ping ping beltsquid

so. I can't help but feel that this game came out at a very different time in video game history, because I'm looking at (old) reviews and seeing a lot of positivity

I.... only really care for the characters and what could be an interesting plot. the gameplay is terrible in a weird way

it's not broken, there aren't any glitches (though the AI are dumb as rocks and sometimes end up shooting at walls/blowing themselves up)

it's just... mainly the combat, is bad from the ground up

the aiming reticle doesn't change colours or anything when it's hovering over an enemy, yet somehow they can see me through foliage. and advancing, even to another bit of chest-high wall

doesn't... ever seem to end well, either due to the layout and placement of cover, or due to where the enemies are meandering around-- but if you stay stationary you're gonna run out of ammo

which.... okay, there's like four guns and you can only carry two at a time, fine

but you switch them with triangle, the same button you use to pick up ammo. and if I'm in combat, I don't really have the time to look and see which one I'm standing over

which... results in a lot of unwanted gun-switching

hand-to-hand combat..... is mostly useless, except for the rare case where you can sneak up behind an enemy and break his neck

also, the enemies..... the magic number from the regular-ass gun (I forget the name) seems to be 3. like, wherever you hit the enemy, he goes down after about 3 hits

I... have apparently made headshots before! the game has told me this, and has given me a trophy for this. I never notice, as it doesn't seem to kill them immediately or anything

and their 'hit' animations look so much like dying animations I often have a hard time figuring out whether I've killed one or not (except for when they dramatically fling themselves forward)

and.... ok. ok you give us a motorboat, you give us control over the motorboat

but then elena is shooting and she can't shoot while the boat is moving and there's explosive barrels that'll kill you if you run into them, but if you stop to shoot them then the enemies shooting you

kill you, so you gotta go forward a bit and then shoot the enemies then the barrels then go forward a bit more and

who designed that part. who made these decisions.

the climbing is.... alright. nathan drake is no ezio, but the lack of climbing options enabled the developers to make full use of the camera, so you're never really wondering where to go next

.... except for the couple times where you are, because it's super unclear, because it blends in too much with the environment or something but. anyway

I can't say climbing is like, a whole lot of fun, but it's not unfun

so far, my favourite part was the beginning where we were discovering and climbing and solving silly puzzles? I liked that

the story is pretty simple and straightforward thus far, but of course it is, that's perfectly fine. I'm not expecting Xenosaga here

Elena... is pretty great, Nathan is pretty Nolan North, Sully is pretty not dead you can't fool me game I know your secrets

though there are two (2) times where I wanted to scream at Elena and they happened fairly close together

the first time was when she almost got murderized and Nathan got thrown in jail, and then she joked how he wasn't going to find el dorado in the cell. lady. you almost died.

stop filming b roll in plain site when people are trying to kill your ass

the second was when suddenly she decided he should stay and find the treasure instead of getting the hell out of dodge, and acted like he was somehow in the wrong for wanting to leave

I mention these things not because I don't think she should be flawed, but because they seemed kind of.... weird???

at first she was like "holy shit, people are trying to blow us up and kill us, aw gee", and then suddenly she is completely oblivious to the extreme danger she is in

you could argue that her passion makes her fearless, but it came off more as cluelessness

anyway I'm just being nitpicky because that was the last real scene I saw before the motorboat sections killed my joy

anyway I've somehow remained mostly unspoiled as to the story of this series, so I am excited to see what happens, and I also know that the second game is supposed to be very good and perhaps the best thus far

so I'll stick with it to the very end. and it's pretty good with checkpoints, no real complaints there

except for a.... weird moment where I jumped onto something I shouldn't have been able to and then slid off and died, taking me back to before I murdered 3 dudes

I'm about halfway done? so says my save file, so I guess I'll finish it off tomorrow

now I sleep for a few hours before going out to hopefully buy some PS4 games for (relatively) cheap, yahooey

.... the store opens in less than two hours though. maybe I'll. play umineko for an hour and a bit and then leave.....

The first game is so LAUGHABLY outdated in terms of gameplay, oh my gosh. Uncharted 2 and 3 are so, so much better.

Like. The gap between 1 and 2 is staggering.

Motorboat section is pretty universally panned. Though melee is actually really useful

THE MOTORBOAT SECTION IS SO AWFUL.

But unlike most games it wants you to blind fire and after softening enemies up, run up and punch them rather than using cover all the time

pbdigital: I should... figure out how to do that one combo successfully.........

and big gap between 1 and 2 reminds me of asscreed, though in this case the main cast is the same

man..... doesn't nathan know that you gotta go into the animus to find out where your ancestor hid his relics. amateur

Yeah, Drake's Fortune is hugely dated

HOWEVER re: melee: STEEL FIST IS YOUR FRIEND

if you pop a couple shots at someone then melee them they go down real fast. Brutal Combo takes a long time and is a pain in the ass and you'll only ever use it to get the dumb trophy associated with it

also in DF, pistols+headshots are your friend. The AK is really inaccurate and enemies are really dodgy

Okay this is the right place for it. Since the game play in 1 is so outdated, is it okay to jump right into 2 without missing too much?

technically yes but I do have a soft spot for the story in 1 and there are lots of references to in in subsequent games so I'd rec at least watching an LP or one of those edited 'movies' of the game

I mean honestly I watched Chip Cheezum's Drake's Fortune LP then went straight to playing Uncharted 2 then went back to DF

Watch an LP if you don't play it yeah. Characters and context from the first game help

Gameplay wise it is the hardest and least forgiving, imo, do not paying it is a legit choice

the PS4 version has that super easy explorer mode but I haven't tried that so ymmv

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (The Movie)

I probably should have made the difficulty "easy" but eh whatever. whateverrrr. I can just plow through it

also according to reddit, this is about explorer mode: "You cannot earn trophies, pick up treasures, earn medals, or unlock rewards. Enemies have lower health and you have a form of aim assist."

well..... I like to pick up treasures so. so. I cannot.

I just picked up bloodborne and shadow of mordor but I'm gonna finish uncharted first....!!!! here I gooo