I have an inkling about that, based on the premise of "New Dawn". I was put off by the marketing, with the crazy Fortnite -ish neon color scheme (which already blights some of the guns in 5), but the trailer makes it look like more of a 3/4/5 re-skin, complete with tedious villains*.

I'm eyeing the 'Nam DLC for 5.


*the characters are actually pretty interesting, it's all the cut scenes and phony fights in lala land that makes 'em tiresome.

The Vietnam DLC is fun. Short, but fun and with good reasons to replay.

I always like the fantastic bits of FC, whether it's hallucinatory quests or alternative worlds, and I think New Dawn may have some of that vibe throughout, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm just a bit too mean to pay full-game price for what is, in essence, a DLC itself.

I find the fantastic bits in FC (notably 4, and to a far lesser extent 5) are kind of interesting, but waaay overdone as central story elements. Having used aplenty from the supermarket of pharma, the virtual experience doesn't really cut it for me.

What I like about 5 moreso than 3 and 4, and I think this is also why you like 4 (as you mentioned), is that it is grounded in a reality I can directly relate to, having grown up and substantially lived in rural (both Northern and Southern) Usian communities. 5 quite accurately models rural Americana, the mix of down-to-earth charm with firearms-and-religion psychosis. And the landscape is spot on, it's like a hike in the wilderness without the fresh air and exercise.

Yes, the druggy bits are a bit like what people who hadn't done hallucinogens would do if they were imagining what trips were like, which may well be the case. (side note: VR is much more like hallucination or dream than flat games. Somebody should be designing VR digital trip simulations at the moment - I'm sure there would be huge market for it). I still enjoy them (the FC levels), though, for their randomness.

Interesting point about engaging with FC5 more strongly through familiarity. I designed a couple of games for heritage trusts based around their properties - Belsay Hall in Northumberland and Knaresborough Castle - and before that I commissioned my Art Gallery, Cartwright Hall , to be made into an Unreal Tournament map. It was always very odd, playing these places in-game and then walking through the actual architecture - some kind of uncanny valley thing going on.

I attended the Yorkshire Games Conference a few weeks ago and a level designer from Hitman 2 was showing how meticulously they were designing levels on real locations.

I'm not sure which drug(s) 5 models, though I suspect opioids -- 4 is deffo shrooms/acid/mescaline type stuff. It simulates some of the visual effects pretty good. What a virtual simulation can't do is superimpose your own memories, imaginings, fears &ct. on the observed world, which to me is how hallucinations and dreams work. So it very quickly degrades from 'gee, this is neat' to 'meh, another stupid computer trick'. Maybe it's more vivid in VR, I dunno. Straight up open world games definitely influence how I look at the real world with the uncanny valley thing. Best recent (2019) movie I've seen about that is Serenity  -- just naming it is actually a spoiler!

Edit: Nam's aboard.

Thanks for the heads up about the discount on FC5: New Dawn. I supplemented that with an additional 20% discount claimed with some Ubi-point things I didn't know existed until Pere Ubi told me in very timely fashion that they were about to expire. I ended up paying 13 and a bit quid for it, which seemed fair.

Life then promptly changed in turbo gear in a deliberate conspiracy to prevent me from getting so much as a sniff at the credits, so first impressions will have to wait until this evening.

I started up the 'Nam DLC and thus finding the world underpopulated with, you know enemies as I stumble around in the jungle, which kind of resembles a golf course that hasn't been mowed in a couple of weeks, with some trees and big-ass rocks. Anyhoo there are a bunch of 'side-missions' available in a menu, so I suppose the onus is on me to go find the action. On the bright side, returning to FC5 I find the gun locker has been restocked with some nice 'Nam-era toys, including a pretty decent M16. I did my time in the Jacob shooting gallery (BOORING!!!) and now happily back open-worlding in the White Mountains, where the terrain is breathtaking.
 

[wrong thread]

Made it through the swap out the brainwashing video in the torture hotel/blow up the "only you" boom boxes/kill Jacob boss fight. Halfway through the "only you" bit, I realized it was conventional FC combat with extra enemy spawning and graphical silliness, so that made it better. The boss fight was pretty rote and pretty meh (I actually killed him with two .50 pistol rounds from a distance of about 15-feet). I didn't mind so much because this was after a glorious round of assorted open-world roaming and the less tedious (not go cart, not shooting gallery) mini-missions.

Do me a favour and sometime leave the region and return (with caution) to the hotel. Mine seemed to completely repopulate with enemies. Just the once.

I've already noticed similar in a couple of spots, will check the hotel. Pretty sure it also happens in 3 & 4. Feature.

Just remembered, when I finished the torture tape mission and before it segued into the "only you" battle, there were still cultists about, and no triumphalist resistance dudes rolled in. So not a base cap per se. Mind you, this was at 1:30am.

OK, I'm all confused about where this torture lodge is. I thought it might be Elk something lodge, but that is an already captured base with no cultists left around, and it has decidedly different landscaping (and a giant elk statue). Anyway I did John last night. The airplane flying was pretty much a fiasco from start to finish, but I managed to eject and parachute to finish him on the ground. It feels pretty close to the story end now with all regions liberated, but my progress is only showing ~53% completion (true I skipped all the dumber side shows). Still got the showdown with Joseph and whatever follows to do. Gotta say the last few cut scenes are better than average for FC.

Edit: Found it. Abandoned, no cultists,

Finished it. I picked the "resist" option which led to a fairly spectacular, if bleak ending (in a bunker with a crazy person forever and ever, amen). Maybe next go I'll try "walk away" & see how that goes.

Anyway, before that an odd thing happened: while I was going back to check out the torture lodge, the cult chopper convoy hoves into view. I started switching out my assault rifle ammo to AP to have a pop at it, when a seaplane comes along and shoots them all down (unbidden by me), the mission success banner pops up and I 'earn' 800 bucks for nothing.

As manthorp rightly pointed out, there's not much to do after the regions are liberated, so after cleaning up some stray side missions, I went for my appointment with destiny.

After that, the "game+" option is presented and you get to replay the game with all your dosh and weapons. So I started that on "hard," which thus far, ain't very. Noticing a lot more about the story though. On this playthrough I might try leaving one base in each region in order to carry on with the open world random firefights, which present some of the best part of the game.

I think 5 is my favorite of the series, though I will be playing 4 again at some point RSN. Also still got the Nam DLC which I barely started.

Playing on after the nuclear apocalypse seems a bit silly, especially in a gameworld that's clearly pre-apocalyptic. It's not as if there is a non-apocalyptic ending, after all.

I flunked the final dogfight with John - my flying is and always has been dreadful - but I bossed it anyway. As far as I could tell his plane just screamed out of the sky without cause and crashed. I assume it's written-in to avoid frustrating bad players like me.

I'm glad to see that the end hasn't put you off replaying - as I said before, I've not been tempted.

I've installed New Dawn and watched the intro, but I haven't had time to start playing yet - maybe this evening, if I'm spared. 



 

Well the gameworld looks the same as it did before, just the mission splash screen looks post-apocalyptic with a burnt-out Falls River.  I really don't care about the story, there's loads of replay in this. I'm totally ignoring in-game prompts to do this or that mission next, and just tooling around the map.

Getting past the opening, it's definitely harder on "hard" but not insurmountably so, especially with the full weapon loadout -- and that really change the dynamic of early game play, as you're no longer fixated on amassing perks, and you can pretty much kill anything. BUT on "hard" the enemies can spot and kill you more easily, making stealth, surprise and sniping premium tactics.

I cut a non-apocalyptic swath of destruction walking due north through the land o' Jacob, then doubled back to pick up the bow lady (helper folks aren't kept in game+, you have to fetch 'em back). Apparently there's ways of controlling them, with keyboard commands (stay and heel) but mine are off-leash. Might get Cheeseburger the bear next, haven't tried him yet.

I really came to appreciate using the in-game helper commands. You can direct snipers to vantage points and get them to stay there, or send scrappers into the heart of the action (especially if you don't like them much and want to replace them with more companionable ones).

Fished yet?

I tried fishing on those side missions for the monster drugged-out fish, the ones that break your line. I caught lots of the wrong fish, then it became boring and repetitive so I gave up. I have pretty low threshold of boredom. Bow-hunting by comparison is a lot more fun. It would be cool if you could bow hunt fish, Amazon-stylee with 6 foot arrows.

I was thinking this morning: why hasn't Far Cry done an urban environment?

Far Cry was 17.5 on PS4 last month. Actually it was 20+ something but added discounts for PS members. 

So after the Baron Mill Lumberyard base cap in "Game + Hard" mode, I decided to go for a lighter loadout: winchester-style rifle with scope, 'Nam mp5k, bow and .44 magnum revolver. Bad move.

The BML cap triggered the john cut scene that segued into the reverend free tha' prisoners running gun battle and then defend the bridge with a mortar and whatnot 'til the chopper gets there, and oh by the way, you have to get your not-too-capable buddy out alive too.

Real tough when you're surrounded by baseball bat-swinging and shotgun-blasting crazies. This is where the hard difficulty really is a problem. So I bailed on that and went back into 'Nam, this time finding lots to do (variously) freeing prisoners, liberating a POW camp, and taking out an AA gun, none of which was especially difficult with my hard-won FC veteran skills.

The terrain of this DLC is also looking a lot more interesting and believable once I got past the sprawling golf course.

I can never be bothered with playing on hard difficulty - I don't tend to play for the challenge, but for the story, the world and the lolz. That's probably why I don't like (& am lousy at) boss levels.

Update on New Dawn: I played my first half hour last night, a discreet training level neatly done in the remains of a crashed train (cf. Half Life: Chapters), and the first level proper, involving scrounging the materials for a saw blade slinger (cf. Half Life: Chapters), taking a bridge and picking up a partner.

First impressions: Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose, but that's fine by me. The post-post-apocalyptic landscape is interesting; sort of cyberpunky, with unlikely mutant animals (so soon?).

There's clearly going to be a greater emphasis on crafting - weapons, ammunition & syringes - which I was lazy about in FC5: you could pick up enough stuff not to need to craft. I don't think I'll get that option in FC:ND. But that feels appropriate to the narrative, so I'll just re-learn the emphasis on crafting that came with FC: Primal.

Not particularly hard, though the training level has the same driver as FC5: enemies in such overwhelming numbers that I ultimately had to get out of Dodge. I might restart it tonight and try to kill them all by stealth.