Far Cry 5

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

 

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

Quote

I don't want to suddenly end up getting barred from the types of groups that pay me, as I count on that side money for income... and honestly, there are two other reasons I held off on talking about this for the past year. First, they made me sign a fuckton of paperwork promising I wouldn't tell anyone about this... and second? I really LIKE their idea for FC5, and I didn't want them to suddenly change the direction of the boat in midstream because of leaks. Since I would presume they're probably about to begin releasing plot points, I figure now's a good time to let you in on what I was told. PLEASE REMEMBER to take this with a grain of salt. I spent 2 hours learning about FC5 on a random night in 2016 at a focus group company -- I wouldn't have any more in-depth knowledge about the game, as I'm not affiliated with Ubisoft whatsoever. If you cannot believe what I'm saying... I also don't have any way to prove that what I'm saying is true, so feel free to speculate away. If it proves I don't work for Ubisoft, I'll be the first one to say that I was very happy they decided to take a year off of AC games because they're reaaaaaally goddamn close to killing the goose that laid golden eggs in the name of keeping that franchise churning out B-minus level narratives and buggy initial releases.

 

So here goes.

 

Last year, I participated in a focus group in a major metropolitan area, the topic of which was about video games -- I do a lot of these types of groups, but this was the first time doing one on technology. Usually they're on things like shopping, or blue jeans, or sour cream, or Taco Bell or some such. The initial screener of the group asked about the types of games we like to play -- I listed games like GTA 5, Assassin's Creed, Batman, etc. I was chosen to be part of one of the groups -- I was told there were 6 of them extending over a single day, and they'd be running these groups in many major metropolitan areas. For the privilege of being in on this group, for 2 hours of time, I got paid (IIRC) either $100 or $125, can't remember. Generally, we don't know who the client is that's asking for the group until we get there. Turns out... this was Ubisoft. I was excited because I thought maybe we'd be seeing some advanced footage of the next edition of Assassin's, but this was for Far Cry 5. Awesome, I loved 3 and 4, and tolerated Primal.

Here's what they showed us in the group -- now keep in mind that this MUST be taken with a grain of salt, since it's been about a year now and a ton of things have likely changed.

• The idea of doing it in Montana was the predominant idea -- like many of you, we were kind of led to believe at first that it would be a Wild West motif, just to see what we thought of that idea -- but that changed when they started to show us character profiles and other collateral. The general thrust of this game is that it will take place in present day, and feature the protagonist taking on a Jim Jones or David Koresh-like religious cult in a small town in Montana that's been populated by, essentially, Doomsday-preppers bent on furthering their cause. So, modern-day weaponry and modern-day vehicles, plus a hilly, mountainous backdrop. Honestly, it sounded at the time like they were using that to their advantage, given that when you think of Far Cry you kind of think of mountains and hills and the kind of backdrop Montana has in spades.
• They showed us some basic promotional videos featuring a heavily -- HEAVILY -- religious angle to the evil. A person (presumably the protagonist) walking through a town that was completely empty, only to walk into a church to discover the congregation is made up of everyone in town staring in rapt attention at a shirtless lunatic leader brandishing an assault rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other. Even at the time, I wondered how they were going to handle the presentation of religious zealotry to the type of Middle America that purchases games for their kids. If they proceed on the path that I saw... they're not even trying to pretend. They're steering the vehicle into the curve.
• We saw candids and profiles of many of the characters in the game -- left out of those were any kind of details about the primary protagonist, and there wasn't much on the antagonist-preacher either. Instead, we got views of what I'd presume are some of the support characters. A female mechanic (who I strongly suspect is a love interest, or someone giving you missions) who helps you. An old burnt-out hippie character. Various and sundry small-town folks. And the second-in-command bad guy, who was basically being portrayed as Tom Cruise -- an A-list celebrity who became a ranking member of the high council. There were also some oblique references to this religion sharing some commonalities with Scientology, and I wonder if those will make the cut. The only thing about the Tom Cruise cypher that didn't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense is that he was supposed to have garnered his fame, at least in partial, from working in pornography. If anything's gonna change, I'd hope it's this element, because I'm not sure small-town America's all that ready for porno-Tom-Cruise-turned-religious-nutjob-murderer.
• We didn't learn much about weapons or vehicles, aside from the fact that they specifically mentioned the types of things we saw in FC3/4 -- ATVs, Jeeps, etc.
• The overall feeling I got from the animatic videos we saw is that they're really playing up a sense of dread. This is a small town and is filled with small-town sensibilities, the kind of place where God's word is law, and the sense you get is that the antagonist-preacher found a perfect place for his quasi-religion to take root.
• No word on multiplayer during this session. They were only interested in showing us stuff from the campaign, and even then just a few key elements.
• Most of what I saw wasn't imminently memorable, with the exception of the couple characters and the cool idea of pitting the protagonist against a Branch Davidian-like cult. Mostly what the focus group was gauging was reactions to videos and still images -- asking us questions about "how this character would sound," or "does this person seem like someone you'd like to get to know" and whatnot. When it came time for open feedback, you may be happy to know that I railed them a bit for reusing the map from FC4 for Primal, which felt like lazy bullshit to me.

Anyway, as I said -- a lot can change in a year, so please don't hold my feet to the fire if this has all changed. But for what it's worth, focus groups are EXPENSIVE to put on, so I sincerely doubt they would have scrapped the entire thing afterwards unless they'd gotten exceptionally negative feedback... and I can tell you that the feedback given by the group members in my session were all exceptionally positive. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing if some or all of what I was shown will be coming true. I like Far Cry a lot, and I want it to get back to the days when the antagonists were charismatic and dangerous.

 

[tronic44 3,642]

This is all 4 teasers in one

 

 

The only thing that slightly puts me off is that Red Dead Redemption is coming out, don't know if i need two wild west games. But if i'm going to be honest, i'll have this pre-ordered asap.

 

There's something about Far Cry that i absolutely love, although i think they need to change it up a lot. I wasn't impressed with Far Cry 4's story but enjoyed the gameplay, even though it was very similar to Far Cry 3 (the best so far) I really enjoyed Primal as well, i love the whole prehistoric era.

 

I love Far Cry!

[GazzaGarratt 11,034]

58 minutes ago, tronic44 said:

The only thing that slightly puts me off is that Red Dead Redemption is coming out, don't know if i need two wild west games. But if i'm going to be honest, i'll have this pre-ordered asap.

 

RDR2 won't be out until 2018 and possibly H2 2018 at this rate. I wouldn't be put off by that.

 

More about getting back to Far Cry 3 gameplay. More of the same good things will be a success. 

[tronic44 3,642]

Just now, GazzaGarratt said:

 

RDR2 won't be out until 2018 and possibly H2 2018 at this rate. I wouldn't be put off by that.

 

More about getting back to Far Cry 3 gameplay. More of the same good things will be a success. 

 I wrote this then immediately saw your RDR2 post.

 

The one thing i've never done with Far Cry, is play multiplayer, will be interested to give that a go this time around.

 

You're 100% right though, they do need to look back at Far Cry 3 and look at the things that worked. I've got high hopes for this game.

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

3 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

 

RDR2 won't be out until 2018 and possibly H2 2018 at this rate. I wouldn't be put off by that.

 

More about getting back to Far Cry 3 gameplay. More of the same good things will be a success. 

I really enjoyed Far Cry 3 back in the day and would love a similarly-toned game minus radio towers with the onus on exploration rather than the map being laid out on a plate littered with icons.  I didn't like Far Cry 4 though and didn't bother with Primal but hopefully this will rejuvenate the series. 

[phil bottle 9,732]

I saw this game, plus a new AC and Crew being mentioned in a recent Ubisoft investor meeting.

Will wait and see...

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Sennex 1,903]

This looks interesting.

 

I didn't enjoy FC4, but FC3 was a decent amount of fun. 

I can't explain why FC4 wasn't good, I enjoyed it at first, and then it just fell apart on me about half way through. However Ubisoft is at least attempting to make changes from all appearances.

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

That wasn't very teasing was it..?

Loved FC2, 3 was also good, as the comtrols were smoother and good story.

4 I quit playing after a few hours so this better be several steps up from the last one. (Didn't play Primal)

[GazzaGarratt 11,034]

I think most felt that after Far Cry 3 it was difficult to top so I think 2 things happened with Far Cry 4; 1, they tweaked some of the core gameplay but mainly 2, they just released at a bad time. It was a decent game but not enough to grab you from the AAA games out at the time.

 

We've all had that feeling in our lives... 'you were good, just someone was a bit better on the day'.

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

4 hours ago, Sennex said:

This looks interesting.

 

I didn't enjoy FC4, but FC3 was a decent amount of fun. 

I can't explain why FC4 wasn't good, I enjoyed it at first, and then it just fell apart on me about half way through. However Ubisoft is at least attempting to make changes from all appearances.

Same for me Bart. I was very much looking forward to Far Cry 4 but it was just underwhelming and I wasn't motivated to play. I can't quite put my finger on why as it was a massive visual step up from Far Cry 3 but I'd say the map felt a little claustrophobic in places with too much verticality and the gameplay was dull maybe.   

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

First artwork is up

 

[Sennex 1,903]

oh god, this reminds me of a HORRIBLE comic book series that was just started

 

 

I read this shit, and tried to return it. 

[The3rdWalker 1,268]

1 minute ago, Sennex said:

oh god, this reminds me of a HORRIBLE comic book series that was just started

 

 

I read this shit, and tried to return it. 

 

What was so bad about it?

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

 

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

So it's gonna be watertowers instead of radiotowers and towns to liberate instead of bandit camps. Fear it's gonna be much the same as previous but hope it's better.

[phil bottle 9,732]

I wonder how theyre going to work in the 'special' powers this time around

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Diddums 4,346]

 

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

You're a little late to the party Dave 

[GazzaGarratt 11,034]

14 hours ago, NCA-Paendrag said:

So it's gonna be watertowers instead of radiotowers and towns to liberate instead of bandit camps. Fear it's gonna be much the same as previous but hope it's better.

 

Let's face it, Far Cry games can't go too far away from their original blueprints otherwise for the regular fans it won't feel like a Far Cry game.

 

I think they need to look at Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag to see how a franchised game tweaks mechanics to make a regular game into a standout one.

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

Tru dat,  but I can't remember there were towers or similar in Farcry 2?

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,034]

The concept has been there for many years whilst i appreciate may not have been in early versions (i haven't played the 2nd one). I don't mind towers providing there is some variety to obtain/defeat them.

 

Also, the linked app game for Assassin's Creed 4 was the best linked mini game I've ever experienced. They should really have found a way of copying that model.

 

Also, its been confirmed that it you can play the full campaign co-operatively up to 2 players. Nice slight upgrade to the last one but what a lot of gamers want these days is to experience the takeover of a camp with at least 4 players. That wouldve seriously upped the appeal for this.

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

I have a feeling Ubisoft have moved away from their radio towers format. They scrapped this for Watch Dogs 2 thank god and that made the game utterly fantastic as you were encouraged to explore rather than have everything laid on a plate to be unveilled by climbing something. Wildlands also had the whole map available from the get-go. I was never a fan of this and to me it was just another painfully community-detached feature that Ubisoft thought was a great idea that persisted across their games. 'Fog of war' was designed to be explored and not unlocked afterall..

[NCA-Paendrag 2,758]

2 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

The concept has been there for many years whilst i appreciate may not have been in early versions (i haven't played the 2nd one). I don't mind towers providing there is some variety to obtain/defeat them.

 

Also, the linked app game for Assassin's Creed 4 was the best linked mini game I've ever experienced. They should really have found a way of copying that model.

 

Also, its been confirmed that it you can play the full campaign co-operatively up to 2 players. Nice slight upgrade to the last one but what a lot of gamers want these days is to experience the takeover of a camp with at least 4 players. That wouldve seriously upped the appeal for this.

The second one you opened up the map as you explored and defeated mini bosses if I m not mistaking.

Was an awesoe game. Only game the missus wanted to watch me game

Double headshot with the .50 cal was always a blast to pull off from a distance 

[J4MES OX4D 10,019]

Forgot this game existed and is coming out in a couple of months! I've had all the Far Cry games minus Primal but I'm not a massive fan of the series although I did quite like 3 a few years ago. Far Cry 4 was very disappointing I found as despite the size; it still felt quite claustrophobic with too many verticle/mountainous areas rather than a nice open world to play in. Far Cry 5 does look more up my street albeit a bit barmy but should be good fun and worth keeping an eye on in the coming weeks