different parts and try to build your masterpiece. The controls are definitely not great when coming at it from many years down the line, but they're learnable, and work pretty effectively once you get used to them. It's a shame that the arena didn't debut in this game, as it would have made it even better. That said, the debt mechanics and Human Plus are really great additions that really help sell the setting and the whole vibe of just being a lone mercenary who's struggling to make a living working for various corporate overlords. If there's like, one thing that absolutely sucks about this game, it's when the game decides that it's platforming time. Thankfully, there's only two particular instances that I can recall: the pit where the Moonlight is hiding, and the second half of Destroy Floating Mines. It still just sucks so drat much to try and platform in a game that's just not really built for it at all. It's nowhere near bad enough to tank the experience, but it still sucks. Still, AC1 is an overall really drat good game, even today. Project Phantasma comes next, and I...really don't like this game very much. It's got a fair bit that I appreciate, like it introduced the Arena, which is a *fantastic* addition to the series, and I definitely felt a little impressed with the greater emphasis on story within the missions, including little cutscenes and just also a greater emphasis on presenting various story goings-on in those missions. Also, I like Stinger as the reoccurring antagonist you fight throughout the game, his music, and designs of the various mechs he uses (shoutouts to the disco death lasers that he fires off in the Phantasma). But otherwise, I just really didn't like the story at all. It felt much more generic and unlike what Armored Core is, as it sets you up in a more unambiguous hero role, working with fellow Raven Sumika to stop the vague evil plans of the Doomsday Organization with their mysterious weapons project, and there's just not very much here at all. The missions are easier than in AC1, and the game is just way shorter. It just left me very underwhelmed. I appreciate what it brought to the series, but otherwise, I just don't like it. Master of Arena is the last game that we got in the PS1 generation, and it's easily the crown jewel of them. This is more the sort of sequel I wanted. It is still an Expansion Pack sequel to AC1, much like Project Phantasma was, but this one really went for something really cool. It's got a new coat of paint for the menus, and the story is really interesting, as it's a tale of revenge, as you're working towards challenging Hustler - 1/Nineball to a fight to the death. Nineball's been a mystery entity even in AC1, and while you eventually fought him, it's left a lot on the table as to what was even going on. Here, he makes his introduction at the end of the very first mission as an actual character. The only way to get your chance to fight him is to make your way up the Arena rankings, and this is where MoA gets cool, as it integrates the Arena experience with the main story progression. The mystery of Nineball unfolds as you get closer and closer to fighting him for real, and it's all just really drat good. And it ultimately culminates with the final mission, and Nineball Seraph. Seraph lives up to the hype as one hell of a difficult challenge. I eventually overcame him, but it took a lot of tries to get there. A very drat good game, and the inclusion of a ton of different bonus arenas was really cool, though I'll admit that I didn't mess with them too much. Armored Core 2 was the last of the games I've played before, and I really remembered enjoying it quite a lot. Coming back to it, I gotta say, I still really enjoy it a lot. Other games in the series are still way better overall, but it still holds up in my eyes. It's not without it's flaws, mind you. Mainly, despite being the next big numbered game, and on a brand new console it doesn't really feel like it's that much of a leap forward from the ps1 games. It's added a cooling system & associated parts, it's added shoulder parts, and introduced the overboost, not to mention added a whole bunch of various new varieties of weapons and other parts, sure. But the missions themselves carry a vibe that makes it feel at home back on the PS1, just with a fancier coat of paint. Hell, there's even a level that's taken straight from the first game, where you play defense at a train depot from planes and an enemy AC as the train you're supposed to defend comes in for a quick pit stop. That being said, I do find it genuinely fascinating and really interesting on how much 2 is immersed in the legacy of those older games. The story especially, as it's a direct continuation from those PS1 games, and the antagonist, Leos Klein, actually is the canonical protagonist from Master of Arena, and he's come to the conclusion that mankind can't be trusted on its own, and strives to re-establish the old order of having something or someone ruling over them as a guiding hand, much like the AIs from the PS1 games. Hell, his last line is actually a call back to one of the lines from the final mission back in AC1.It makes me curious as to how much of the game being steeped in the legacy of the previous games is something they intentionally leaned into, or if it's possibly just a happy accident. It's definitely a game that has a bit to criticize, but I just ultimately love this game. There's definitely better on the list, but it's still one of my favorites. Armored Core 2: Another Age, is not even close to being one of my favorites. Part of the AC experience for me is the whole package: an overarching plot, the arena (though as AC1 demonstrated, these games can get away with having no proper arena), and the missions, all working in tandem to create a complete game with a ton of stuff to engage with. Another Age is not one of those. This is an expansion pack sequel that is literally just doing missions, sometimes earning some brand new parts, and nothing else. No arena, and no overarching story. Sure, you do get various bits of worldbuilding to the state of things that are happening here on earth, as you're bumming around doing missions for literally anyone who's offering to pay you, but there's not really direct narrative to work on, just small little stories to piece together in each region, if that. Honestly, that's probobly one of my favorite things about Another Age, the vibe of just being a mercenary, doing whatever jobs you're given, trying to get paid and not really caring too much about the how or why. There's also some genuinely quite good and fun missions to be found here, and beating the game actually unlocks three more missions, which are bonus boss fights against Stinger (in both forms) and Nineball Seraph. The problem is just that you're burning through about a hundred missions to beat the game and get to those really cool bonus fights against old enemies, and without much else to grab onto, Another Age just feels like a bit of a slog at times. It's easily the most skippable normal entry in the series as a result. Armored Core 3, meanwhile, is the sort of game that I've been wanting to see in the PS2 era. There's just so much more going on in this game that the Gen 2 games never were able to realize. The biggest thing going for it, is that there's been some sort of larger shakeup to the various stats and how things handle. Like, just going off of the starting mech, traditionally, it's been pretty hopeless, and you're working off of whatever's the cheapest options for a bipedal AC, equipped with a rifle, a small missile pack, an energy sword, and a rifle. While AC3 is no different to this setup for your starting AC build, it actually doesn't feel quite as awful as these have been before. The rifle carries a bit more punch to it than you might expect. You're a bit more mobile, and feel like you can accomplish more. The name of the game is still to upgrade all this poo poo as soon as you can, but there's been a definite shift in this game compared to what's come before. Everything's more polished, you're given more options, and there's been quite a few substantial improvements all over the place. You're given the option to bring some other folks in MTs or ACs to help you out in some missions. Overboosting is tied to your choice of Core part, and you can use cores that removes the option for overboosting in favor of equipping a core that lets you deploy drones that provide additional firepower instead. Quad legs actually animate walking, instead of just gliding around the place, etc. It's just, there's so much going on here that's improved/changed from the AC2 games, and it all adds up to just an AC game that just feels so fresh and new. Special mention goes to the story, as it starts off fresh, in the massive underground city of Layered, doing jobs for various clients, as things slowly start to go off the rails, and suddenly everyone is threatened by mysterious forces. Corporations continue to squabble, even as the true culprit is revealed, and as it becomes clear that you're the one Raven who's going to solve the problem, you start being targeted specifically. The endgame carries this bleak air of desperation, as you feel like between the impending threat to humanity, and the attempts to kill you specifically, everything sucks, and you're just trying to keep your head above water long enough to see what lies at the end of this journey. AC3 is just, such a joy to play, and I'm honestly kinda mad that I never played it back in the day! This poo poo is great! But after that banger of a game, we got Armored Core 3: Silent Line. And honestly? It's a good game! I like it! But it just doesn't manage to do as much for me compared to other games in the series. It is effectively another one of those patented Expansion Pack Sequels that From Soft liked to make for this series. There's more missions, a new story, a new slate of arena opponents to take on. And there's a *ton* of extra parts you can actually earn in this game. It feels like almost every mission in this game gives you a chance to earn 2-3 new parts just from completing certain tasks or performing well enough in that mission. The story is quite interesting, building off of what came before in AC3, and leads to some quite fun missions. It's just...I dunno. Even though I loved AC3, Silent Line just doesn't do it for me quite like that game did. The game does its best, and it's still a quite enjoyable time, but I just....I dunno. I come out of it feeling kinda...."meh" about it. I've got nothing really definitively to point to as to why I like other games but just don't care for Silent Line. I just didn't feel that jazzed about it. It's not you, Silent Line, it's me. Armored Core Nexus is where they finally got rid of the old control scheme and change things to a much more modern dual analog control setup, putting the basic moving and aiming on the sticks and freeing up all four shoulder/trigger buttons to be used for other functions. It's such a great change going forward, and it's a shame that it's took so long to get this change. Even besides that, Nexus is genuinely up there as one of the best for me. It's a real drat solid game with a bunch of quite fun missions, and a very different main story campaign. Unlike all other games, where you get a fairly detailed briefing from the client talking about the mission and what they expect and what they want out of the whole thing, you get a fairly sparse single screen briefing that just shows where you're going, who your client is (which is kinda hilarious when it's just labeled as "Terrorist"), what your primary mission objective is, and what they expect you'll have to fight. Any sort of story development comes during the mission, or from the various emails and reports you get between missions. And this setup works surprisingly well as you progress through the story, really selling you as an independent mercenary with zero interest in taking a side or even just considering the consequences of the missions you take. As the war between the various corporations progresses, it becomes clear that your actions help swing things in particular directions. There's some stuff going on with some events and some parties that would be concerning if you paid any further detail to it, but who cares when you've got a paycheck to earn, right? Then the other shoe drops at the end, as it turns out that due to the actions of the corporations and exacerbated by your own successes, ancient weapons systems have been activated that could bring about the world's destruction yet again. You're called in to stop them, but by the time you're on the scene and try to do anything, it's already too late. The ending alone is just incredible, a fantastic end to a fantastic game. There's sadly no true Arena mode like in previous games, opting for an arena that's integrated with the main campaign, and you going up the rankings as you complete missions. It's a little disappointing, but the little added dialogue in some encounters help elevate the experience a bit more. Also, I should mention that they completely redid the Heat/Cooling system in this game, and while it had the potential to be really annoying with how your boosters now generate heat, among other things, I vibed with it pretty well, and ultimately felt it was a good change for them to make. The inclusion of the Hanger to carry up to two small backup weapons was great too, as was the ability to tune AC parts to squeeze a bit more out of them. Nexus also had a second disc with bonus missions based on old PS1 missions, along with other bonus content. It's kind of underwhelming on it's own, as it reuses a couple of maps a whole lot, but taking both discs into consideration, it's a pretty cool bonus to an already stellar game in my eyes. Plus, it was just cool to encounter Stinger again and build my own version of Vixen. Armored Core Last Raven. The last of the PS2 games, and the last of the third generation (technically Gen 3.5, considering how much Nexus changed from AC3/Silent Line), and boy howdy did they go out with a bang. Last Raven continues off of the end of Nexus and has a very interesting branching path campaign with multiple endings, and a whole lot of challenging missions that can show up depending on what missions you picked earlier in the story. Last Raven takes place over 24 hours, and it's really interesting on how things can go wildly different depending on which clients and missions you pick up at certain times, with some story paths revealing more about what's going on, and others not so much. I was so engrossed with this game that I ended up sitting down and getting all 6 of the endings, and boy howdy did some of these missions kick my rear end. Last Raven is pretty hard at times, with all of my fellow Ravens being human plus cheaters. Bolt in one of the first missions stands out in particular as an rear end in a top hat, because he's in one of the three first mission options that exist, and he's basically an endgame level AC opponent in any other game. Other fights were quite challenging (and sometimes quite costly, as my favorite hover legs got completely totaled quite a few different times over multiple playthroughs), but nothing was quite like fighting Zinaida at the end of her ending path. Nineball Serpah stands out in this series as a quite difficult, scary fight that I extremely respect, having fought it in both MoA and AA, but Zinaida in that final mission easily outclasses Seraph as the most difficult boss fight I've encountered in the series. The fight needed me to create an AC build specifically for fighting her, and then also needed me to attempt the fight *a lot*. Finally getting that win was one of the best accomplishments I've gotten in this series, and earning the title of Last Raven as a result was great. Last Raven doesn't really do anything *huge* to reinvent the series like some other games did, it's just really loving good, and as someone who's been playing a *lot* of these games in a few months, it was great final challenge from this generation of armored core. Armored Core 4 is a game that radically changes a lot, but left me just underwhelmed by the end of it. It's the first game of a new console generation, and it brings larger environments, the way boosting done has changed a lot and even includes a Quick Boost, heat and cooling is done away with for kojima particles and Primal Armor shielding, and you're largely just a lot more mobile in general. There's a new setting and you're an independent mercenary who's a bit too good at their job, and as a result, you end up unintentionally nudging the status quo in such a way that all out war between the corporations happens, and you sometimes get targeted by very nervous corporations when your only interests are to do a good job and earn a decent payout from your clients. There's definitely a lot to like here! Except, the game is just way too short for it's own good. Missions tend to be short and a fair bit easy, and a lot of it is relegated to pissing around with the usual fluff missions in Armored Core games, with the biggest standout missions tending to be against other NEXTs. There's some interest with the story, but most of it is relegated to the cutscenes in between chapters, and one of the core characters, who is important to the endgame, Joshua O'Brian, doesn't show up until the last full chapter. Which is a shame, because the last mission has a lot of potential to be a real gutting, powerful final encounter, but it just doesn't land quite as well as it could have if the story gave the important beats more time to work with. Also, there's no arena in this game! Or at least, there was no arena or arena equivalent that I could find, because the garage menu in this game loving sucks. It's awful, terrible dogshit. It's really trying to create a more convenient setup for more players, but in practice, it's really not. It's just extra hassle trying to figure out how to buy anything and trying to remember to buy poo poo instead of equipping a data version for some loving reason? There's a hard mode, and from my brief experience with it, it was genuinely pretty neat. Maybe the story gets expanded in hard mode? I dunno. As much as I wanted to try hard mode in this game, I just was ready to move on once the credits started rolling. Armored Core For Answer is the best Armored Core game. Straight up, no contest. Everything that 4 tried to be, 4A delivers. And then it goes much farther than 4 ever did. 4A takes 4's setting, and makes things way more bleak and hosed up than usual, and sets up a real good story for it. The world has been destroyed by the pollution caused by kojima particles, and the corporations decide to keep humanity safe by putting on a band-aid on the whole situation, putting most of the population on these floating Cradles in the sky, while they still continue to fight amongst each other for resources, as well as fight what opposition they receive from those still left on the surface. And to further ensure their grip on the world, they build gigantic Arms Forts. And god drat this game loving rules. The Arms Forts are fantastic setpiece encounters, with Spirit of Motherwill and Answerer standing out as two of the best and most impressive. Armored Core needed poo poo like this. The arena is back (or at least isn't hidden in some easily overlooked menu) and still owns, and the gameplay is way, way faster than it was back in 4. 4 could be pretty speedy on it's own with the new changes, but 4A cranks it up to eleven, and the gameplay just feels much more exciting. And when just normal gameplay isn't quite enough for you, you sometimes get a gigantic rocket pack strapped to your NEXT and you go flying across the gigantic battlefields to reach your final destination where your actual mission is located. The story is quite good on that first playthrough, but as you're playing it, it's pretty clear that you're missing some pretty important details and context to understand exactly what exactly is happening. And so when you beat the game, and credits roll, you start the game over from the beginning, and more missions show up as you make progress and get a chance to beat some missions that you weren't able to clear on the first go around. Additionally, you get bonus cutscenes that show up after certain missions (usually at the end of a chapter) that can help give some added context of the sort of stuff that's happening behind the scenes. By completing certain missions on this second go around, you actually go on an alternate story path with it's own unique ending. And if you take on a particular mission, you get a chance at a THIRD ending once you beat the hardest mission in the game, Occupation of Arteria Carpals. The whole game is just oozing quality and is just so much fun to play, and has a really engaging storyline. I got through all of the arena fights in this game, and got all three of the endings. I didn't do hard mode missions, but after Occupation of Arteria Carpals, I was ready to take a break. I'm absolutely coming back to this game at some point and I will do hard mode, but for now, I'm happy with just what I accomplished by getting all three endings. Armored Core V and Armored Core Verdict Day, I didn't play those, but not for a lack of trying. I tried my damnedest to get those games running, but despite my best efforts, they didn't want to play ball at all. I would have tried to get used copies, but lmao I'm not paying those prices. I'll try to come back to them eventually, but as it is right now, I'm good with just skipping them for now. And that's it for my journey through the series. I did make a tier list to kinda illustrate my general feelings of the series if anyone actually cares:  And after playing through eleven Armored Core games in about three months? I'm even more excited for AC6 than I was before. AC6 looks so goddamned good, and August 25th can't come soon enough.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 07:07
|
|
|
GreatGreen posted:If KB+M support is good, meaning hardware mouse support with no acceleration and good sensitivity settings (it's a From game so it's almost guaranteed to be terrible but let me have this), I'm thinking of going that route. It's a shooter after all and I've always preferred mouse aiming to stick aiming in shooters anyway, even 3rd person shooters. i feel like a broken record here but DS3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring all had decent-to-good mouse control out of the box. DS3's sensitivity scaling is kind of wacky (it's way too high even at the lowest setting, although this might be less a console port issue and more a "high DPI mice took longer to take off in Japan" issue) but by Sekiro they'd sorted it out all three games have some frustrating automatic camera movement which is counter-productive when mouselook is available but that's a much lesser problem than baked-in acceleration or "mouse input is just routed to a simulated controller" bullshit like some of their third party ports have my main concern with Armored Core is that they might try to enforce turn rates through the mechanism of mouse sensitivity, which would pretty much make it unplayable
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 14:04
|
|
|
AC6 will be playable at Gamescom, according to Xbox
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 14:07
|
|
|
I can't believe you played through that many armored core games in such a short time. I do agree that Armored Core 4 Answer is the best and it's good to see that AC6 looks like more of that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 14:16
|
|
|
Did For Answer have some weird PS3 issues where sometimes it ran at 2 fps during huge fights and you had to change the patch version ingame to fix it or something
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 14:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 06:06 |
|
|
Tuxedo Catfish posted:my main concern with Armored Core is that they might try to enforce turn rates through the mechanism of mouse sensitivity, which would pretty much make it unplayable I feel like that is the most likely worst case scenario that could actually happen too. I doubt we'll run into the truly egregious "Windows mouse cursor never goes away and is always 100% visible on the screen" nightmare of port quality Dark Souls 1 had, but forced turn rates is something I could see being implemented in a mech piloting game, and it would indeed totally destroy any ability to play with a mouse in any real capacity. Obviously I hope it's all 100% mouse hardware free look and our mech's aim is glued to the center focus of the monitor, Max Payne 3 style, but less ideally, I could also see some middle ground where mouselook and mech aim is decoupled, so like the player would be able to freely look around at any speed, but the mech would still have a max turn rate and would simply always follow the player's focus but would lag behind if the player looked around quicker than the mech could turn. Hopefully it's Max Payne 3 style though. GreatGreen fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Aug 2, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2023 14:48
|
|