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I made a mistake installing that fax machine because now the dumb thing beeps at me every time I return to the garage until I attend to it. Anyway I've been taking my sweet time with the game and still really enjoying it, just got the mission which sounds like it's sending me into the final zone.
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Mar 20, 2024 19:59
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| # ? May 6, 2024 05:46 |
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Yeah, some of the upgrades (both for the shop and the car) feel like they’re there to fill out a tree, rather than to provide meaningful progression. Part of the problem is that the game has so few verbs in its design toolbox, so there’s not a whole lot that can be done to create things that are exciting and new. Things like insulated panels feel like a designer said “we need panels that aren’t just numerical upgrades”, looked at the very short list of damage types, and made a panel that takes reduced damage from a specific type. I didn’t really feel like I was able to make a build, besides picking powers I thought were interesting. After thinking about it a bunch, I think my overall impression of the game is that it is very hollow. It absolutely nails the vibe it was going for, but if you peel that back, there’s not actually a whole lot left. The core gameplay loop is fairly basic. You go on runs to collect materials, then bring them back so that you can craft upgrades to let you collect materials better. Going out on a run incurs a resource cost due to wear-and-tear, encouraging you to explore thoroughly. While you’re exploring, there are hazards to avoid, and the primary reason to avoid those hazards is to avoid damage, which is itself a resource sink. This is all fine; many other successful games have this exact loop. However, a basic loop needs interesting gameplay to back it up, and Pacific Drive’s gameplay gets pretty rote pretty quickly. The driving is fantastic, but its skill floor isn’t very high, and I felt like I had mastered it very early in my playthrough. Resource gathering is nothing special, amounting to either looting a box or using a tool on a node. The hazards have a pretty narrow set of things they can do to you, and they have a limited set of forms they can take. The world isn’t particularly threatening, as cautious play will turn every hazard into an inconvenience. You’re only in real danger if you’re rushing, and there’s very little in the game that encourages you to rush. This isn’t to say that the gameplay is bad. It’s just somewhat bare-bones and repetitive. Pacific Drive is a game that’s held up by its theme, and now that I’m done with its story, I don’t think the gameplay is compelling enough for me to want to keep playing. I definitely enjoyed it, though, at least enough to play it for 37 hours when I could have been playing Helldivers 2.
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Mar 20, 2024 21:05
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got the credits last night and man, i really wanted to like this game more than i do. i don't care about any of the characters, they're all basically corporeal ghosts - dead people with unfinished business who can't move on. their interaction with us is so sparse they might as well be audio logs. the gameplay also really wore thin for me after the 4th or 5th time i went out - it was about then that i realized that basically nothing in the game is truly dangerous, by design. everything is designed to annoy you. it annoys you in various ways, and if you somehow allow yourself to be annoyed too much it can theoretically kill you. but that's it. the deep zone changed that for about 5 minutes when i ran into one zone with a perpetual meteor shower, but even then it was very obvious there were rules to the shower, and those rules made things plenty safe in general. i guess the kayfabe broke. the game became more about managing how pissed off i was rather than how much danger my avatar was in. this got amplified when i realized that to get high end mods, i needed multiple trips out to very specific spots, all of which could take 20-30 minutes just to arrive on scene. i'm happy this game did well because it is a creative take and creative games deserve rewards in the endless cycle of rehashed, formulaic bullshit out there, but i am really hard pressed to call it a solid game. i definitely can't call it good. hopefully there's a followup where they make the basic loop more compelling.
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Mar 20, 2024 21:35
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the "talk at the mute main character" method of storytelling is hard to do it's even harder to do when you never actually see those characters or go anywhere that really has environmental story telling the concept is really good, but yeah, I'm about to make it into the deep zone and reading the past few posts feels like exactly what I was thinking
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Mar 20, 2024 21:54
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Raymond T. Racing posted:the "talk at the mute main character" method of storytelling is hard to do i felt actively insulted a number of times because the three stooges would go on for full minutes about their own dramas. as an afterthought, they would say something about "helping the Driver" at the end of their spiel. i'd just be over here going "don't pretend like you give the slightest gently caress about me"
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Mar 20, 2024 22:02
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Coolguye posted:it is, but even in that context i don't really feel like this game did it very well. to be clear, I was not suggesting they did a good job at it driver has no actual real motivations, or even personality traits that can be ascribed to them gordon freeman: - we know he's smart he has a phd from MIT - we're able to learn things about him based on the interactions other characters have with him driver: - they're a delivery driver I think?
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Mar 20, 2024 22:07
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bahaha i guess that really drives home why they put up with all of the horseshit the stooges drag them through if your primary job was basically a postmates driver you'd probably go "this is the most interesting thing that will ever happen to me"
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Mar 20, 2024 22:11
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The driver's origin story is funny. WHat the hell were they doing there? Doing a delivery? To who, the area around the wall seems to be filled with abandoned (and apparently dangerous!) facilities. They weren't lost, the wall is pretty big landmark. Like what was going on there
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Mar 20, 2024 22:26
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I kept thinking there would be some kind of timeloop thing to explain why he was there where he himself was the originator of the order.
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Mar 20, 2024 22:45
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I dunno, I thought the epilogue of "hey wanna hang out?" made perfect sense
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Mar 20, 2024 22:56
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Everyone's already mentioned how the hazards mostly just function as potholes of various flavors, just something you're not supposed to drive into, and the few rare exceptions (bunnies, abductors) are extremely minor, and later game you just get variants. But there's something more fundamental that stood out to me: in terms of gameplay mechanics, it's really strange how much of the game's control/gameplay is limited to driving, and then there's... not actually that much driving. Like for my overall playthrough I definitely spent more time on foot than in the car. When you're looting you have to get out very frequently, so I would often get in, turn on the car, shift into drive, drive like 8 seconds to the next point of interest just slightly down the road, park, turn off the car, get out, go loot, repeat. And this is semi related, but I couldn't stand how many boring obstacles were on the road. This got really obvious during highways but I think their code just generates one generic non-anomalous obstacle in the middle of the road every 50 feet or so. Like, I get there'd be some clutter, but not a single clear road exists in the entire game. You drive 5 seconds, turn slightly to avoid a pallet of cinderblocks. Drive 5 seconds, avoid a cluster of barrels. Drive 5 seconds, avoid a pile of cement. It breaks up the driving very obnoxiously and prevents you from ever just cruising down the roads and gives a very stop-and-start, overly cautious mode to driving even in clear zones where you're just driving through. And they're so regular you can basically set your watch by them. No variance at all. What's the point? Were the anomalies not enough, now every road has 500 half-finished construction projects strewn along it? Eminent DNS posted:I dunno, I thought the epilogue of "hey wanna hang out?" made perfect sense Vib Rib fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 22:57
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Seems like they were supposed to deliver to someone that maybe works around the outside of the wall. But there was a breach and they got sucked in.
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Mar 20, 2024 23:11
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Vib Rib posted:Everyone's already mentioned how the hazards mostly just function as potholes of various flavors, just something you're not supposed to drive into, and the few rare exceptions (bunnies, abductors) are extremely minor, and later game you just get variants. But there's something more fundamental that stood out to me: in terms of gameplay mechanics, it's really strange how much of the game's control/gameplay is limited to driving, and then there's... not actually that much driving. Like for my overall playthrough I definitely spent more time on foot than in the car. I was being sarcastic. I loved the game, and even thought the final mission was fine (I was pretty tired of doing runs by then), but the epilogue is pretty silly conceptually
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Mar 20, 2024 23:23
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Vib Rib posted:When you're looting you have to get out very frequently, so I would often get in, turn on the car, shift into drive, drive like 8 seconds to the next point of interest just slightly down the road, park, turn off the car, get out, go loot, repeat. almost. it was still loving infuriating. also the constant roadblocks was what convinced me upgraded engines were simply not worth it. why should i bother with an engine that lets me go faster? i have to slow down to swerve every 3 seconds. i liked the amp engine simply because it let me not worry about gasoline, which is otherwise THE single most irritating and time-consuming resource to get. i happily packed a few stacks of battery jumpers instead, in the rare case when my 3x wind turbine + 1x whatever else was not enough. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 23:29
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It's not mechanically optimal I'm sure, but I will never give up the autoparker. There's just too much hopping in and out.
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Mar 20, 2024 23:31
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I am fairly sure the autoparker has kept me from running after the car on more than one occasion
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Mar 20, 2024 23:37
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Since I got the auto parker, I've enjoyed it a bit more. I also turned on the setting to just tap ignition and parking. Now I just turn the car off and hop out to grab something. Then I just have to hop back in and tap ignition and I'm on my way. I've really enjoyed this game and I do think there are things they could do to either make this one better or a second one better. At a certain point, it really is just a run through a building, hold E, press T and move on game. Aside from the few types of loot that only exist in certain areas, there's no real risk based looting. When I see a building that is covered in whatever it is that gives off radiation, I just don't even bother anymore. I know it's not worth going in there because it's the same random loot as the non radiated building. Maybe I just didn't go into enough of them to see it, but it would be nice if there was like later zone loot in those or something. If I was likely to get tree candy or marsh eggs out of a container in one, I'd be willing to go in. As it is, my trunk is half full and I have two more junctions to get to, that building isn't worth it.
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Mar 20, 2024 23:39
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Coolguye posted:the deep zone changed that for about 5 minutes when i ran into one zone with a perpetual meteor shower, but even then it was very obvious there were rules to the shower, and those rules made things plenty safe in general. Coolguye posted:also the constant roadblocks was what convinced me upgraded engines were simply not worth it. why should i bother with an engine that lets me go faster? i have to slow down to swerve every 3 seconds.
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Mar 21, 2024 01:04
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yeah it was never about the speed, it was about improving the car's ability to emulate a skyrim horse. i didn't get the other engine upgrades beyond the first but it handily met that goal
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Mar 21, 2024 01:07
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Cojawfee posted:Seems like they were supposed to deliver to someone that maybe works around the outside of the wall. But there was a breach and they got sucked in. All the signs indicated that everything had been shut down, who would be working there?
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Mar 21, 2024 01:37
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30.5 Days posted:All the signs indicated that everything had been shut down, who would be working there?
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Mar 21, 2024 01:40
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Even if things are shut down, you'd still have to have security or something. I doubt the government would let them just have a big area that's totally hosed and just abandon it without having token security guards keeping people from wandering in.
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Mar 21, 2024 01:42
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A skeleton crew to monitor the outer wall, to report if it ever is, in fact, no longer the outer wall?
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Mar 21, 2024 01:43
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Kyte posted:I disagree, more engine power means more acceleration and makes it easier to climb up hills. Top speed doesn't matter, but being able to start and stop on a dime does. The AMP engine is perfect for this, since it behaves exactly like a real electric engine and gives you full power the instant you hit the pedal.
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Mar 21, 2024 02:16
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One thing that really cheeses me off about this game is that there needs to be arrows on the roads to say what direction they go. I did a run earlier where I planned to take a highway junction, then go to junction that has a tape in it, and then head towards the mission junction. There was a road connecting the two, and the one with the tape looked like it was further into zone so it felt like it should have been a forward move. I get to the highway junction, make it through to the exit, and it won't let me go to where I wanted to go.
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Mar 21, 2024 02:54
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Cojawfee posted:Seems like they were supposed to deliver to someone that maybe works around the outside of the wall. But there was a breach and they got sucked in. I went and rewatched a Youtube video on the opening and somehow I completely missed that the Driver was dropped off by a ferry. I remembered the game starting in the driver's seat of the truck, and thought we were at a gate in the outer wall and only just now realized that was the outer wall where the Driver gets sucked in.
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Mar 21, 2024 03:09
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Kyte posted:there are? what kinda rules? this all combines to mean that even in the worst situation there's a fairly easy to find safe spot and there's a guaranteed way forward in 10 seconds or so. quote:I disagree, more engine power means more acceleration and makes it easier to climb up hills. Top speed doesn't matter, but being able to start and stop on a dime does. the AMP engine was basically the only thing i cared for outside of the standard. after two trips out with the ultralight, i threw it in a locker, and the LIM-chipped engine made it one before i went back to the AMP.
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Mar 21, 2024 03:38
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Do offroad tires just randomly blow out after a while? I had these tires for a while I admit, but every time I checked them, they seemed to be in good condition. Then this last run, I had two tires blow out completely after I had already replaced them on a previous run. With other tires, after a while they'd say bald which clearly means they need to be replaced. With these ones, they never said they had any problems, but then I'd drive for a bit and then there's the yellow dot on the status window and it's completely destroyed.
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Mar 21, 2024 05:27
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Cojawfee posted:Do offroad tires just randomly blow out after a while? I had these tires for a while I admit, but every time I checked them, they seemed to be in good condition. Then this last run, I had two tires blow out completely after I had already replaced them on a previous run. With other tires, after a while they'd say bald which clearly means they need to be replaced. With these ones, they never said they had any problems, but then I'd drive for a bit and then there's the yellow dot on the status window and it's completely destroyed.
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Mar 21, 2024 06:26
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They weren't even going flat, they were just completely blown out, no way to fix them.
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Mar 21, 2024 07:09
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A side tank, a large tank in the trunk, and that small gunk tank, I could easily fill up at gas stations and fuel trucks with the turbo light. Took just as long to refuel but didn’t require a lot of stops. And it saved my battery and jump kits quite a lot, along with making it much easier to grab those storm-only supply drops aka payloads , as well as anchors and recordings. With all the above I occasionally had more fuel than I needed.
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Mar 21, 2024 09:57
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The secret of the AMP engine is that the plasma chargers contain something like 200-250 energy and are happy to dump it straight into the battery almost instantly. They’re extremely cheap to build, requiring only 4 plasma as their rarest component, and take up the same amount of storage space in your trunk as a large fuel tank despite holding about 2-3 times as much mileage worth of juice. I had two XL seat batteries for storage, some passive generation on my side panels to stop the bleeding, and two plasma chargers in my trunk, which all together was enough to fuel my LIM shield and resource radar addiction on multi-stop deep zone runs.
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Mar 21, 2024 10:12
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In terms of how I played the game I think my biggest weakness was being too hesitant to spend resources. Beat the game with enough repair paste, blowtorches, jumpers, and other mats that I rarely ever used. Don't think I ever used those recharger rods once.
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Mar 21, 2024 17:09
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Vib Rib posted:I don't know what it is but around the midzone it feels like I started getting flats and status effects way more often, most notably flat tires. One trip in particular felt like I got maybe 10 flats in a single outing. I wondered at the time if maybe leaving the starting zone bumps the difficulty somehow, but after this post I wonder if the offroad tires are just really prone to flats or something. My brain connected it to the water in the mid zone. Driving through it seemed to send my chances for a wheel problem (flat, blowout, or loose) into the stratosphere, so I've started actively avoiding the water at all costs and bringing an extra set of tires for any midzone where I need to cross a swamp junction
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Mar 21, 2024 20:51
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I just went with the run-flat tires and never looked back. Tires in general seem to have enough HP to last like 5 or 6 runs without ever being repaired, and when I got the run-flat ones I could just basically ignore them except for the occasional wobbly tire.
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Mar 21, 2024 20:57
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bird food bathtub posted:It's not mechanically optimal I'm sure, but I will never give up the autoparker. There's just too much hopping in and out. By the time I installed the autoparker I was so used to putting the handbrake on before leaving the car I just kept doing it anyway. After about an hour or two of forgetting to forget to put the brake on I replaced it with a battery instead.
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Mar 21, 2024 23:02
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I'm completely stuck on (just after reaching the mid zone) the mission where you have to search the auto shop for ARDA data? I've looked absolutely everywhere but I can't find anything, the mission text helpfully says 'look around'. The journey planner is also disabled so I can't even leave until I presumably find it am I missing something incredibly obvious?
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Mar 22, 2024 00:03
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Isn't that just in the bathroom? Or maybe it's just a small backroom? It's a door in the adjacent room you never have any reason to go into that you can now unlock, I think with an electrician's kit or maybe just by using the keypad
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Mar 22, 2024 00:08
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Eminent DNS posted:Isn't that just in the bathroom? Or maybe it's just a small backroom? There's a locked door with a keypad that's always been inaccessible I think? There's no option to use an electricians kit on it and using the keypad doesn't work...
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Mar 22, 2024 00:11
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| # ? May 6, 2024 05:46 |
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yeah, it should let you into that room finally and then there's a secure switch on one of the bathroom fixtures (might be a combination of all 3? it's the toilet flush, the sink and the hand dryer. hand dryer did it for me but I was playing with the other 2 first)
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Mar 22, 2024 00:49
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