I think that reviewers tend to play a game for about ten hours. Ten hours in this game is not long enough for the roughness to show. Reviews put way too much emphasis on production values and hype, it often feels like they’re still in that first-couple-of-sessions honeymoon period. See GTA4.
If you play just ten hours of this game, though, it’s absolutely terrible, so I don’t think that postulate is valid here.
I experienced most of the janky stuff I’ve had to deal with early on in the more scripted, on-rails sequences.
Oh, I see - thats because on my PS3, they are called Manor Missions or somesuch, because of some stupid translation thing. Those I do know what are, so don’t you worry your pretty little head about me missing things. I was just worried there were some other missions I’d missed somewhere.
As my mom used to tell 8 year old me in similar circumstances: “Honey, maybe this game just isn’t for you.”
Well, Love, I think it is, if only they polished it and made the things work, instead of putting them in halfway there.
But thanks for the feedback, though!
Well, see, there you go. Those missions are fantastic, have depth to them, and are a lot of fun. Love the rebuilding the homestead thing. Feels very Dark Cloud-ish. Favorite part of the game.
See, that Dark Cloud feeling is exactly what we’re talking about. It totally does seem like the Homestead missions are going to open into a Dark Cloud parade of possibilities.
But that never happens. You just do a bunch of weird errands for random people. Sometimes it’s a fedex quest, sometimes it is a minigame, and the payoff is… more crafting shit.
Actually the way it works is QA tests the whole game assiduously and posts a zillion bugs, including no doubt everything we’ve complained about, in increasingly shriller and more desperate tones over time.
But the early stages of the game get the most love from the devs because a) the early game affects player and especially reviewer reaction and word of mouth and all that much much more than the end, and b) they’ve been working on the early game for longer than they have the later game, and they have more time to get it right.
Gee, it’s a shame reviews consist solely of scores without any explanation.
-Tom
I found a 3rd guy dispensing an assassination side-mission. It was just like the other two, 5 identical, easy to reach targets. I was hoping there might be more that I’d missed, but my DNA Tracker now says I have 100% on all categories of citizen missions, including assassination contracts.
If you need to loot that Frontier land convoy for the Thief challenge, you can ride the main roads until you run into it, or fast travel to the harbormaster in the SW, then go west(ish) towards the tavern by the fort in the far SW. I think the convoy’s appearance rate in that spot is closer to 25% than the 50% that is usually mentioned. FWIW, I never saw the convoy appear there during the day, so maybe you’ll have better luck looking for it there at night.
Three questions:
-
Although my DNA tracker says 100% for all 3 categories of citizen missions, and all collectibles, my map says that in the Frontier I have 1 citizen mission unlocked. Anyone have any idea what that could be? My encyclopedia of the common man quest is unfinished (and glitched) - does that count as a Frontier citizen mission until completed?
-
The risk for naval convoy routes never goes below 5%, even after you clear out all privateers. Does that mean there’s a chance a naval convoy could run into trouble and generate a naval mission, the way land convoys generate an encounter if they’re attacked?
-
In the Homestead region there are 3 gambling games, which I started playing to finish the last Thief challenge. I got the 500 from beating Terry at Bowls and winning a game of Fanorona in the Manor, but I’ve never won a game of Morris in the Homestead Inn. Anyone have any tips for beating the Innkeeper at Morris?
I think I won one expert 12-man game, but I might be mistaken; I’ve won on the smaller boards at lower levels, anyway. I haven’t read anything about the theory of the game, but I believe the idea is to maintain your “liberties” – freedom of movement for your pieces once all have been deployed – while restricting the opponent’s, of course while also preventing them from making mills, and making them yourself if possible. To make a mill, obviously the move before you have presumably made 2 simultaneous 2-in-a-row lines such that they both can’t be blocked with a single move.
I think the AI is rather less smart during the movement phase than during the placement phase.
Any buzz on the PC version? It’s due out tomorrow so I just pre-purchased it on Steam thinking I could preload but it doesn’t seem to be an option…
I am frothing at the mouth. Is that “buzz?”
FROTHING
That might be rabies!
Or small pox. Beware of white man bearing gifts!
It’s supposed to include most of the patch fixes, but I think I’ll let you guys test it out for me :)
Um, isn’t this supposed to be out now (for PC)?
Steam usually puts things out at 1pm EST.
Downloading now! Woo!
I can’t wait to start playing so I can get to the good stuff in three or four days.
IMO good stuff is right away. Looks and plays great on pc.
So… Holy shit. This game is amazing.