Ghost Recon Wildlands

[DisturbedSwan]

Played about an hour/90 minutes of this earlier.

 

All the previews I read/watched had been rather negative and I wasn't too interested in the game at all going in, surprisingly I actually had some fun with it, it wasn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination but I think beneath the serious macho military stuff there's actually a lot of fun and silliness to be had in the game.

 

It actually reminds me of a strange GTA, Far Cry, Just Cause, The Division hybrid thing really, you have this absolutely HUGE open world, it only gives you two areas in the Beta but I was travelling Kilometres by Helicopter for a good 5-10 minutes at times just within one region to get an objective.

 

Side missions are forgettable, the story missions were a bit better but ultimately quite forgettable. Where the fun came from though was just goofing around, I was playing with randoms and just seeing dudes flying helicopters sloppily, almost hitting the ground, people parachuting out of helicopters, getting left behind when everyone else was in a car etc. was pretty funny. There was this one side mission where we had to nick a plane and it felt just like GTA piloting that, all of chat being like 'any sick bags in back?' etc. It was a real blast, I was actually flying it too and it was very satisfying knowing all these guys were watching me take-off and land this thing.

 

The online mechanics seem really solid, I asked it to constantly matchmake me with other people the second I took control of my character and people just continuously streamed in when someone in the party left seamlessly throughout, really impressive. Didn't get any net issues like getting kicked or anything either, everything felt very solid on that front.

 

Graphics were so-so really, I was playing on PC and bumped it up to Ultra initially but was only getting a 30-45fps with that which was rather distracting so knocked it down to Very High and got an almost constant 60fps. The vistas and draw distance in this game are mightily impressive, you can see for miles, one of the longest draw distances I've ever experienced, up close textures can be a little muddy at times but the vistas and lighting are really impressive.

 

The gunplay seemed cool and meaty enough, as did the tactics/strategy stuff (not that you'll be able to sync your attacks with randoms anyway) that you can put into planning a mission, the cover mechanics were rather odd though, expected to just snap into cover like Gears but there's no snap-in mechanic and you just have to crouch for your character to grip to a corner, but even then it doesn't feel as tight as it should be.

 

So yeah, I wasn't exactly blown away by it but I really do think it could be a ton of fun just goofing around in this world with some mates, nicking 'copters and shit, even with randoms it was cool though, but if you want to truly strategise you'll need friends for sure.

 

Anyone that's into GTA, Far Cry or Just Cause I think may want to give the Beta a go and see what they think.

[DisturbedSwan]

I guess so, I wouldn't pay £50 for it, but if there wasn't such a glut of amazing games out at the same time I'd probably pay £30 for it on PC, as it is though I'll wait, see how the reviews/reaction is to it and may pick it up in the summer when its a lot cheaper.

 

A lot of the issues you noted I honestly rarely noted or found funny, the dialogue is garbage but I rarely noticed it and when I did it I chuckled at how bad it was, it definitely didn't annoy me.

 

As for the collectibles and repeating animations, I did notice them but again, a non issue for me, I didn't need to pick up all the shit that was strewn around so I stopped bothering with it.

 

My original statement stands, I still think it could be a load of fun, Just Cause 3 wasn't a very good game but it was a ton of fun so people liked it a lot.

 

This is not as zany as GTA Online or Just Cause but if you enjoyed those games I think you'd get a kick out of this, particularly with mates but with randoms too.

[mmmark]

I have this now. Bought it in the sale at the weekend. I’ve already had my £16 worth of fun truth be told but more to the point I’m really digging it. I really didn’t get on with the beta but they’ve thrown out a 4hr demo of the full game and I was enjoying myself enough to throw down some pennies. 

 

I’ve played half of it turning off the AI and being a solo bad ass bitch. But then I discovered you can customise your team just the same so now we’re the expendabelles.

 

Its very gamey. Ubisoft games are never realistic, especially open world, but here that kind of adds to the fun of it. 

 

Someone delete beta from the title plz ?

[mmmark]

I’ve been back into this lately. As corny as it sounds I think it’s not been able to go anywhere irl I’m exploring a daft version of Bolivia instead.

 

I don’t know if the PS4 pro version is improved (I hate how it’s fcking impossible to bloody tell, Sony ) but it looks pretty enough and terrain wise it’s really varied.

 

But anyway I’m enjoying lone wolfing it and failing over and over.